“We’re never upset for the reason we think.” This teaching from A Course in Miracles Lesson 5 Is so helpful when we apply it to our daily lives.

Think about it. You’re upset because someone disrespected you?
Because the world is falling apart?
Because things aren’t going your way?

Nope. You’re upset because you’re invested in judgments, opinions, and attack thoughts. You’re upset because you’re making the human experience real rather than recognizing it as a projection of your mind.

I know that’s a big pill to swallow. Bus-sized, as I like to say.
But you don’t have to understand it completely.
You just have to be willing to consider it might be true.

The Facts vs. The Meaning

Here’s what I remind myself daily: We’re upset for the meaning we make of things. Not the things themselves.

ACIM teaches that “nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists.” 

And until this becomes easy to understand—and let’s be honest, it’s not easy—we suffer. We make ourselves victims of a world that’s actually just reflecting our own thoughts back to us.

The Fastest Path Out

The quickest way to peace? We interrupt those patterns of belief in lack, attack, limitation, and separation. Stop energizing judgments and complaints. They’re just digging us deeper into the illusion.  We end up feeling badly about ourselves because we’re supposed to teach ONLY Love and we know it.  We judge ourselves for being unloving when we judge others.

I see this so clearly in our world today. It seems like everyone’s upset about something. My friends in Ukraine, my friends from Russia, my friends all over the world—everyone’s dealing with upsets. But we’re never upset for the reason we think.

Training Your Mind

In our Quantum Counseling Training Intensive, we learn to recognize these patterns not just in ourselves but in others. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Once you understand that all upset comes from the meaning we make of things and not from circumstances, we’re free.

This doesn’t mean we ignore pain or pretend problems in the world don’t exist. It means we stop adding our judgments to the mix. We stop making it worse with our thoughts.

Being peaceful is medicinal.

Our Practice Today

Next time you’re upset, pause. Instead of analyzing why, simply say: “I’m not upset for the reason I think.” Then ask: “What am I really believing about myself or the world right now?”

You’ll find it always comes back to some version of “I’m separate, I’m not safe, I’m not loved. They should, they shouldn’t.” But none of that is true. You are love itself, temporarily confused about your identity.

That’s got to be our baseline spiritual practice: questioning our upsets, not believing them.

Remember: The upset isn’t out there. It’s in the interpretation we’re making. Change the interpretation, change your experience. Everything changes when we remember this.

In my Quantum Counseling Training Intensive, the main thing we work on is eliminating worthiness issues so that people can live their calling, help more people, be more prosperous and share their gifts and talents in ways that are profoundly healing to themselves and others.

My next Quantum Counseling Training Intensive begins October 31.

If you’re feeling that “I can’t stand this another day” sensation… if you’re done waiting to be ready… October 31st might be your moment.

This intensive training is for you if:

• you have an interest in seeing if spiritual counseling is a possible career for you
• you’d like to improve your counseling and compassionate listening skills
• you’d just like to build your confidence and Self-esteem
• you’d like to increase your intuition
• you’d like to get continuing education or licensing units

If you feel called to transform lives (including your own), trust that calling. This isn’t about learning more techniques. It’s about healing what’s really in the way.  Our certified Spiritual Counselors are available for FREE Exploratory Calls to help you determine if my Quantum Counseling Training Intensive aligns with your spiritual path. Your heart knows the answer.

By the way, if you’re a professional who needs to earn Continuing Education or Licensing Units, we can help you with that! Get your requirements and have a very valuable training and deep personal healing too!

Your breakthrough is waiting.

NEW ACIM PODCAST EPISODE:  In this episode, Why Punishment Never Works (And What Does) I shared one of the most transformative teachings from A Course in Miracles that changed my life: there is no sin, only mistakes that need correction, not punishment. Working with Chapter 19’s section on “The Unreality of Sin,” I explain how I used to be deeply attracted to punishment – thinking people (including myself) should be punished for their “sins” – until I discovered that punishment is actually guilt’s way of keeping sin real and protecting it. I share how the ego brings sin to fear demanding punishment, when actually every mistake is just a call for love, and how I learned to replace the word “sin” with “tactical error” to remind myself that correction and compassion heal while punishment only perpetuates suffering. This shift freed me from my own patterns of self-punishment including alcohol abuse, because when I stopped seeing others as sinners deserving punishment, my own unconscious guilt dissolved.