EMERGENCY PROCEDURES FOR REGAINING PEACE OF MIND!
by Carol M. Howe

SPANISH VERSION

When we commit to a life of peace, freedom, and joy, the interference to those experiences, caused by our desires and choices, starts to come into awareness.   The moment you are aware of feeling upset, practice the following principles and do not concern yourself with how or why they work.  Practicing these ideas brings a clarity and understanding never available through intellectual analysis, as they rest on a foundation fundamentally different from the "conventional wisdom" of the world.

1. I am willing to acknowledge, without judgment, that I feel upset, discontented, fearful, deprived, or in pain and seem trapped by the situation at hand.
    

2. As I note the uncomfortable feeling, I remember that a person or condition triggered but did not cause it.  This feeling never makes a statement about the value, worth, or right to a happy life for myself or for anyone else.
    

3. Because this feeling and the situation or person that brought it into awareness does not infer anything about my inherent goodness, I regard it as a totally meaningless and temporary interference in my mind.
    

4. As I embrace this current feeling, it in no way implies my approval, my weakness in resignation to the inevitable, or an invitation for the feeling to become permanent.
    

5. I merely allow the emotional charge to dissipate by feeling the experience without analysis, judgment, attempts to fix or to attach a cause.
    

6. The origin of any upset is guilt, which I have adopted without examination, and the "troublesome" person or condition has brought my choice for this guilt and, therefore, condemnation into my awareness.
    

7. Regardless of appearances or commonly held beliefs, no one else requires me to condemn myself or others.
    

8. The guilt in which I believe, appearing as many types of upset, is directed toward myself or another with the same results for me since my mind does not know about pronouns.  Every moment I choose to focus on guilt I experience the inevitable unhappy results at that moment -- with no exceptions.
    

9. I realize that each person or condition that I avoid or do not like is presenting me with the optimal opportunity to acknowledge that I have declared myself (or others) undeserving of a happy and fulfilling life.
    

10. This choice for self-imprisonment does not alter my basic goodness or make me wrong, only temporarily forgetful of the power of my declarations.
     

11. The moment I become aware of condemnation (all condemnation is self-condemnation!), I stop and declare my right to a happy life regardless of past behavior -- mine or anyone else's.
     

12.  I do not deserve punishment and guilt is arrogant rather than virtuous.
     

13. To keep my right to a happy life in my mind and in my experience, I make it my primary goal to assume the worthiness of every person I think of or encounter and to desire that we both have a happy life from this day forward.
     

14.  Nothing overrides my desire and I always get what I ask for.  Now I want to bring my loving compassion and understanding into every encounter in which I find myself.
     

15. My past behavior and decisions do not count, do not have to be fixed or explained, and are entirely irrelevant.  At this moment, I put my crown on my own head, choose to accept that I am valuable, loveable, and have a gift or service to offer which is uniquely mine to share.
     

16. I go forth and offer the gift of Love, which is what I am, to the world!