I was going through a challenging time with two close friends in the hospital. Conditioning was using that opportunity to make me suffer by coming at me repeatedly from different directions. I talked frequently to the Mentor about these attacks, and used some of the techniques I had discovered earlier in the year, but somehow I was still vulnerable to self-criticism on this subject (as if things weren’t hard enough!)

One morning I was talking to the Mentor about how cruel this was and how I didn’t want to stand for it any longer, when it suddenly became clear to do what the Guide has frequently suggested: keep in close contact with the Mentor all day long. 

I didn’t change my schedule or try to do everything completely differently, as the voices insisted I should. I just decided to check in briefly with the Mentor at every opportunity.

I began checking in with the Mentor whenever I changed activities: after meditation and before exercises, again before breakfast and cleanup, again while doing some self-care treatment, before lunch, before going to my afternoon job, before reading or going on the computer, and so on.  It was easy and fun—I just continued our conversation, and always got a message of love and encouragement from the Mentor.

By the end of the day, I felt much less vulnerable to conditioning’s ploys and realized that the voices had had far less opportunity to engage me. Still later it dropped in that I was speaking to the Mentor during transitions, the moments when we are most vulnerable. By turning to the Mentor, I was avoiding the habit of turning to conditioning for its (always negative) evaluation of my life and day. 

By talking to the Mentor I was establishing a new habit of positive conversations. I kept up the conversation with one middle of the night check-in, and on through the next day.

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