Practice for dealing with fear

Dec '23 • Feed

A poster on the F.I.P Facebook ACiM group asked about how, as Course students, we deal with fear-filled ideas playing out in the current political arenas. I loved Johanna Van Zwet's answer and posted it here:

"Thank you for posting and asking, Mary! What comes to mind is the following:

I am never upset for the reason I think (WB 5). And that is because I think I see cause in the world. All cause is in Spirit, whose active agent is the mind, which is what we are! The images we think we see in the world, like a scary image of a dictator, only reflect a scary thought in my mind that I dare not look on, namely that I can be affected or harmed by something outside of me.

Rules for Decision in chapter 30 (and a brief synopsis in the last paragraph of Ch.5) comes to the rescue! Whenever I feel fear or anxiety, or any kind of loss of peace of mind I do the following:

- I 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 at what the image is showing me (you have done that already).

- I 𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 the distress I feel inside (you have done that already).

- I 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 interacting with the image in my habitual fashion, if only for a little while. That means: switch off the news, don't open the newspaper, choose a happy thought about a totally different subject whenever I find myself thinking the old, tired patterns again.

- I 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝 any emotional charge I have given the topic, even if only for a little while; I just park it to the side and tell myself I don't have to engage emotionally with it, for just a few moments at least.

- I 𝑎𝑠𝑘 my inner guidance for a new vision, I ask to see with the eyes of Love.

- Lastly, I 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 that that new vision of Love has already been given me and I will experience that new vision in the measure that I have let go of my default interpretation (stop and drop steps).

𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘, 𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒, 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝, 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝, 𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡. It works without fail in my experience. The willingness to let go and see with the eyes of inner guidance is the basis. They are just my words for Rules for Decision; same content."

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