I am never upset for the reason I think.
I am never upset, or angry, worried, depressed, jealous, hurt, etc. for the reason I think. All of these emotions take us out of our center of peace for the simple reason that these emotions are misdirected.
Usually when I have an experience that triggers one of these emotions in me, I have become automatically conditioned to assign blame to someone or something outside of me as causing my upset.
However, if I can learn to recognize that I am never upset for the reason I think then assigning that blame becomes an invalid response on my part.
There is a reason that I am upset, but it’s just not the reason that I think it is. The reason can be found in me, and never outside of me. It can always be traced to a thought that I am having or a judgment that I have made.
I am upset because I have forgotten who I am and how much power that I have. I feel upset because I think that I can do a better job of running my life without God as my constant companion. I am upset because I believe that my experiences of lack and loneliness and sickness are the truth. I am upset because I have forgotten what the truth really is. I am upset because I have created a dualistic world of good and evil, and have forgotten that there is only one power.
This is a paradigm changing realization, because it means that no longer do I have the luxury of blaming anyone or anything for whatever the contents of my life contains.
Where I once pointed to God or my family or my parents shortcomings, or a thousand others things for the sorry state of my affairs that is no longer a possibility.
With this lesson, the Course is guiding me to assign to my thoughts all responsibility for any and every upset. The great news is that if I am responsible for creating it, then I also have the ability to undo it. I do this by bringing it to the Holy Spirit for transformation.
I am able to view my thoughts as only an error in judgment rather than a dramatic, traumatic story that I could spend years or decades getting stuck in.
