Like yesterday’s lesson, the exercise for today is focused inward and therefore may be best done with eyes closed. In today’s practice periods, search your mind for a minute or so for forms of upset or distressing emotions you are aware of feeling, such as anxiety, anger, or depression, and the sources you believe are causing these emotions. Then apply today’s idea to each distressing emotion that you have become aware you are feeling, and the cause you connect with the emotion.

In these exercises, more than in the preceding ones, you may find it hard to be indiscriminate, and to avoid giving greater weight to some subjects than to others. It might therefore help to precede the exercises with the statement:

“There are no ‘small’ upsets. They are all disturbing to my peace of mind.”

Then examine your mind for whatever emotions are distressing you, regardless of how much or how little you think they are doing so. Search your mind for no more than a minute or so, trying to identify a number of different forms of upset that are disturbing your peace of mind, irrespective of the relative importance you might normally have assigned to the feelings. Apply the idea for today to each of them, using the name of both the feeling as you experience it and the cause or source of the upset as you perceive it. For instance:

“I feel worried about today’s meeting for a reason other than the one I assume.”

“I feel depressed about my weight for a reason other than the one I assume.”

You may also find yourself less willing to apply today’s idea to some perceived sources or causes of upset than to others. If this occurs, think first of this:

“I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.”

Practicing today’s exercise three or four times during the day will be enough.

Similar to the idea for yesterday’s lesson, today’s idea can be used with any person, situation, or event you think is causing you to be upset. As soon as you become aware of feeling upset, apply the idea specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the description of the feeling in whatever terms seem accurate to you. The upset may seem to be anxiety, worry, fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, depression, or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This apparent difference is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing that they are all the same.

When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset in any form, use both the name of the form in which you experience the upset, and the cause that you ascribe to it. For example:

“I feel angry at that driver for a reason other than the one I assume.”

“I feel afraid of that dog for a reason other than the one I assume.”