Before we look at fear and anxiety ,I would like to talk about the formless energy behind life. If we look at the natural world, we see very clearly that some intelligence is behind it.

A small apple seed is planted in the ground and a big apple tree emerges. The oceans never pass their sand borders. The sun rises and sets every day.

If we asked the smartest scientist in the world to duplicate any of these things, he could not. He may be able to tell us how all these things happen, but he could never make them happen.

This same intelligence is behind the human body as well. As far as I can tell, I do not make my own heart beat or my kidneys function, or my legs move for that matter. All these things seem to happen without any help from me.

Scientists tell us that everything ultimately needs a power source, which some call “the life force.” We know that if this energy stops powering our heart, our heart would stop and we would die.

Every second of everyday this energy enables our heart to pump and gives us life. It also gives life to the natural world as well. We can even say that it is only this formless energy that gives life to creation as a whole.

Creation in fact is this formless energy in form. This energy shapes itself into forms we call nature and humanity.

Thoughts are also this energy in form. Nature and the human body each only refer to this energy for their repair and healing. What happens if I cut my finger? I f leave it alone, it will normally heal itself. But if I pick at it, it will not heal; in fact, it could get worse; it could get infected.

Wouldn’t it make sense that the same applies to the mind. Our thoughts are flowing all the time. Sometimes they get “cut up,” and don’t come with a good feeling.

If I cut my finger, it also hurts, but because I know it will heal, it doesn’t scare me.

One of the reasons people get so upset when they have painful thinking is because they aren’t sure if those thoughts will go away. But as with the body, if we leave our thoughts alone, our minds will naturally think clearly again.

New and better thoughts will naturally flow to us. As with the cut on your finger: if you leave the cut alone it will heal, but if you pick at it, it will get worse.

Our minds work the same way. Focusing on an unhelpful thought is the same as picking at the cut. For example, you start feeling down. Your thinking about that circumstance is what will either keep that low feeling in place or let it go.

If we focus on the fact that we feel down, our thoughts could look like this:

“Oh no. what’s wrong with me; I hate this feeling.”  Or your thoughts could be, “There’s that feeling again, no big deal.”

The first is the same as picking at the cut, and the second is the same as leaving the cut and letting it heal on its own. The less attention we pay to the bad feeling the faster it will go away.

For this energy to be able to do all this, it must be intelligent, more intelligent than any human being.

As I said, as human beings we may be able to explain how nature or the body works, but we cannot make them work.

This intelligence must be merciful as well because most of us wake up in the morning with everything working pretty well. There has never been a morning when the sun didn’t rise. The weather is usually pretty stable, and even when a storm is coming we usually have enough time to prepare.

So if this energy (or some would say G-d) goes out of its way to create a beautiful, functional world, does it not make sense for the world to be enjoyable? After all, what do human beings want most of all?  Isn’t it happiness and peace of mind?

But we look around and see so much suffering and so many unhappy people. What has gone wrong?

It seems to me that people look for their happiness and peace of mind from things outside themselves.

We look for it in objects or we think that other people could give it to us. But when we look at the rest of creation, we see that well being and correct functioning relies on this basic energy.

It makes sense that our psychological health would also depend on this energy. After all, it would not make sense and it would not be very merciful, if the one thing I want in life, peace of mind and happiness, were dependent on other people or objects.

Because what if the other person decides not to do what we want them to, or what if I can’t get a certain object. Does that mean I am doomed to unhappiness?

If that were true, we would all be victims of other people’s moods, and of circumstances. What if that isn’t how it is supposed to be, what if just like in nature or for the physical body my peace of mind is also dependent on this fundamental energy?

What if happiness comes from an understanding that it’s the thoughts I am attached to that will decide my feelings in the moment and not the other person’s behavior? When we realize this, we get control of our lives back because we don’t need anything or any person to make us happy.

I have all the power I need to make myself happy. It really is an inside out world, not an outside in world. That means my feeling start from within me and project outward, they do not start from outside me and project inward.

Much of our thinking comes from trying to figure out how to get something or how to get another person to stop or start doing something.

Every advertisement for any product is trying to get you to believe that their product will bring you the happiness you are looking for, but we all know that after we have the item for a while that feeling goes away, because our feelings do not really come from the object.  We are being sold a feeling we already own.

We were born with this sense of wellbeing; it is our birthright. We are given everything we need.

Children know this, which is why they can throw a tantrum in one moment and laugh the next, and why they don’t hold grudges. They just let their thoughts flow and live in the moment.

Our peace of mind is within us. Our thoughts form the link between our spiritual source and our physical lives. The thoughts we choose to focus on will create our experience of reality in the moment.

That means we can use our gift of thought against ourselves by believing thoughts that will make our experience of the world feel painful.

On the other hand we can take responsibility for our own experience and realize that if I am unhappy, I am attached to unhappy thoughts and those thoughts have nothing to do with anyone else.

If I want peace of mind, it really is quite simple. I only have to understand that I am always feeling my thinking, as the thoughts change so will my experience. I will fell a myriad of emotions throughout the day. Peace of mind comes when we realize it’s ok to have happy and sad moments.

What is behind all fears and anxieties? Simply, thoughts I believe in and thus live out of.

Further, the more of those unhelpful thoughts we believe, the more of those thoughts we will get. It is the same as picking at the cut on our finger if I just realize they are just thoughts and stop picking at them, they will eventually go away.