Being bombarded by fear, sadness, or regret, then getting stuck in rumination and feeling helpless to stop it, is a little like driving your car in a downpour with the windshield wipers on full speed. It can be overwhelming, maybe a bit scary, and the wipers can barely keep up with the pounding rain. If you have ever felt this way, you’re not alone. Many have faced this, including me. 

You may wonder why you are having these thoughts. Perhaps guilt settles in. Then along comes the temptation to believe that you could somehow be punished for harboring these thoughts. But God is not the author of such thinking. It’s the human mind that makes us feel susceptible to heavy thoughts, condemns us for them, and then convinces us that our thoughts are the cause of our suffering. Much of our energy is then spent trying to think all the right thoughts and feeling anxious that if we don’t, we’ll invite more doom and gloom into our experience. It’s
exhausting, to say the least, and certainly a miserable state to be in.

The good news is that no one has to live this way! Why? Because “we have the mind of Christ,” as the Bible promises (I Corinthians 2:16). This mind—which is the divine Mind, God—gave Jesus his spiritual-mindedness. Jesus was so aware of the totality of God’s love that he was unfazed by surface appearances and the clamoring deceptions of the physical senses. His consciousness, inspired by Spirit, God, perceived perfection, innocence, and health in the face of debility, sin, and illness, and it was this consciousness—the Mind of Christ—that healed. 

As we relinquish the belief in a personal, struggling, human mind and yield to the Mind of Christ, our thoughts are lifted. 

In pondering Jesus’ example, I’m seeing that the job we each have is not to try hard to fight off the bad thoughts but instead to humbly yield to this Mind of Christ that is already ours. Mary Baker Eddy points out the difference in these approaches: “To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 355). As we relinquish the belief in a personal, struggling, human mind and yield to the Mind of Christ, our thoughts are lifted into the pure sunshine of divine Truth. 

I’m increasingly realizing that this means opening my heart to the glorious possibilities of divine Love, God. I recall a chapter in my life when I was having a difficult time letting go. I was weighed down by human reasoning—limited, self-based thinking—and attachment to a relationship, and the harder I struggled to let go, the harder it seemed. One day, as I was standing by a beautiful lake, it occurred to me that if I were holding a piece of paper and kept focusing on trying to release it, saying repeatedly, “I have to let go, I have to let go,” I might find it to be difficult. But if instead I simply opened my hand, the slightest opening would release the paper, and the wind would carry it away. This new insight helped me realize where I needed to put my efforts. 

It’s similar when it comes to dropping the false notion that we have a mind or ego of our own. Rather than focusing on what we need to let go of—on the problem—we can open our heart to God, the all-loving divine Mind, and to the glorious possibilities and promises awaiting us. Eddy says it this way: “Let us open our affections to the Principle that moves all in harmony . . .” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 174). What joy there is in doing this! A natural byproduct is that the sense of having a personal ego becomes less and less interesting or desirable, and it falls by the wayside. Our head—and our heart—are then lifted above the mist.

But this can be a struggle if we don’t really want to let go. What if we have become entrenched in the belief that our feelings, assumptions, and human history are who we actually are? We cling to, and sometimes even revere, these ways of identifying ourselves. We may feel that giving them up would mean losing our identity. But there is wisdom and comfort in this assurance: “Nothing is lost that God gives . . .” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 111). The benefit of parting with error—the mistaken belief that intelligence and life reside in human personality or a physical body—is that everything supportive of progress, all that’s health-giving and joy-bestowing, remains. Whatever is stunting our progress, including that which is disguised as the personal self, is left behind. We discover more of who we are by discovering more of who God is. 

There are times, though, when the human mind’s chatter seems unrelenting. The textbook of Christian Science states clearly, “Error repeats itself” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 28). Recognizing how mortal mind—a fictitious, fear-based mentality—operates puts you on track to seeing through its illusory nature. 

Recognizing how mortal mind operates puts you on track to seeing through its illusory nature.

Many years ago, I felt the onset of repetitive thoughts, which did not support my progress and which I had felt sure I was already free of. But suddenly, there they were again. It occurred to me at that moment that the monotonously—even hypnotically—repetitive nature of these thoughts clearly indicated that they were not from divine Mind, which is our only mind, but rather from mortal mind, which is never our own thinking. Recognizing the impersonal nature of the thoughts allowed me to move past them.

There is a kind of repetition, though, that is good. It’s described in Science and Health as “a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself” (p. xi). What we’re reading about here is “Immanuel, or ‘God with us,’ ” which is Christ. But this repetition is not monotonous. Instead, it comes with the freshness of new, inspired ideas and healing prayers. It’s like the sunrise, reminding you that the long night can’t prevent the dawn. It’s spiritual intuition. And it’s the gentle whisper of angels, God’s thoughts, lifting you out of despair. Take a moment and listen for Love’s messages leading you onward and upward. Darkness inevitably yields to the Christ light. We can feel assured that “. . . error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love . . .” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 204).

So, together, let’s rely less on personal effort and rest instead in the truth that the Mind of Christ is God and is ours, now and always, ushering in the light that dispels the darkness, releasing us all from rumination and bringing peace of mind and heart.