Distress, anxiety and self-attack

You always attack yourself first, because in the act of attacking another you must believe that you vulnerable to attack yourself.

Practicing this idea entails thinking of five or six circumstances where you felt distressed. By using this idea on these distressing circumstances you practice understanding that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you that this is not so.

So, in thinking of a distressing circumstance, name the outcome which you fear, which seems to be the source of the distress.

Now tell yourself: That thought is an attack upon myself. I am distressed because believe I am attacking my invulnerability.