What about you? Are you sure you have to go down with that ship called an abusive relationship, substance abuse, or the self-pity that always attends these punishing states of self? Do you see yourself as someone addicted to something, and believe this sinking condition is the way it has to be? Does it feel as though there is no way out from under that barrage of negative thoughts and feelings...

There's only one way to realize the perfect sense of safety and unshakable contentment that comes with quietly knowing you're first on God's "list"... and that's to remember, at all times, your wish (and the work) it takes to place the needs of His life ahead of your own.

As soon as we see that the healing we hope for begins with releasing our unseen relationship with the parts of ourselves that are responsible for our self-hurting, the sooner our heartaches end.

We're often led to act against ourselves by an undetected weakness that goes before us -- trying to pass itself off to others -- as a strength. In effect, we pretend to be something we're not -- a commonly accepted behavior these days. But any time we feign anything, we do so out of fear that without that "persona" to protect us -- to make that impression we want -- we won't get what we want.

We value negative states because of the strong sense of self we get from them. This may be very difficult for us to see, but a strong light will show us the freeing facts. No one wants to believe that he or she values things like self-pity, anger, and depression. We would insist we don't, and as evidence we point to the fact that we fight against them, but the struggle gives us a false sense of life and importance...

Topics covered: Our original nature; Outgrowing limitations; Adults as examples for children; All moments are for discovery; The true nature of safety; Anger is deflection; The nature of addictions; Seeing the good when things look bad; Depression and sadness.

Truth wants you to know that it is never in your best interest to unconsciously suffer, no matter how inwardly convincing it may feel to you that you will be betraying yourself or someone else if you don't. The only way that any suffering feeling can prove to you that you need it is to hypnotize you with a flood of itself. Step back from yourself. Learn instead to listen to the quiet stream of...

In order to let go of any painful past condition -- so there is never again a moment where regret or sorrow is pulling us down -- we must allow every movement, each unexpected event encountered, every thought and feeling -- no matter its character -- to have its own life. If we will attempt to view life from this new and higher understanding -- that everything...

When we're in pain most of us will do whatever seems necessary to bring relief. Almost any behavior can be justified when pain pushes us far enough, but we need not, and must not, handle it as we've always been directed to in the past. What we do need is to grow in our understanding of it. There are many things that have happened and that are happening in this world that are, at best, diffic...

What you don't want to know about yourself wants to be known... which is why it keeps 'showing up' at your door unannounced!...

Topics Covered: Sensations and mechanical associations; Torment of inner dialog; Emotional pain and depression; Awareness vs. positive affirmations; Observer is the observed; Role as a bridge; Controlling nature; Resistance and fear; Concept of relaxation; Trying and failing; Worry about what other people think about you; Putting the work into practice; True forgiveness.

Featured Study Group Topic for the Week of June 18, 2018. Our unconscious agreement to identify with the pain of any negative state - including the usual (anxious) rush to escape it - is one of the ways our false nature suffers - in vain - to prove (to itself) that whatever "self" it imagines, and then pretends to be is, in fact, real.