I am getting more and more upset about the world I see. Help! How can I see this differently?

We are never upset for the reason we think. We, the Son of God, are never upset. It is always our personality self that is upset. And the personality self is never upset about present day. The happenings in the world are just triggering the personality self that was made in childhood. The ego wants us to continue to believe that our upsets are about present day. We have to undo our upsets or grievances where they were made. They were not made in present day. They are always about the past. The personality self, our personal ego, is a child and will always be a child. We are just children pretending to be adults. Just like all illusions are a replay of the separation story in different forms, the world events that we are reacting to are just childhood stories replayed in different forms. Our insistence that our upsets are about the present is the resistance to go in. It is also our resistance to exposing truths about the making of our personality selves and their true properties.

If our personality selves are having reactions or grievances about the story, it is not our Son of God selves having the reactions or grievances. It is our personal ego selves. Just like in the past, the child feels overwhelmed or frightened or sad or powerless and out of control. If we can identify the thoughts and feelings that are disturbing and link them up to childhood thoughts and feelings we will see the parallels. This forgiveness practice takes the upset back to where it was made and can be undone. When we can see that the upset is not about what is happening in the present, the ego’s grip on our mind is loosened. Eventually we must take all our upsets through childhood and back to the “trauma” of the separation. A few things to remember. You are the Son of God. You are not upset. The personality self is upset and not for the reasons you think. You are not the personality self.

This is not the world’s psychotherapy. This is the Course’s psychotherapy. Psycho means mental. Therapy means correction. Psychotherapy means mental correction. We are not “going back to childhood” for some worldly therapeutic reason. We are not trying to fix the patient. He is not broken. The Holy Spirit is supporting us in seeing how we made this whole delusional system up and how our belief in it is costing us our awareness of God, Heaven and our Self. If we think we are reacting to the present the ego thought system stays in play. One of the first things we have to learn, as we untangle the ego’s web of deception, is that we are never upset for the reason we think and it is never the self we think it is that is upset.

Everyone who needs help, regardless of the form of his distress, is attacking himself, and his peace of mind is suffering in consequence. These tendencies are often described as “self-destructive,” and the patient often regards them in that way himself. What he does not realize and needs to learn is that this “self,” which can attack and be attacked as well, is a concept he made up. Further, he cherishes it, defends it, and is sometimes even willing to “sacrifice” his “life” on its behalf. For he regards it as himself. This self he sees as being acted on, reacting to external forces as they demand, and helpless midst the power of the world. (P-1.3:1-6)

Do not believe the ego. You are the Son of God. You are not upset. Something other than the Son of God is upset. That self, that miscreation, that is upset is not real and is a block to love’s presence.

Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by you as well, but from a Teacher other than yourself, Who represents the other Self in you. Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin. (W-121.6:1-5)

Are you willing to “give up” that miscreation and let it disappear?

It is obvious, then, that inducing the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of creative ability that is truly meaningful. (T-2.V.1:11)

The Holy Spirit is only and always inducing, persuading us to give up our miscreations. He does this by introducing sense, understanding and reason to our ego thoughts and beliefs. Looking at how the ego uses all of our makings to get us to continue believing that we are not the Son of God is essential.

What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them? (T-11.V.2:1-3)

The Holy Spirit will happily take you down this rabbit hole which ends in the personality self disappearing. Be not afraid. Freedom awaits. And just a preview…emotions are not real.