When anxiety and fear come I try to remember these principals that alleviate this:

• Accept the present situation completely – Do not resist accepting anything. I don’t have to like the situation, but, resistance is the majority of the problem. The biggest fear is ‘looking bad’. This must be accepted and not resisted.
• Don’t feel sorry for myself – Humility dictates that I should not feel that bad things should not happen to me, they happen to everyone.
• Don’t insist on being right – Trying to force my will on other people and the world is a major cause of stress and doesn’t actually work.
• Be of service to others and to be kind and loving to all – In the end this is my only real purpose in life. I can only be happy if I am grateful.

Mental House of Cards

After long periods of freedom from anxiety and fear, I see that I build up a mental house of cards that always come crashing down. This is the result of making long range plans where ‘this will happen, then this needs to happen, then I can do this, or get this’.

I try to hold this mental house of cards together all day long, day after day, but, not being God I have no control over anything, so the mental house of cards is all ego and self-will run riot.

I can only be grateful for the present moment, I cannot control what happens in the world.

When I tear down the mental house of cards, and accept life with gratitude, the anxiety and fear has no place to live.