We’ve all been there: stuck in fear or anxiety and wishing there was a quicker, easier way of getting free – of experiencing what A Course in Miracles describes as “a shift away from fear to love.” So how do we make the shift more easily so we don’t remain hostage to our ego and to the suffering it brings us? By first being willing to conceive of the possibility that our true Identity can literally come into the fear we’re feeling and transform it for us.
Consider this new frame of reference: if we believe in the power of God, the Divine Source or the Self that transcends the ego, but don’t feel Its intervention in our lives, it’s because our emotions are powerful enough to block the intervention we seek.
What helps is to be vigilant and mindful of what our emotions are telling us. Otherwise, we’re running on automatic pilot. Our ego’s perceptions and fears will unavoidably get projected out in the form of anger towards someone or something else. Or we distract ourselves with meaningless pursuits and our creative energy gets dissipated in the process. We need a new mindset of being willing to be awake moment to moment to what we’re feeling and thinking.
We don’t realize how disconnected from the Divine we are until we stop and pay attention to the interference pattern that comes in the form of those upsetting emotions, or whatever version of fear – conscious or unconscious – is operating. It may be anxiety, guilt, anger, sadness, boredom, irritation or that less-than-happy state where we’re just “doing okay.” It’s important not to feel guilty about the emotion we get in touch with. It’s not good or bad – it’s just a call for help. We’re neither alone, nor are we at the mercy of our emotions.
Once we identify the interference pattern, and make it available to the power of the Divine within us to transform it, we’re able to experience the shift away from fear to the love and the well-being that is always there but blocked by the fear.
So what does the process of shifting look like? Here are the steps that have brought wonderful results for me, my husband Gary, and the clients I’ve worked with as a transformational life coach and spiritual mentor:
- Reframe your understanding of the Divine: We’ve experienced the Presence of a unified Whole – an interwoven beingness of Souls united as One with God – who are intimately aware of us and can reach right into our emotions with their collective Will and transform them for us. This new way of looking at the Divine will make it easier to experience Their intervention and the reality of Their collective Presence.
- Actively open up your fear and resistance and engage with the divine collective Self working on your behalf. Having just a belief in a divine Self isn’t enough to overcome the ego’s resistance or fear, you have to let Them into your consciousness and your emotions.
- Commit to sharing your emotions with the collective Self as a Team. This creates an inclusiveness that pulls you out of the confinement of the small, separated state of fear you’re trapped in. It automatically links you to the collective Presence and transformative power of your Whole Self.
- Surrender to this newly merged state as you look together at the fear and its source and accept the new and loving perception and the understanding, insight and deep sense of resolution that comes from this shared choice to look together.
By practicing the above process, you’ll find yourself able to create the shifts in your awareness that lift you out of your emotional pain and struggle. You’ll experience the inner calm and quiet confidence that comes with identifying with the deeper unchanging Love and sense of completeness that is your true Self.
