Ask Amy: The Lessons Are Your Lifeline

Q: I really want to stick with my ACIM workbook lessons, but somehow I get interrupted, don’t follow through, and eventually just quit. This is the third time I made a commitment to do the workbook, and yet again I’m so disappointed in myself for giving up. Any ideas?

A: First of all, you’re not alone, many people fall off the wagon (giving in to ego resistance).

Rumi says, “Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, it doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times. Come, come again, come.” Isn’t that reassuring?

For all you ACIM students who struggle with practicing the workbook lessons (you know who you are) here’s a shift in perception that may help. Rather than thinking of the lesson as something you should do, have to do, want to do but find yourself resisting, etc, throw yourself at the lesson as if you are drowning and the lesson is your lifeline!

Because, honestly, it is. Nothing is more important for your sanity than reaching for the Hand of God.

A sense of urgency will propel you towards your lesson. 

Throw your whole body into the lesson. How? Start by reaching for the book — not the lesson.  Have you ever noticed that the book, A Course in Miracles, has a comforting heft to it?  Yes, it has a weighty groundedness … paradoxical for a writing that will lift you right out of your life.

This great tome can by your physical savior as well as your spiritual savior.  So go ahead and place the book on your lap. Let it anchor you.  Feel how comforting this is.  Notice how, paradoxically, providing a physical anchor can help your mind spontaneously go quiet. Your body may disappear completely for the span of a meditative practice session.

And that will increase your natural inclination to practice, practice, practice … rather than trying to force yourself into it.

So, I strongly recommend that if you’re reading the Course from an app on your phone, laptop or computer that you switch to the BOOK.  Why?

A Course in Miracles is an object being used by Spirit to focus you on the Objectless. Take advantage of that.

Enjoy the smell of your book, the texture of the pages.  Personalize your book — give yourself permission to write and draw in it. Really make it yours. Use it, as a workbook should be used — to work and practice.

Lug it around with you. Before electronic devices, Course students carried the book around with them. Sure, some of us xerox-ed pages, or copied them into notebooks. It was revolutionary when those mini-lesson cards came out and many a back pocket crushed the day’s lesson into oblivion — mine were well worn, for sure.

But even though carrying the Course around piecemeal was more convenient, I found hugging the book to my chest while riding the subway was a perfect reminder that I was safe, and I was here to Love and Be Loved.

It’s worth repeating: the ACIM book has a heft and a weight to it that will calm and comfort you, as it lifts you up.

Bond with your book!  Make your ACIM book your shamanic touchstone.  When you don’t need it anymore, it will drop away effortlessly.  In the meantime, as long you still have emotional attachments, make the Course one of them in an overt, physical way. It’s a whole lot easier to remember to do your lesson when you love your book — and it’s staring you in the face 🙂

P.S. You can check out my ecourse, Workin’ the Workbook – it was developed to help students deepen their workbook practice and follow through!