Fearful patterns of mind are part of the human condition. They originate from feeling separate from our true nature, which is total love, peace, power, strength, and joy. The degree to which we identify with being a separate someone determines the intensity of our fear. Separation might sound abstract, but it is no joke. When we experience “I’m separate . . . ,” whether we feel that as separation from God; from our mother, who seems to be the source of everything at first; from nature; from one another; or from love, strength, peace, or support, our body contracts and our heart shrinks. Then our mind
gets busy, spinning strategies of defense that cost us contact with the peaceful present. We presume we must have done something wrong to be in this condition. A vague sense of shame descends, but for what exactly, we are not quite sure.
Our personality develops around our childhood experiences of separation and the work-arounds we discovered to make that more manageable. Over time, this becomes the primary track of our personality. Layer by layer, the mud of conditioning covers the luminous jewel of our being. We end up living on the surface of ourselves, ignorant of our vast and beautiful depths. We polish up the outer surface of the mud, not realizing that we are just living out of a self-image that is really just a shell. It will inevitably get cracked by the turning of life’s wheel — whether that be from illness, loss of a cherished love affair, a
dent to our pride, or ultimately the aging process, which demands we get with the program of graceful surrender.
Read more in The Way of Grace. Click here to find out more about how you can integrate the practice of Graceful Surrender intro your daily life or here to learn how to Cultivate Trust and relax in and through your fear.
