Roosevelt was right

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

— From Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential inauguration speech.

Does anyone else see the connection between the consuming fear of economic turmoil and the new alarm sounded about the potential pandemic of swine flu?

Haven’t you noticed that once an individual (or society) becomes mentally vulnerable to depression, anger, or overwhelming fear, this fragile mental stressful state becomes expressed in some kind of physical breakdown?

It’s not a mystery, according to the medical community: 60-90% of all diseases are stress related.

Hmmm….stress is mental. In other words, one’s thoughts and  the intensity of one’s emotional reaction to circumstances or events, is directly proportional to the amount of stress one feels.

The American Heart Association recommends that in order to reduce stress, change your reaction (fear, hate, anger)  to circumstances. It’s the best antidote to stress and, therefore, reduces the potential for illness.

OK, so how does one reduce his/her reaction to stress?  For me, I cant just “blank out” or ignore stressful thoughts…I have to replace them immediately with something that actually transforms the thoughts into something better. That way, stressful thinking isnt lurking somewhere in consciousness, it is eliminated.

Take the swine flu contagion for instance. Here in my little town on the west coast, hundreds of miles from Mexico City (where the city has closed schools, museums, public transportation in the hope of minimizing the spread of disease), people are refusing to make any contact in friendly greetings: no hugging, no shaking hands and heaven forbid any air-kisses!

I suddenly realized that FEAR is the most contagious thing of all. And that I must not aid and abet it by even benignly consenting to the fear — I must stop it in my own thoughts.

How? For me it is with active, immediate prayer. Prayer that is communion and closeness with omnipresent Spirit. I affirm my inseparability from the divine source of all good, God. And since God is all good, and loves me without measure, how could He create or even allow something harmful to attack His beloved creation? Where, in fact, could flu come from if God is all present? When I believe this to be true, with all my heart, what is there then to fear?

And this prayer isnt just for me, it is for everyone: my neighbors, Mexico, US, Canada, New Zealand — and any other country that is feeling under attack. God loves His entire creation and this love protects from anything unlike God.

Practically, then, every time I meet a friend — and especially when they mention why they are keeping a distance — I am going to affirm that God loves and protects both of us right then and there. There is nothing to “catch” from me but good — my good thoughts (no fear or stress in my thinking!) which are grounded on a firm foundation of man’s inseparability from his loving Creator and washing over my friend with love.

Dont spread the fear, share only love.