Living within us dwells an order of being that knows, without thinking about it, what is authentically good for us. The problem isn't that this higher level of being--with its natural, calm command--is actually missing just when we need it most. The real problem is that we forget it! We forget that it's our right to remember what we want to remember, instead of what we are being given to remember!
Here is a spiritual principle designed to help you remember and restore your natural self-command. Allow it to remind you of what you already know is true and see how much easier it becomes to do what is true in the face of moments when you are sure you "can't."
No negative state has the right to rule over your life.
When things don't go the way we want them to, our tendency is to turn negative on the spot. It's as if something in us throws a switch and, the next moment--like being caught in the surge of a tidal wave--resistance carries us away. But this unconscious resistance to reality never shows itself for what it is; it can't, or the show would be over! After all, who sides with something that is perpetually against life?
Resistance is the unseen father of all lingering negative states. It derives its power to trick us into embracing its painful presence by a kind of misdirection. It hides behind a host of associated images that always appear with it--certain thoughts and feelings that promise either to protect us or to provide us with plans to escape our situation. But we must learn to see that the true nature of anything--whether a newly opened leaf or a fearful thought or feeling--is inseparable from what it serves. So, regardless of how it may appear, any disquieting state in us that "says" it wants to lead us away from a fear is leading us toward one instead.
Here's the main idea: Resistance is negative attraction! We bind ourselves to what we don't want! You can demonstrate this unwanted result for yourself by trying to push one hand away with the other. This action only forces them closer together, increasing the pressure between them. This means that the first step in releasing ourselves from the strain of this self-wrecking relationship is to see that we have unknowingly attached ourselves to it! The key is to have the courage not to resist, and to remember that what you want is release.
Truthful principles such as this can only act as agents of change for us though when we choose to enact them. Their capacity to restore self-command, grant us a mind at peace, or deliver us from fearful dark states is only as great as our willingness to call upon their powers. That's why we must do the personal work it takes to put higher principles into practice... even as we understand that there are parts of us that always want to take the easy way--to do things halfway, to avoid unnecessary challenges, to coast whenever possible and pedal only as needed.
Have the courage to act on this knowledge: Deliberately choose to take the more difficult path and finish whatever you start. Walk into what you'd rather walk away from, and persist with what you know is true for you until all resistance to your new actions proves itself a lie. Your reward: discovering that on the other side of the resistance is the flow that always takes you, effortlessly, beyond yourself. And the fuel that drives this upward spiral of self-renewal is simple. You are learning to act on what you know is true about negative states, instead of allowing them to tell you what is true about you.