Twice in my life I’ve had dreams in which I’ve felt complete bliss. In one dream, which I had when I was seven or eight, my family was in our old DeSoto, driving up the craggy switchbacks of a mountain. When we got to the top, I stepped out of the car and over the top of the mountain, where I saw nothing but verdant green grass. I sat down in the meadow and stared at the green and felt complete peace, the peace that passeth understanding.
In the second dream, I was sent into space in a rocket because God was unhappy with the direction the world was going and wanted to recalibrate it. He planned to stop it for twenty minutes to make the adjustment. During that time, I felt absolute stillness, knowing that no oceans were ebbing and flowing, no clouds were floating. Just sublime stillness and peace.
In both cases, waking up from the dream was a shock and a disappointment. Why couldn’t we come close to that sense of peace here in our earthly lives?
Peace Is the Complete Absence of Fear
For years I tried to figure out what that peace was. But it wasn’t until I started studying A Course in Miracles that I realized: that peace was the complete absence of fear. It was the feeling of true, pure, untarnished love, the light that shines in all of us, free of any fear-based thoughts or beliefs.
So I still ask the question: Is it possible to experience that peace on earth? I’m not sure, but I think it’s worth asking for. And if anything can do it, I believe this prayer may be the key:
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Over the centuries, people have asked how we can heal ourselves and the world. How can we stop being violent people? How can we accept one another? How can we share the bounty of the world with everyone? How can we find peace on earth?
The First Step in Healing Ourselves and the World
The first step is to acknowledge that all the global problems, just like the ones we experience in our individual lives, come from fear. We’re stuck in the same spin cycle of despair on both a personal and a universal level because we keep thinking we can get ourselves out of the mess we’re in.
But no trying, proving, accomplishing, doing, testing, succeeding, remodeling, accumulating, protesting, attaining, running, or designing will eliminate our fears. Our ego will still be right there, ready to replace one fear with another.
When we ask for our fear-based thoughts to be healed, we’re asking to be free of anything that stands in the way of the love of God. I believe this is the meaning of being in this world but not of it: aligning ourselves so consciously and intentionally with our true Self that fear has less and less of a hold on us. It’s lovingly quieting the two-year-old and singing her a lullaby.
Are You As Happy As You Want To Be?
At a recent women’s spirituality workshop, we launched a year of exploring the question, “Are you as happy as you want to be?” We asked the participants to journal about what happiness means to them. Several balked at the word “happy” because it seemed frivolous or superficial. Some preferred words like “contented,” “peaceful,” “joyful.”
But when we started talking about what those words mean, we came to some agreement. Freedom. Forgiveness. Fulfillment.
Happiness doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be skipping for joy, but it does mean you’ll have peace of mind—the peace of knowing you’re safe, taken care of, that you can trust in what surrounds you. I think about it as the peace of Home.
Inner Peace is a Universal Desire
This inner peace is a universal desire because it reflects who we are at our core as children of God. No matter what your religion or culture, inner peace is as coveted as harmony in the home, good health, education, personal freedom, compassion, and a sense of belonging. It is the key to peace on earth, one individual at a time.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
So, can the prayer truly help with the most pressing large-scale problems on this planet? Can it really address extreme oppression, violence, poverty, prejudice, famine, disease, corruption, and environmental change?
Let me ask you this: If this prayer can’t change it, what can? The big problems we face today are the same ones we’ve faced for generations, and they all come from deeply ingrained patterns of anger, blame, guilt, and judgment. To build a better world—to finally move forward in a different and significant way—all our thoughts, words, and actions matter. We can only build a world that’s different from the one we’ve built before if those thoughts, words, and actions are powered by love rather than fear.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine anyone on the planet who is experiencing domestic violence using this prayer and being healed of their feelings of unworthiness, which they express as victimhood.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine the perpetrators of domestic violence using this prayer and being healed of their feelings of unworthiness, which they express by exerting dominance over others.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine people who have lost their home in a natural disaster using the prayer and finding even greater inner strength to join together and build anew.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine people in areas lacking steady employment and sufficient basic services using the prayer and finding new opportunities opening up to support them.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine those who stand in the way of education—particularly for girls—using the prayer and feeling less threatened by the empowerment of others.
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
Imagine people engaged in long-standing battles using the prayer and being healed of resentment, clearing a path toward a future forged by forgiveness.
Turning Toward A Higher Ideal and Making It Our Destination
Certainly this may seem idealistic, but that’s how we change. We turn toward a higher ideal and make it our destination. We ask for help to, as A Course in Miracles says, live “above the battlefield” of chaos and despair. We say a prayer that can boost humanitarian efforts beyond what our human hands can do.
When we see the world through the lens of the prayer, we realize that the destructive force in the world isn’t people, it’s fear. As long as we view human beings as destructive, we will continue to blame, perpetuating the endless pattern of attack and defense. But when we ask for fear to be healed, we change the conversation. We get to the root cause of violence, poverty, terrorism, apathy, cynicism, and divisiveness. We free ourselves and others to be motived by loving action instead.
A Course in Miracles talks about the fact that there’s no hierarchy of miracles, and that the energy of fear is the same whether it’s one person or one billion. In other words, the shame, guilt, anger, scarcity, and worry we feel on an individual level is the same as those emotions on a global scale. We can’t think our way out of them, although every second provides us a fresh opportunity to choose love.
The Healing Has To Come From A Different Place, Not From Our Minds
The healing has to come from a different place, not from our minds. The Course says that our ego mind is rooted in fear and finds it everywhere it looks. This is why you can have what looks like the perfect life and still be miserable, because you’re still identifying with the ego.
But the ego’s not all we’ve got. We’ve also got a connection to the divine, to Creator, Spirit. Love is the other part of us that we can rely on because it connects us to the mind of a higher power.
This shifts our desire from material things or a new job or relationship—what we think will make us happy—to peace of mind, which is the only thing that can make us happy. It resets our priorities. And imagine what would happen if we did that on a large scale?
"Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
As you say this prayer consistently, you’ll be creating peace in your own mind that will emanate from you, transforming your relationships, your work, touching everyone around you. In essence, you’ll be creating a ring of peace that will go with you everywhere. This is what makes this practice revolutionary, because the prayer not only heals us, it heals the world.
Imagine if 1,000 people created a ring of peace, or 10,000 people, or 1 million people. At some point—the tipping point—we can create a world that is run less by fear and more by love.
The first step is to become aware of our fear-based thoughts.
The second step is to say the prayer: "Please heal my fear-based thoughts."
The third step is to witness the miracle and give thanks for it.
Help Tip the Balance from Fear to Love
You may want to make a personal commitment that goes something like this: “I commit to using the power of this prayer for the good of myself, those in my life and the world.”
Collectively we’ve created a society of fear—we literally exist in a world of hurt. But by using the prayer, you have the power to put the world in the hands of the Holy Spirit, who can transform it. Fear separates and divides. Love unifies and extends.
When you use the prayer, you help tip the balance toward love.
©2014 by Debra Landwehr Engle. All Rights Reserved.
This excerpt was reprinted with permission of the publisher,
Hampton Roads Publishing. www.redwheelweiser.com
Article Source
The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind
by Debra Landwehr Engle.
These six words--please heal my fear-based thoughts--change lives. In this brief and inspiring book, based on Engle's study of A Course in Miracles, she explains how to use the prayer and experience immediate benefits/
Click here for more info and/or to order this book on Amazon.
About the Author
Debra Landwehr Engle has been a freelance writer for many years and her initial publishing credits appeared in such magazines as "Country Home," "Country Gardens" and "Better Homes and Gardens." Her first book, "Grace from the Garden: Changing the World One Garden at a Time," was published in 2003. Since then, she has contributed to several international collections of essays. Deb teaches classes in "A Course in Miracles" and is co-founder of Tending Your Inner Garden®, an international program of creativity and personal growth for women. She also teaches workshops that use journaling and writing as tools for self-discovery, as well as one-on-one and small-group sessions on creativity, writing, manuscript development and life skills. Through her company, GoldenTree Communications, she provides mentoring and publishing services to fellow writers.
Watch a video: The Only Little Prayer You Need
Debra speaks about Remembering the Light Within
