Corrective Thinking
By Lucille Cedercrans
Lesson 4
By now if you have followed the suggestions in Lesson 3 you realize that your
environment exerts a very great influence upon you, and not all of it can be
called good from your point of view. I doubt if you have considered anywhere
near the entire environment which includes the radio, newspapers, community in
which you live, etc., and that is as it should be, for your immediate
environment concerns only your sphere of influence. For instance, as you are
influenced by others, so also do you influence them and these who are most
easily reached by you we say are within your sphere of influence.
What kind of influence do you wield upon others? Is it constructive? Is your
influence a power for good? That of course will depend upon the way you react to
others, whether you are positive or negative and with what degree of
determination or strength of will you exercise your influence.
Let us now consider what is meant by a negative thought. A negative thought is
always one of denial. If you hate something or someone, you are denying that
thing or person the right to your love and so violating the basic relationship
between you. The basic relationship between any two people is brotherhood, and
is characterized by Love. Everyone has a Divine Right to your love, for all men
are your brothers. It makes little difference how that relationship may manifest
in the outer world. He may be your blood brother, a friend, husband or even an
enemy, but underneath the superficial relationship he is in truth your brother
and has a right to your love. To deny that love is to break the Universal Law of
Relativity and bring imbalance into your life.
If you do not like a situation, you are denying your own growth. Within every
situation is valuable lesson material for you. Remember you have earned, in some
way, everything that happens to you; be it pleasant or unpleasant. When a
situation is unpleasant, realize that it contains within it a good lesson.
Experience is the great teacher and one of God's Laws. We experience that which
we create. Learn then to love the situation for what it is, a lesson and grasp
its Truth. As soon as you understand the lesson an undesirable experience holds
for you, the situation will manifest no longer.
To become a power for good in your environment, you must become positive to it.
This means that it does not cause you to react negatively. You do not hate,
resent, envy, fear, etc., but rather you love everyone and everything around
you.
If you know someone who is full of resentment, how can you help that person? It
cannot be done by becoming annoyed with his complaints, by agreeing with his
resentment, nor by avoiding or criticizing him. That is what is most commonly
done.
First realize that within the heart of all men is good and that recognition of,
and concentration upon that good will call it forth. Look for and find the good
within him, and then pour forth your love to him. Appeal with love to the good
you know is there.
Then realize that within the mind of all men there is intelligence. The mind is,
by nature, intelligent; if it appears differently that is because it has not
been influenced to think intelligently. No one is by nature "dumb". In some
cases the brain cells may have been damaged and in that case the mind is unable
to impress the brain with intelligent thought, but in most cases it is simply a
lack of right training that causes a person to appear below normal mentality.
His mind has been influenced to pick up thoughts which are unintelligible or
irrational and his emotions have become perverted due to the denial of love by
those around him. All cases of mental instability can be traced back to a great
hunger for love.
To help this man, realize that he is, underneath all of the outer resentments, a
child of God and therefore good. Realize that he resents because he does not
understand and because he hungers for someone to love him. Often he himself has
so inhibited his own natural love that he does not know how, and he is hungering
to love as much as for it. Even though he does not understand, he is intelligent
by nature and has the ability to understand.
Realizing all of this, bring the brother into your heart, loving him because he
is your brother. At the same time, think towards him the understanding he needs
to rise above his resentments. Do not speak to him until he indicates through
some action that he is ready to listen to you. Hold your tongue and think. Then
if he asks your advice, give it.
Gradually, one by one, become positive to the conditions within your environment
and give your help in the way described above where it is needed.