Compulsive Worry Keeps Us in Place
Before she was an author and a minister, Reverend Maria Felipe was an actress, a model, and a TV host with a fabulous French boyfriend. She appeared in national commercials, was the first ever Latina boxing announcer, and interviewed World Wrestling Federation competitors in front of audiences of twenty thousand people. People Magazine in Espanol even referred to her as “Una Campeona Sin rival,” which means a champion without rival. But through it all, she felt insecure, unworthy, and downright miserable.
All that began to change when she began to study a book called A Course in Miracles (ACIM), and eventually went on to get her ministerial certificate from an ACIM school known as Pathways of Light. “This self-study spiritual thought system helps students develop a relationship with the ‘internal teacher’ it calls the Holy Spirit, which in turn helps us change how we see the world on a daily basis,” writes Maria. “This ‘shift in perception’ is what ACIM calls a miracle.”
In Live Your Happy: Get Out of Your Own Way and Find the Love Within (New World Library, April 22, 2017), Maria shares more than twenty years of experience studying and living the principles from ACIM. This is not a philosophic explanation of the Course. It is a practical, hands-on guide for actually living it. We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book.
Do you have a problem that you think about all the time — as soon as you wake up and while brushing your teeth, driving to work, having lunch and dinner, and finally lying awake in bed when you should be sleeping? Rather than coming up with a solution, all you’re doing is reviewing the same worries over and over: How did I get into this fix? Why is this happening to me? Why won’t this person do what I want? What if I do this or that? What if I say this or that?
Compulsive worrying means believing that your problems are very real (what I call “big deals”) and there really is no solution. You’re depending on the wrong adviser in your own head; as the Course reminds us, “The ego’s rule is, ‘Seek and do not find.’” As long as you’re listening to the ego’s advice, you’re going to worry about the same stuff over and over again. And worry is just another way of telling yourself, This is the way it has to be. I need to worry. I need to suffer. I need to be unhappy. If you believe in the nonsense of the ego, you end up being fooled!
To get unstuck from the same old problems, and to change your thoughts, it would be helpful to do these three things:
You must recognize there is really only one problem: that you believe you separated from God (not true!) and should be punished for it.
You must say no mas (“no more!”) to compulsive worry.
You must allow happy thoughts in the place of worried thoughts — even if you don’t want to!
You must recognize there is really only one problem: that you believe you separated from God (not true!) and should be punished for it.
You must say no mas (“no more!”) to compulsive worry.
You must allow happy thoughts in the place of worried thoughts — even if you don’t want to!
Changing your thoughts isn’t a one-time deal; it’s a practice. Understanding that you don’t have to be stuck with the same old stuff is just the beginning. Then you have to start opening your mind to new thoughts and happier experiences. First, you must be mindful and present, staying aware of what you are thinking and feeling. When you find you’re not at peace, notice that, and “choose again” in a way that makes sense to you. It can be as simple as thinking, “I choose to be happy now.” Choose this again and again and again. With practice, happy thoughts will arise automatically whenever you feel stuck with a problem. That’s when you’ll start realizing that being unhappy always has more to do with how you think than with anything that happens to you.
Maria Felipe is the author of Live Your Happy. After experiencing success as a model and actress, including hosting World Wrestling Federation TV shows, she felt called inward and studied to become a reverend at Pathways of Light, an accredited religious school inspired by A Course in Miracles. She leads monthly services in both Spanish and English at Unity Church in Burbank, CA. Visit her online at www.MariaFelipe.org.
Excerpted from the book Live Your Happy: Get Out of Your Own Way and Find the Love Within. Copyright © 2017 by Maria Felipe. Printed with permission from New World Library.