576. Mental Housekeeping

Once a month, set aside a quiet day to do your mental house cleaning. No thought lives in your mind rent-free. Every negative, disempowering and fearful thought will cost you time, money, energy, peace of mind, health and well-being.

Use your day to sit still, balanced and upright, as in meditation. Observe each thought as it comes into your mind, noting if it is negative. For each negative, disempowering, down-dragging thought, say loudly and clearly, "Neti, Neti, Not This, Not This." Then Let it go. Then, from your pile of affirmation cards, pick a thought to replace it. Choose the word or words that express this thought simply and let it sound in your mind like a mantra. After about 50 repetitions, let the mind fall still and reflect on the thought for 2 minutes.

Whenever you encounter rough times in the month(s) that follow you can recall this affirmation at will and let it operate in your mind.

436. Lost Opportunities

Never turn down an opportunity because of unreasonable fears about what might happen. Prudence dictates that we should be cautious but a cool assessment of the risks involved will give you an action plan in case things go wrong.

363. Fear

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Frank Herbert, Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear ♥ x

344. One less excuse

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." - Earl Nightingale

261. Pride

Pride is a false sense of worth that derives from something that is not organically part of your Self. It comes from Ahankara - the identification by the mind of your Self with some external thing in the Creation. It gives emphasis to the superiority of a person's status in the eyes of others. There is fear and insecurity in pride because when you aim for status and being highly esteemed and achieve it, you are automatically involved in fear of losing that status. Protection of status then appears to you to be your most important need and this creates anxiety. Pride is very different from self-respect. All respect, including self-respect, springs from knowledge and memory of the Self and your origins and home in the Self. The less you are grounded in the Self, the more imperative is the need for pride. One is proud when he identifies with the ego. The core of pride is Self-rejection.

256. Mind Over Matter

As the mind is in control of the body, everything that affects the mind has a stronger influence on the body than those things that affect only the body. Every conflicting centre, every extraneous disrupting, decentralising emotion jars the natural rhythm and reduces a man's efficiency. Mark well the emotions that destroy the inner rhythms of a man and avoid them at all costs. They are :

* Jealousy
* Hatred
* Lust
* Envy
* Pride
* Vanity
* Covetousness
* Anger
* Fear

They are also known as Deadly Sins.

Keep your mind agile and free and work to eliminate all these negative emotions from your character.

207. A List of Good Practices

Here is a list of good practices. You should take each one and attempt to establish it in your character. Take one a week and in six months you will be a different (better) person.

1. Succeed at home first.
2. Seek and merit divine help.
3. Never compromise with honesty.
4. Always remember the people involved.
5. Hear both sides before judging. *
6. Obtain the wise counsel of others.
7. Defend those who are absent.
8. Be sincere and decisive.
9. Develop a new proficiency every year.
10. Plan tomorrow's work today.
11. Hustle while you wait.
12. Maintain a positive attitude.
13. Maintain a sense of humour.
14. Be orderly in person and in work.
15. Do not fear mistakes. Fear only the absence of creative, constructive and corrective responses to your mistakes.
16. Facilitate the success of others.
17. Listen twice as much as you speak.
18. Concentrate all your abilities and effort on the task in hand.
19. Get organised and stay organised. Have a system for everything !
20. Always ask "What would the Wise do here ?"
21. Make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.
22. Keep practicing.
23. Stay close to your goals.
24. Meet adversity with composure.
25. Study every day.
26. Always keep your word.

193. Inevitability

The word "inevitable" is fearful to the ego but joyous to the Spirit. Do not invest yourself in fear. Teach only Love for that is what you are. You teach by what you do.

189. Fear

The correction of fear is your responsibility. I am here only to be truly helpful and to represent Him who sent me.

177. Love, Fear and Miracles

"Perfect Love casts out fear.
If fear exists, then there is not perfect Love.
But only perfect Love exists.
If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist.
All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level.
Therefore they do not exist at all.
Know this to be true and you will be free. - The Course in Miracles


The Course in Miracles is published by the Foundation for Inner Peace

47. Worry

Worry is the twin sister of guilt. To worry is to use up the present moment being obsessed with the future. Like guilt, worry can be used to manipulate people. This is a favourite tactic of politicians when they want to get their own way. Bullies use it as a tactic too. Worry manufactures anxiety. 99.99% of the things we worry about never happen. Great thinkers, leaders inventors are not worriers. If you worry, it steals your time and immobilises you in the present with fearful thoughts about the future. Do not waste even 1 second worrying. If you assign a €1.00 value to a second of your life, then 1 day is equivalent to €84,000. Don't waste even 1 second - you might be glad of it some day. Worry will never prevent a tragedy, only sensible precautions will do that. Train and prepare for the worst case scenario then you will have everything covered.

The only value to worries is that they can motivate you to take action regarding the issue - if you're worried about exams then get busy studying !

46. Guilt

Guilt is not learning from the past. It is allowing yourself to be immobilised in the the present by something that took place in the past. The fruits of guilt are :
1. Immobilising panic
2. Sleeplessness
3. Fear
4. Introversion
5. Shame
6. Loss of Self-esteem
7. Lack of Initiative

There are more negative effects associated with guilt such as long-term psychiatric damage, but it is rnough to know for now that it is to be avoided as much as possible.

Guilt is a favourite weapon of the weak, used to manipulate others. Being a victim of guilt-manipulation leads to the abandonment of your inner voice in favour of the wishes of the manipulator. Avoid this trap.