“Both miracles and fear come from thoughts.  If you are not free to choose one, you would also not be free to choose the other,” Course page 32.

There was a time, when upon awakening, a host of thoughts flooded into my mind.  Worry and dread, fear over a current situation, regret over a past situation, and the list went on.

I wrote this piece years ago and with the name change to Intuition Highway, I’m getting the chance to go back and edit those original works such as this one.

Sometimes the thoughts are so strong, they consume my being, and I just lay there.

Sometimes thoughts run unnoticed in the background, like a song we’ve tuned out playing in the elevator.

One day I asked a question “if my mind can think of anything why does it dwell here?”.

Then I realized, if my mind could think of anything, why not think of things that bring joy to my awareness?

So I started thinking about something that made me happy.  Then I felt better for a moment, until my mind went to that same old negative thought system.

Then I asked myself how long has this thought system been there?  I realized this was a familiar place, these were familiar thoughts, and these thoughts became my unconscious ‘safety zone’.  Which is ironic, because it’s not a safe space, just a familiar one.

In a scary world, where outcomes are unknown, this is one familiar place that I know.  This is one familiar place that will not change.  Then I looked around this familiar place, but it was dark, and fear lived here with me.

Then I asked another question “Why would I choose such a dark place to hide?”. The answer came again “because your ego is safer here, it knows what to expect and it knows what it will feel.”

This is insane.  A bad familiar feeling is better than any other unknown feeling?  This made no sense to my logical mind and yet this is the circuit my mind had been flowing on for as long as I can remember.

Even deeper, I realized when I’m in a dark place, and someone tries to coax me out, I will defend my hide away with fury.

Then my mind started to ask more questions and look behind all those thoughts, “when did they start, how do I feel, how often does my mind wander here?”

The answers came.  My own willingness to wake up to my thoughts, and my life, uncovered a beautiful world, that my own fear had trapped me apart from.

Throughout the day, when my mind raced, and fear clenched my heart, and I was sure some bad outcome would prevail, I would redirect my thoughts to something that worked out well.

Guilt, shame and yelling at myself to stop my thoughts did not work.  Forcing myself to feel something that was not real, did not work.  However, gently guiding my mind to something that felt good did.

Over time my mind enjoyed the break from this dark internal prison I had been living in all my life.

Over time my mind would relive happy moments, instead of sad ones, because that is what I started training it to do.  Then my happy world expanded, my depression lessoned and my stress was relieved.  Instead of projecting suffering into the world (which is what I always saw), I started to project love into the world (which is how I started to feel).

A simple mantra for me was, “hello familiar thoughts, here you are again, let me turn my mind to the day my beautiful children were born, the day I felt on top of the world when I could be of service to a friend, and the day I fell in love.”  Then I started to share those stories with others.  Then I started asking others what the best thing in their life was and I noticed they too would light up.

Before, we would share our pain, and now, we were sharing our love. A miracle was happening before me, that my story of love could trigger their story of love, and we both felt better.

Nothing in the world had changed; except my desire to be happy, to focus on things that drove my happiness, and then to share that happiness with others.

Today, tell a story all day to anyone that will listen, of a time that makes you happy, or makes you laugh. Then ask the other person, for one of their best memories. Then know, that anytime in our life, regardless of what is going on, we have something to offer the world, and the world has something to offer us.

Miracles are everywhere if we break free from our fearful thoughts.  Even if you are in pain, these brief moments can be necessary relief to help stay sane.

Know that you are a perfect being, designed to create, and you have the power to redirect your mind to miracle creation or fear creation and the choice is always yours.