In that moment when we are thrown into emotional conflict, regardless of its initial cause, the first step this in-the-dark nature takes to deceive us is to direct our awareness away from the actual hurt we feel. It accomplishes this mean feat by its second step: it misleads us into placing our attention on the enemy outside of us, that person or condition that it points to as being responsible for our pain.

Once this unconscious self has succeeded in dividing us up in this manner, we now have less than half the possible powers that we need to heal. And if this wasn’t bad enough, the remaining forces of light needed for our healing are themselves now half compromised by subsequent negative reactions that tell us to lash out at whatever it is that has been blamed for our pain!

The next time any pain — be it an old familiar one, or an altogether new ache — pushes itself in upon you, come wide-awake to yourself and remember this last important step: Do not try to do one thing with any psychological pain that passes through you, other than to remain as awake as you can to its presence within you. Then, into this conscious self-awareness bring the following new understanding: this pain is not you but, in reality, constitutes a calling out from the injured part of you to a Higher Power to be healed. Your job is to see that the call gets through. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you will do your part in fulfilling this higher plan for healing what pains you — and agree to simply hold this hurt of yours in the light of your own higher self-awareness — then the healing you hope for cannot be denied and has, in some ways, already occurred. All you need to do is remain true to this principle as it works itself out within you. The rest is done for you.