One day, when I sat down to work, I was surprised to find that I was unable to focus. This was more than a moment of distraction; this was a roadblock to my ability to think properly about my current work project. I was in the middle of a two-week contract with a client. It was a tight schedule, but I had no other commitments and I’d been reasonably confident that I could accomplish what I needed to in time.
The first part of the project had gone well, and I was about halfway done and still on schedule. But on this particular morning I was experiencing a mental haze that I’d never before encountered. Though I’d known about Christian Science most of my life, I had only recently begun to study it seriously and turn to it for healing. This particular morning I hadn’t yet read the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson, so I thought that might be a good change of pace.
While reading, I came across the following sentence from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “The exercise of will brings on a hypnotic state, detrimental to health and integrity of thought” (p. 446). I certainly seemed to be experiencing that hypnotic state! So I asked myself: Am I exercising will? I examined my thinking.
