If you are interested in A Course in Miracles and would like to further your practice, but aren’t quite understanding the text, or are battling to read it, then this is a practical guide for daily actions to keep you in line with ACIM practice.

On Waking

On waking, set the intention for your day, and choose for a happy day.

Call on the Holy Spirit, and Christ and God if you wish, and set your intention for a happy day.

• I choose to have a happy day and I know it will be given to me.

The basic premise behind this is that you can’t predict or know what the Holy Spirit has in store for you, and the only real goal is to live in the love of God, which is hallmarked by joy.

In addition, choosing for joy ensures that you are focused on joy from the outset, so you will look for it during your day, and you will look for opportunities to create it. This will ensure that you find it.

Ego Reactions, Judgments and Complaints

Any reaction you have that is not compassion, empathy or love, is an ego reaction.

If you feel a feeling or emotion in your body that is not one of the three listed above, that is an ego reaction. If you feel a physical sensation in your body, ranging from pain to sickness to sexual impulses, that is an Ego reaction.

If you experience shame, doubt, vulnerability, blame, humiliation, anger, frustration, embarrassment, or resistance, then that is an Ego reaction. If you judge another or feel judged, that is also an Ego reaction. If you admire someone, that’s your Ego too.

When you experience any of these sensations, invite the Holy Spirit in and ask him to release you from the THOUGHTS of these experiences.

• Holy Spirit, I offer you this Ego thought of (name the Ego thought). Please help me release it.

It helps to break down your own internal resistance if you admit that you don’t know what to do or what to expect.

• I don’t know how to release this or what to expect Holy Spirit; please guide my mind and show me the way.

The reasoning behind this is that God’s Love or Ego are an all-or-nothing choice. Basically until you are certain unequivocally that you are basking in God’s Love, you can be certain that you are still living in Ego.

One point the Course is clear on is that one of the main tools Ego uses to keep you separate is privacy, and holding any thought private from the Holy Spirit will prevent you from achieving Atonement.

Offer every thought, name every single emotion or body sensation – it helps on two levels: first you get rid of the stuff (confession to the Holy Spirit is an AMAZING release), and secondly you develop the habit of talking openly and freely and expressing yourself completely.

Read more about ego :)

The Holy Instant

The Holy Instant is the moment in which you cross the bridge into God’s love.

It is an eternal moment, set aside from time, in which God’s Love is complete and perfect and always unchanging. It is also a moment that you cannot experience alone – you need to extend the love of God to your brother in order to experience it.

I desire this Holy Instant for myself that I may share it with my brother, whom I love.

It is not possible that I can have it without him, nor he without me. Yet it is wholly possible for us to share it now.

And so I choose this instant as the one to offer the Holy Spirit, that his blessing may descend on us, and keep us both in peace.

In doing this, you extend love to your brother and welcome miracles for yourself and him. The other way to extend love to your brother is to forgive.

Holy Spirit, I cannot find peace and forgiveness in this situation – please choose for peace and forgiveness for me.

Special Relationships

The Course clearly says that special relationships are ego’s ultimate trick to trap you, but God is a God of resurrection, not sacrifice and crucifixion, so relationship dedicated to holiness can be used by the Holy Spirit to further your development and return you both to the Sonship.

I desire a holy relationship for myself so that I may share it with my brother whom I love. It is not possible for me to have a Holy Instant without my brother, or for him to have one without me - yet it is wholly possible for us to share one now.

And so I choose this instant as the one to offer the Holy Spirit, that His blessing may descend on us both, and keep us in peace.

Holy Spirit, take this relationship and dedicate it to Holiness so that my brother and I may walk in the love of God, complete once again.

Amen