What is Occupying Your Mind? - I Work Miracles .com

In the past year I’ve been led to some teachings in A Course in Miracles that I find to be a powerful practice for healing.

First,I feel that the Course’s term “special relationships” is reallysynonymous with “idols”. When I was new to the Course I thought thatspecial relationships were about romantic relationships, but over theyears my Inner Teacher has taught me that our special relationships arelove affairs with the ego.

Inthe Bible it says that we are to keep ourselves from idols; from anysort of substitute for God that would take first place in your life. (1 John 5:17)

Andin ACIM: “See in the special relationship nothing more than ameaningless attempt to raise other Gods before Him… In the name of yourcompletion (healing) you do not want this. For every idol that you raiseto place before Him, stands before you, in place of what you are.” (T-16.V.13)

“Everyspecial relationship which you have made is a substitute for God’swill, and glorifies yours… …when truth calls to you, as it doesconstantly, you answer with a substitute. Every special relationship youhave made has, as its fundamental purpose, the aim of occupying yourmind so completely that you will not hear the call for truth.” (T-17.IV.3)

Whenour mind is occupied with a special relationship we cannot know theTrue Self, because our very preoccupation is designed to keep us absentfrom our mind, and focused on the small limited self.

What is occupying your mind “so completely”?

Perhaps your mind has been occupied with thoughts about money, lack, your body, a relationship…

Whencompletely occupied with thoughts about self, do you notice that youfeel a sense of unworthiness and failure? These thoughts are not thetruth about you.

Iam not dwelling in truth when preoccupied with my own thoughts. We havelooked for love in all the wrong places, in all these substitutes fortruth, but the only place we’ll ever find it is in the truth of who weare. I am Love.

A Course in Miraclestells us this, “The Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which youhave chosen to support the ego, as learning experiences that point totruth. Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love.”

Itsays here that our special relationships can be teaching tools for HS,or used by us to support the ego, i.e., a belief in guilt.

Callto mind how often you feel guilty within the special relationshipcurrently occupying your mind: feeling guilty for eating what you feelyou shouldn’t have eaten, buying what you feel you shouldn’t buy,getting angry… We begin to see how ego uses the body to keep us focusedon limitation, unworthiness and guilt, which serves the purposebeautifully of keeping us absentminded – absent from our mind where wecan choose again.

Weneed not despair because Holy Spirit does not deprive us of our specialrelationships, he can transform them if we will let him. Does this meanthat I don’t have to give up pizza!?

So how does this occur?

Ihave been a student of the Course for about eighteen years, and so Iwas privy to the information on special relationships and how theyrelate to a focus on the body and self. However, in the past year, Ihave been guided to a powerful teaching that can be used to facilitatehealing in these areas of compulsive and addictive behavior:

“The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you: Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship, which still attracts you, enter with Him into a holy instant, and there let Him release you.”

Itgoes on to say that our willingness need not be 100% because His is. Ilove that. One thing I love about the Course is that it addresses uswhere we are. It doesn't say; “My God Sheryl, when are you going to getit together?! When are you going to start practicing?”

That’snot what the Voice for Love says, rather it says this, “out of yourrecognition of your unwillingness for your release, My perfectwillingness is given you. Call upon Me and let Me call on Heaven for you.”

“Out of your recognition of your unwillingness for your release…” All we are asked to do is recognize our resistance to healing, because encased in this recognition is a call for Divine help.

When I was first guided to this practice, specifically: “The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you. Whenever your thoughts wanderto a special relationship, which still attracts you, enter with Himinto a holy instant, and there let Him release you.” I asked HS, how do Ido this? Immediately I was prompted to workbook lesson 365:

This holy instant would I give to You.

Be You in charge.

For I would follow You,

Certain that Your direction gives me peace.

Sothe practice I’ve been guided to frequently in the past year is this:whenever my thoughts wander to the body, guilt, unworthiness,etc., I amto return my mind to truth through the lesson 365 prayer. Let me giveyou an example of what happened one morning.

Iwas driving to work, and I usually don’t have a desire to eat in themorning, but that morning I felt the urge to eat something that I reallyfelt that I should not eat. I prayed the L365 prayer.

Afew minutes later I heard the Inner Voice say, “Sheryl, if you’rehungry, by all means eat, and eat whatever you want. But, if you are not hungry, then your thoughts have wandered to a special relationship that still attracts you. Turn to Me.” Wow!

Let’ssay your special relationship is with money, feeling that you neverhave enough. While you are sitting down paying your bills it isappropriate to think about money, just like it’s appropriate to thinkabout food when you are hungry. But when engaged in worry, anxiety andfear about money, or about feeling guilt or obsession about the body orfood, then my thoughts have wandered to a special relationship thatstill attracts me.

Andthis is okay. I need only recognize that I am resistant to being freeand turn to the Presence of Love within, or not. We are not asked tobeat up on ourselves for not practicing. I can fall into that, and thenstay stuck on not being able to change. I get that I cannot changemyself.

Aself-powered life is attempting to use will power to change ourselvesinstead of turning to the real Power Source within us. This morning Iwas prompted to Paul in the Bible who had a thorn in his side, and hekept asking God to remove it. And God said, “My strength and power aremost effective in your weakness.”

Yes,in recognition of my powerlessness to change myself I am given allPower. I am reminded of the course lesson: God is the Strength in which ITrust. If you are trusting in your own strength then, yeah, you have every reason to feel frustrated and afraid!

See,we don’t have to have any extraordinary will power, Holy Spirit saysthat he only asks for a little help: Come to Me and let Me release you.

So in this moment call to mind the special relationship occupying your mind so completely that you don’t hear the call of Love, and be willing to join with me as we ask Holy Spirit to release us:

Holy Spirit,

You’ve told me that my part is so little

compared to Your part, which is huge.

In this moment,

I recognize my resistance to healing,

yet I know that as I call on You,

You will call on Love

for me.

This holy instant would I give to You.

Be You in charge.

For I would follow You,

certain that Your direction gives me peace.

Amen

Youcan be anywhere, on the freeway, in conversation with another, and yetstill join with Holy Spirit in a holy instant. I also want to say thatalthough I was guided to this prayer at the time, it doesn’t reallymatter what words you use. Any lesson or prayer will do as it indicateswillingness to choose again. It could be as simple as, “Holy Spirit,Help!”

Inmy own life I recognize that the reason I’m still stuck in some aspectsof my life is because I haven’t been practicing what my Inner Teacherhas given me to practice. I don't need to judge myself for this, but Ido need to be honest with myself as to why I’m still stuck.Nevertheless, I’m only lost if I wallow in my misery instead ofcontinually having the willingness to choose again.

Rememberthat while we have chosen these special relationships to support theego; to support the belief that we are bodies, Holy Spirit can use themas a classroom to teach us that all can be used as lessons in Love.