templated is an evil one, I might try to think up something else that would not get me into trouble but would help me get out of the trouble I am in. I could change my thoughts from evil ones to better ones. I might first try to see why I feel the way I do about him. If I discover it is because of some projection I am making upon him this could be a means for mo to discover more about my own true nature. If my dislike for him is because he presents a real danger to me I might find a better defense against him, or remove myself from the danger. Even if I can't find any real reason for the feeling, I can at least acknowledge it and wait and see what happens to it. We need not be afraid of our feelings because we can use our reason to keep from acting foolishly upon them.

STRONG NEED FOR CONSISTENCY

So much of the fear and anxiety that is experienced in everyday living is based upon the inability to contend with the feelings that come from within us. With our terribly strong need for consistency, because of a mistaken notion that our security depends upon it, we cannot tolerate inconsistent or ambivalent feelings. We want to stabilize them someplace and have them remain that way. We tend to feel that if we could once get our feelings straightened out we wouldn't have any more trouble. But this is not a fixed task with a fixed ending. It is more of a constantly on-going pròoess which we have to accept and adjust to, instead of trying to get it to stop operating in what seems to us to be so erratic a manner.

I have been speaking largely about negative feelings like anger and hatred. I turn now to what we call the positive feelings, which might all come under the broad general heading of love.

I would certainly say that love freely given and freely taken is a truly religious experience. It is creative and healing in every sense of the words. It is a pure feeling experience that reaches to the depths of the soul and expands people to points far beyond those they previously thought they could endure. No wonder the lover declares to the loved one, "I love you so much I could burst". Even the struggles and strife of lovers are creative experiences because they stem from a soul crying out against the negative qualities that would try to strangle and smother the freedom love can bring to the person. A person in love is forced to revise all ideas