Question: It seems like the more I struggle with a disturbance, the more it stays with me. The more I think about it, the more intense it gets. What is the way out of this trap?

Answer: No disturbance of any kind has the power to swamp and sink our heart or mind once we realize that we are the one lending these storms the force they need to drag us down. In practical terms this means that whatever disturbances we unknow­ingly create within us may be instantly un-created in the very same moment we withdraw our consent to remain conflicted.

The storms we suffer are not born simply from any particular event that takes place, but rather they rise from an unknown ground in us due to our undetected resistance to them. Further, these unwanted events that we so strongly resist are not the actual events themselves. What we secretly struggle against in these moments are unwanted images of that event fashioned by ourselves. This occurs, for example, when we imagine a fearful future, or see ourselves thrown for a social loss of some sort. In these moments we suffer, as we do, because we are looking at what we don’t want to see. And then, because we don’t know that we have been tricked into giving these negative fantasies our attention, we try to imagine ways to escape their punishing presence. The more we struggle to get away, the more attention we inadvertently lend to what we wish would dis­appear! It’s a great paradox: not wanting to look upon what is both­ering us keeps what is bothering us in plain view! But now we are beginning to see our way out of this trap.

From this moment forward, whenever some dark storm appears in us, we must neither run from it nor stand there and hate what we think is happening. Instead we must awaken to ourselves, bring our­selves back into the Now and quietly, deliberately, drop any image that our thought-nature presents within us to justify the brewing con­flict. Learning to dismiss the storms that sink our chances to be happy takes dedicated inner work, but you may be assured such powers are possible. Your True Nature already dwells beyond the reach self-wrecking storms. Join it; begin Now!