The Only Little Prayer You Need

Book excerpt: "We need to encourage an understanding that inner peace comes from relying on human values like love, compassion, tolerance, and honesty, and that peace in the world relies on individuals finding inner peace." —His Holiness, the Dalai Lama These six words—please heal my fear-based thoughts—change lives. In this brief and inspiring book, based on Engle’s study of A Course in Miracles, she explains how to use the prayer and experience immediate benefits: being less irritable, more patientlaughing morefeeling like you have more time, more energyworrying lessmaking decisions more easilysaying no without guilt A typical prayer goes something like this: "Please help us find the money to pay our mortgage this month." Saying the prayer may help you feel like the burden of that month's mortgage has been lifted, but the part of you that feeds on fear will simply seek out new financial worries to keep you awake at night. Old patterns remain intact. In contrast, asking, "Please heal my fear-based thoughts about our mortgage" lifts the burden AND relieves the need to re-create that fear and hold onto it. This prayer heals your very desire for burdens, your addiction to fear-based thoughts, freeing you to live without that fear and with greater peace of mind. As a result, your financial situation is also free to improve. That's what makes it so different. One Facebook fan told Engle, "The most blessed aspect of this prayer is all the open space it creates for peace—I never knew how many fear-based thoughts were clogging up in me until this prayer."