Lincoln as a Prayer for Our Country
A quiet practice for a country under strain
Some weeks, the best thing I can offer is not another opinion. It is a steadier way to hold what is happening without going numb or turning on each other.
That is why I keep coming back to the film Lincoln (2012).
Not Lincoln as a symbol, but Lincoln (2012) as a story about what it costs to hold a nation together when it is fraying. Steven Spielberg chose not to tell every chapter of Lincoln’s life. He chose a narrow window, the push in early 1865 to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, because it shows how change actually happens when a country is split, tired, and suspicious of one another. It is not a battlefield film. It is a coalition film. It is about courage, timing, persuasion, leverage, and the long game work of unity.
The elephant in the room
Many of us are carrying a quiet disorientation right now. Not because of party. Not because of one belief. Because the basic norms that used to hold us steady feel like they are being tested in fast motion.
If you feel the pull toward numbness or hopelessness, I understand. When events move faster than our capacity to metabolize them, the nervous system reaches for certainty. It reaches for a side. It reaches for the voice that promises relief.
I am not writing this to scare you. I am writing it to tell the truth with a steady heart. Our country is under strain. And the way through is not more contempt. The way through is more discernment, more steadiness, and more unity that does not require an enemy.
Doris Kearns Goodwin and the kind of unity that actually holds
Doris Kearns Goodwin has spent a career studying what holds a democracy together when it is under strain. Her work on Lincoln points to something simple and hard.
Unity is not a mood. It is a practice. It is relationship. It is persuasion. It is patience under pressure. It is staying human long enough to collaborate across real differences.
That is what I mean when I say Lincoln can be watched like a prayer for our country.
A prayer is not denial. It is a posture. A way of bringing our attention into steadiness, courage, humility, and care so we can act without losing our humanity.
Why watching together can change resonance, even if you do not believe
This is not just a movie. It is a practice of attention.
The placebo effect in this work is simple. You read the statements first, then you watch the film. The statements aim your focus. The film gives your nervous system something meaningful to inhabit. Together, they create conditions where your mind and body can reorganize around steadiness instead of fear.
If you have ever felt how mood spreads in a room, you already understand resonance. It is the signal you carry. The tone your nervous system broadcasts. The way your heart stays open or closes under pressure.
If that language still does not fit, you can still do the practice. You do not have to believe in anything metaphysical. You only have to be willing to try a different posture for a couple of hours and notice what changes.
Here is the deeper reason I think watching together matters.
We have all felt the power of collective focus when it goes wrong. A fear story hits the news and suddenly millions of nervous systems tighten at the same time. The attention field narrows. Us and them strengthens. People become more recruitable, more reactive, more certain.
That is collective focus.
What we do not explore nearly as often is collective focus in the other direction. When people gather and aim attention toward steadiness, fairness, and balanced outcomes, something shifts. Not by force. By coherence. By creating a different set point in the human space between us.
This idea is ancient. Where attention goes, we go. What we focus on, we become. And when several of us focus together, the effect is not just additive, it can be amplifying.
That is why I want to try watching together, whether we are in the same room or spread across the country. We are not trying to win an argument. We are practicing a steadier signal.
If none of this language works for you, here is the simplest frame.
Watch Lincoln like it is a prayer for our country.
Not a prayer that denies reality, but a prayer that keeps you human enough to meet reality with courage, discernment, and care.
What this Lincoln AMP session can change in you and in us
This session focuses a handful of themes that matter right now.
1) Releasing fear as the driver
The session names fear plainly, then practices refusing to let fear run the show.
2) Staying steady in uncertainty
This session strengthens the ability to tolerate ambiguity long enough for discernment to return.
3) Choosing collaboration over contempt
It loosens the reflex to treat negotiation as betrayal and strengthens the capacity to work with people you do not understand to find peaceful resolutions that benefit us all.
4) Long game courage
It rehearses perseverance, leverage through peaceful means, and taking one step at a time.
5) Peace without retribution
It strengthens the ethic that peace is not humiliation. Peace is a durable outcome people can live with, and when peace comes, it must not be in retribution.
The individual benefit is simple. You come back up calmer, clearer, and more able to stay human. Your discernment improves because your nervous system is not being whipped into certainty.
The collective benefit is just as real. If enough of us practice this together, the tone of the room changes. We become harder to divide. More capable of collaboration. More willing to be fair. More willing to do the long game work of unity.
That is what I mean by resonance. A steadier signal in the human space between us.
A simple call to action that gives people relief and something to do
Presidents Day is Monday, February 16, 2026.
On Presidents Day, I’m inviting anyone who wants a steadier way through to go underground with me. Watch the movie Lincoln. Do the AMP session. Treat it like a prayer for our country. You do not have to believe anything. Just be willing. Let your nervous system settle. Let the statements do their work quietly. Then come back up and notice what changes in your capacity to stay human, stay fair, and collaborate.
A steady closing for these extraordinary times
If you are reading this with a heavy heart, you are not alone. A lot of people are quietly carrying grief, fatigue, and a sense of disorientation. Not because they are weak, but because the pace and intensity of change is real.
Doris Kearns Goodwin once said that when she began immersing herself in Lincoln, the Harvard historian David Donald told her something simple.
“You will feel better after having lived with Lincoln. People do.”
I love that because it is not a denial of danger or conflict. It is a reminder that the human spirit can regain its footing when it spends time in the presence of steadiness, humility, and moral courage.
Goodwin has also described how, during a painful public chapter in her own life, Lincoln became a kind of consolation to her, in part because of his refusal to waste precious energy on recriminations about the past.
That is not softness. That is strategy for staying human. It is how you keep your energy available for the long game.
And if you are thinking, yes, but what if these really are the worst of times, here is the reassurance I take from history. Enormous obstacles have been overcome before, and that perspective can help us stay steady enough to recognize good leadership and good choices when they are available to us.
So that is my hope for this session.
Not that it will make everything feel fine.
That it will take some of the edge off. That it will help you come back up with your discernment intact. That it will help you stay fair without going numb, and strong without becoming cruel.
Because if we are going to make it through what is coming, it will not be by finding one Lincoln to save us.
It will be by becoming a little more Lincoln like together.
Before the statements, a reminder of why The Intention Session is the first step.
AMP is on your terms, not mine. You only receive what is right for you, in your timing, with grace and ease. I am simply putting up the resonance for anyone who wants it. People process in their time. It is meant to be graceful. So do this first, and you will get the resonance benefits listed below - on your terms and timing
Step one: The Intention Session
You only need to do this once before you watch the film Lincoln (2012). If you have already completed an Intention Session, it carries over for all of the AMP movies I talk about, so you do not need to repeat it.
Speak these aloud:
I allow the changes in my timing and only integrate what I am ready to.
I have faith that I will receive the benefits I desire.
I am patient with myself as I make my changes.
I let go of feeling I am too busy to take the time for this.
I let go of needing to understand how AMP works and allow myself to receive the full benefits in my own timing.
Engage three simple modalities:
Nod your head yes.
Drink some water.
Take several slow, rhythmic breaths through your nose.
Then watch Lincoln (2012) all the way through.
There are over 100 intentions included in this Lincoln AMP session. Below is a short summary of what you can expect if you choose to do this AMP session. For now, I’m making these intentions available to everyone.
Lincoln AMP session statements
The statements below are a representative summary of the Lincoln AMP session and what to expect if you do it. Let Go releases the old patterns. Allow strengthens what we are choosing instead.
Let Go
Old pattern statements
I am afraid.
I let fear distract me from what is really going on.
I can’t seem to get people to see what I see and make the changes necessary for peace and unity.
I’ll get to peace and unity once I can be assured my standard of living remains as it is today.
If I follow this change, I’ll be ruined.
I don’t see a way out of this predicament.
I have to use force or else nobody will come along for peace and unity.
My fear justifies using force to create peace.
The obstacles seem too big.
I’m afraid our world is ending.
My odds seem insurmountable.
My grief is so big, I don’t know how I will manage it.
Even though this is too hard, I don’t give up.
I can’t tolerate my grief and have to tuck it away.
If I face my grief, it will devour me.
I have no support wherever I turn.
I’m afraid of freedom and the chaos it will surely unleash.
We’re unready for peace.
When people disagree, I attack them and don’t care about them.
I don’t care for my adversaries.
Anyone who negotiates with the other side is a traitor and should be ousted.
I’ll never negotiate with my adversaries.
I’ll never see my adversaries as my brothers and sisters.
I rule by fear.
I don’t want any change.
Release statements
I let go of allowing fear to drive my actions.
I let go of using force to create peace.
I let go of treating negotiation as betrayal.
I let go of refusing to see my adversaries as human.
I let go of hiding my grief, and I allow it to release with grace, ease, love, and joy.
I let go of my battle between my countrymen and seek peace again.
Allow
I ask for help processing this session with grace, ease, love, and joy.
I choose love and joy.
I no longer allow fear to drive my actions.
I allow my grief to release with grace, ease, love, and joy.
I follow through on my commitment to peace and unity, and I get all the help I need.
It’s time for war to stop and become obsolete on Earth.
Government of the people, by the people shall not perish from the Earth.
I use my support from the people to lead formative change that unites us.
I uplift others and help lead to peace and unity.
10.I’m willing to work with those I don’t understand and find peaceful resolutions that benefit us all.
I can stay steady amidst uncertainty.
I can be gentle and fair.
I’m fitted for the times that I’m born to.
I’m willing to take my time and change my mind if necessary.
I believe in legal and natural equality for all humans.
All men are created equal.
I take things one step at a time.
I play the long game until synchronicities inspire me to act.
I make sure of the leverage with peaceful means.
I remain peaceful while my help is rallied behind the scenes.
.Unity for our country is possible, and so it is.
There’s great strength in united people.
When peace comes, it must not be in retribution.
May war pass away from human consciousness.
With malice toward none and charity toward all, I do my part to bring humanity together again.
I stand for a just and lasting peace for all, and with all nations.
This really resonated with me. I am going to re watch Lincoln