Group Work "Our Country is Going to Hell in a Handbasket." Is it true?

So let's do "The Work" on our current national situation. Let's use the phrase "Our country's going to hell in a handbasket." Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it's true?

Some of you may be tempted to answer "yes". And if you do, I understand that. But let's go on to question three.

How do you react when you think the thought "Our country's going to hell in a handbasket." Angry, afraid, frustrated, hopeless, arguing with people, lashing out. Those are stressful reactions.

Who would you be if you couldn't think the thought "Our country's going to hell in a handbasket" or other similar thoughts? What if you didn't watch the news and keep this alive in your mind and heart? Then you'd get up every day and go to your job and live your life and you'd be fine. Nothing bad is happening to you, except the stressful thoughts you are tormenting yourself with.

But you say, "What about the people who are being deported or killed" Something bad is happening to them." Well, first we should question that thought - Is it true? And that's a whole other discussion. But suffice it to say, that's THEIR issue to deal with, not yours. It's not happening to you.

Katie always says "There are only three kinds of business. Your business, my business and God's business (God meaning reality)." When you start using words like should or should not in relation to how you think others should behave, you're in their business. And this causes you suffering.

The people experiencing this who are stressed by their experiences should do The Work on their own experience so they can alleviate their own suffering. But you can't do it for them. You can only alleviate your own.

Back to our questions. So without these thoughts you'd be living your life and you'd be okay. Now the turnarounds.

Instead of "Our country's going to hell in a handbasket" what would the opposite be? "Our country's not going to hell in a handbasket." Can you give me an example of where that is true?

I see a country that is finding their true humanity. I see a country that is coming together in solidarity in a way they never have before. I see people helping people they might not even have talked to ten years ago. Not the skin heads, of course. But they never will and you can't change that. I see people doing the right thing not because the law forces them to but because their heart tells them to. I see many good things happening.

So our country's not going to hell in a handbasket. I'm not living in stress and suffering. When you get clear of the stories that you live within that aren't true, you are more clear to do something for the right reasons.

So thoughts might come to you like "I think I'd like to help an immigrant." Okay, so go do it, but without the stories that we spin around everything that cause stress and suffering. The people living in those stressful thoughts and situations can do their own Work around those concepts and get more clear about what they need to do for themselves as well. But help because you enjoy it, not because you think you are somebody's deliverer. Because you aren't. Nobody can deliver anybody but themselves from stress and suffering.

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Copyright Judie C. McMath and The Center for Unhindered Living