I was walking down our driveway to the mailbox one morning this month when I noticed all the muscles tightening up in my body. There was a sheen of frost covering the asphalt that was thick enough to make it slippery going, but not thick enough to make me quit. “I could make this walk without falling,” I felt.
As I gingerly made my way down the steeper part of the drive, inching one foot in front of the other, my body got tighter and tighter.
I stopped to analyze what was happening.
My muscles were tightening up because my thought was tightening up with fear. There was an exact correlation between mind and body.
This was not healthy, I decided. I needed to get the fear out of my thinking so my body could relax and act normally.
I relaxed my thought. I remembered that I did not have to make this walk. I was not being forced to slip-slide my way down the drive. I could retreat, stop, or do something different.
I prayed for guidance and heard assurance that I could make this walk fine. The voice of wisdom inside reminded me that there was no rush. Take it easy. Be patient, enjoy the trek, and let God plant your feet on the ground, not human will. And that’s what I did. The rest of the walk was peaceful, fall-free, and without strain or stress of any kind.
The lesson applies to all activities in life. If we allow fear to take over our thinking it can cause havoc in the body. Often we don’t realize it because we don’t notice the connection. But the human body is human consciousness. Eliminate tension in thought, and that relieves the body. There is an exact correlation between what you think and feel.
Strive to feel the presence of God, not of fear.
“Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either retards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or flushed cheek. In the same way thought increases or diminishes the secretions, the action of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The muscles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by thought, represent the action of all the organs of the human system, including brain and viscera. To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth” Science and Health, p. 415.
Evan, I understand the part that fear plays in health, but the issue is how to free yourself OF fear. Can you write a blog on that? How do you get rid of fear when you are fearful?
Hi Grace,
The opposite of fear is love. The more you understand that God is omnipresent Love, and consciously abide in that Love, the less fear you will have.
Fear is the belief of danger. In Love, there is no danger. Jesus had this clear sense and it kept him cool and calm. It works for you too!
I will keep your suggestion about a future blog in mind.
Thx,
What a great question Grace! Here are the three things that came to me when thinking about your question:
1) We free ourselves of fear by realizing whatever we are afraid of is NOT real.
2) Occasionally fear is a warning alarm we should heed…like the ding, ding, ding you hear when exiting your car with the lights on or the keys in the ignition.
Look at what Evan says in this blog. First he considers if this is a #2 fear and decides it is not:
> I remembered that I did not have to make this walk. I
> was not being forced to slip-slide my way down the
> drive. I could retreat, stop, or do something different.
> I prayed for guidance and heard assurance that I
> could make this walk fine.
Had he decided it was human will trying to get him to do something he shouldn’t do, he would have yielded to the voice of wisdom and turned back.
By praying for guidance and realizing he could make the walk fine he frees himself of the fear by realizing what he is afraid of is NOT real. And at that point there is no more fear!
One of my favorite statements in Science and Health is on page 275:
“…God is Love, therefore He is divine Principle.”
To me, divine Principle is another term for God’s spiritual laws (or the *power* that establishes and maintains those laws). Therefore, this statement means to me that because God is Love, He can’t help but establish laws that result in perpetual harmony. We can apply these laws in thought to whatever we are afraid of to realize it is NOT real because God, Love, would not create anything harmful to His creation, man.
3) We may have spent months or years weaving the fabric of fear that occupies our thought. So we should not become discouraged if it takes days or months to prayerfully unravel the threads of this fabric. If we are persistent in our prayers, and honest with ourselves, we can rest assured we will be guided to see what we need to know to realize that what we are afraid of is NOT real.
Many times this year where I live in the Northeast, I am challenged to proceed down an icy driveway. The two factors that occur to me is to briefly ask God, I want to travel the safe way in my going to get the paper. Several years ago, I did not invoke the thought of God’s protection in my thought. Well, I fell broke my wrist and had a deep laceration over my eye.
I then turned to thought, no accidents occur in God’s Kingdom. I was able to stabilize my self and returned to my residence. I chose at that time to go to a clinic and was treated.
I believe fear had set in, but the healing was quick. I now proceed with the thought of God’s protection and have not had an incident for over 9 years. I still walk through the weather conditions, retrieve the paper early in the morning, using caution, but I feel I am in God’s protection. What a wonderful feeling. Thanks for the reminder.
Doing one’s lesson each morning protects one during the whole day. Right after heavy snow storms, I found myself driving down a street that cut through 5 intersections. Because of the ice under my tires, my car flew down those intersections without an accident. The other time, driving on a heavely travelled highway to work, I found myself spinning vagariesly. Both times I was protected even from the fear I might have felt.
Very timely. My husband fell on the ice 2 weeks ago and wasn’t making sense for an hour. Also broke his tail bone. I took him to the ER as he wished to go there and I totally agreed. I was getting treatment at the time for a belief that good was being interrupted in several areas in my life. The errors do seem to get worse before they get better. Many things resolved in the last few days and my husband is back at work. When treatment is begun I never know what will happen. Things resolve in wonderful ways, even things I was accepting and not praying about. I think that is a demonstration of Truth’ s undivided garment.
Thank you, Evan. This was so helpful to remember! I have had this same experience while hiking. As I look up a steep incline or beyond, I have had the experience of fear creeping in saying, “Oh … this is going to be tough!” As a result, my muscles have felt fatigued. But, like you, when I’ve slowed down, cleared my thought and stayed present with God, I have loved the activity every step of the way.
Thanks so much for all your illuminating blogs, Evan. Your thought-“eliminate tension in thought and that relieves the body.” And part of the quote from Science and Health “To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth.” Both of these struck a chord with me.
During several of the wintry days, The path down the driveway and sidewalk to our community mailbox was ice covered. One morning, I realized that I had a fear of falling when I walked on the ice. One of the Daily Lifters had quoted a passage from Jude 1:24 : “Now to the One who can keep you upright and plant you firm in His presence-clean, unmarked, and joyful in the light of His glory…” When I read that it just eliminated that fear and I could walk fearlessly and carefully to the mailbox and out the back over ice to feed the birds.
“The voice of wisdom inside reminded me that there was no rush. Take it easy. Be patient, enjoy the trek, and let God plant your feet on the ground, not human will.”
This part of your comments reminded me of the quote… “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”. Good reminder to be in the moment and enjoy. God is in control. Thank you.
Haven’t had the ice to contend but this reminded me of a fear I have needed to meet for years – a fear of heights! The fact that this challenge does not come up all the time causes me to forget about it until the next time. There has been much improvement over the years holding to truths we know. The 4th time going up the Space Needle I could finally stand in the middle facing the glass floor-to-ceiling 3 sides! But the fear needs to be met completely relating to all situations that might come up. Fear is the culprit in so many areas. Thanks for fear reminder, Evan. I, too, hope you can blog more relating to fear.
Great thought, Evan, and thanks so much to all of the wonderful comments. They each fit together in a wonderful sort of mosaic. How blessed we are to have so many like-minded brothers and sisters to lean on as we learn to demonstrate this great Truth. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). Thank you all!
Thank You Evan. I have been recoved by a fall (there are no accidents to the Spiritual Man) and during my recovery an every morning I would wake up along with my prayers and I would say GOD IS MY LIFE AND GOD LOVES ME….AND I DID THIS THROUGH THE HALLS OF THE REHAB CENTER AS I WORKED ON WALKING AND IT WAS INCOURAGING TO ME AND TO OTHERS AND REMINDED THEM OF GOD AN HIS POWER.
Thank you everybody. I’ve take many notes this morning. We recently had a deposit of snow. I left the restaurant to find the roads and my car covered with snow. I pretty anxiously rushed home. I got out of my car and opened the gate to walk down the path to my home. The next thing I knew I was flat on my back. It happened so quickly I barely knew what had happened. I was able get back up and walked into my home. I was most grateful that nothing was sprained or broken. I didn’t even see any bruising. I felt a little soreness in one arm. God was right there with me every step of the way. I’m very grateful for His loving care.