At one point more than ten years ago, I started noticing that something wasn’t right with my pulse. I was having spells of a racing heartbeat as if I had just done strenuous physical activity, although I hadn’t. The spells started to last hours and then days. I gradually and quietly scaled back my activities over a period of a few weeks hoping that would help, but it didn’t.

Having had other physical healings through prayer based on the teachings of Christian Science, I knew that this condition could be healed, too. But the fear was pretty overpowering, so much so that one morning I didn’t even get out of bed.

I stayed in bed most of that day praying about my God-given freedom and dominion, waiting for the body to give me the signal that all was well. It then dawned on me that I had it backward. If freedom was really a part of my nature, then I could start acting that way now and expect the body, as they say, to “get with the program”; to “follow suit”; to “get in line” with the spiritual facts. I didn’t need to take unnecessary risks, but I could insist that my freedom wasn’t an abstract concept—it was mine to experience right then.

It was a powerful angel thought. Buoyed by this idea, I kicked off the covers, got out of bed, and went downstairs to help my husband, who was fixing dinner. Before I even got to the kitchen, I felt total freedom—no more fear, and no more racing heartbeat. I was so grateful—I didn’t dance, but I could have!

The condition tried to make a comeback a few months later, but I was unimpressed because I just knew that it wasn’t a part of my true, perfect nature. That issue has never again returned in the decade or so since.

Lindsay Catlin
Webster, New York, US