Your original Self doesn’t come loaded with worry, regret, fear, resentment, or, for that matter, any other self-limiting states that can grow where darkness gathers.

Self-limiting thoughts or feelings have power over us only when we are tricked into believing that we need something we don’t. When we let this happen, we begin to look at familiar negative thoughts and feelings as old friends; and though we want to be free of them, we still call on their powers to help us. We look to them to guide us, as when we walk and talk with worried thoughts, or when we embrace angry emotions for their short-term strength. But truth tells otherwise.

In and of themselves, negative states provide us with nothing of value. Instead, they make victims of all those who seek their counsel. A short example will help prove this last important point and reveal how we are deceived into acting against our own best interests.

When life falls apart, or threatens to come unglued, it seems almost natural to carry around some desperate, stressed, or depressed emotional state. But why cling to something that makes us ache? The answer is surprising, but evident, once we’re aware of what’s actually taking place within us.

Negative states tell us that we must feel as we do.

In some strange and unseen way, the weight of a dark worry serves as proof that we have “no option” other than to buckle beneath it . . . to fall down, feel betrayed, or prepare for a fight.

To awaken, reclaim, and possess the courage we need to be free, we must remember this great and timeless truth: Real life can no more act to pull us down than the rising sun can burden the spring flowers that wait to bathe in its nourishing light.