Firewall Your Consciousness

Get a little bit enthusiastic about taking part in this second day of the 40-day practice. It can dramatically shift our relationship to stress. A great way is to begin to develop tools to firewall wall your consciousness. One fine tool is to memorize the prayer of Saint Francis, translated by the great teacher Ekanth Easwaran:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Do it regularly. Memorize it. Say it out loud. Say it three times in a row. Use it right at the beginning of stressful thinking. It works!