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— The Buddha, as written by Thich Nhat Hanh |
Calling Imperfect People to Worship a Perfect GOD !!!
The pagan world is marked by their fear of the spirit world. They try to placate their gods by putting out offerings of food and drink. They observe superstitious rituals so as not to offend the gods. But the psalmist here says that the only one we should fear is the Lord, who made the heavens (96:5). When he says (96:5), “For all the gods of the people are idols,”
Scientists Have Proven That Negativity Literally Makes Cancer Grow Inside The Body
This amazing guest post was written by Dr. Andreia Horta, ND and Dr. Emily Lipinski, ND, founders of Infusion Health!
You can check out their website here!
Have you felt hurt or betrayed? Have you ever been so bitter and upset towards a situation or person that you could not imagine forgiving them? You may have even replayed the event(s) over and over in your head. With each repetition, your feelings intensify and you feel worse about yourself and it. There is evidence to prove that harboring these emotions can negatively impact your health. Thus the subject of forgiveness surfaces to the top of this blog!
Over 15 years ago there lacked any research on the impact of forgiveness on our health. Thankfully to date, there are hundreds of scientific papers and clinicians ready to share their knowledge with us.
Let us start with the impact of staying angry, being frustrated or feeling negative about an event. Dr. Steven Standiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, says that holding onto these negative emotions creates a chronic state of anxiety.
This produces a predictable excess of adrenaline and cortisol, which deplete the production of natural killer cells. These cells are your protection against cancer.
If you refuse to forgive it not only makes you sick but can keep you that way.
Since we are on the topic of cancer, a neat randomized controlled trial with over 83 cancer patients evaluated feelings of forgiveness, pessimism, and self-acceptance after taking a course in self-forgiveness. The course taught techniques such as reflection, expressive writing etc.
As expected, the patients that took the course had statistically significant higher scores for self-forgiveness, acceptance, self-improvement, and lower pessimism scores compared to the control group.
Forgiveness Helps You Feel Better About Yourself
If you think of an old memory of being mistreated, hurt, or offended you automatically start to feel unwell. The fact is that there are immediate emotional and/or physiological responses that occur when you are having these memories. These responses include:
- Your blood pressure increases
- Your muscles tighten
- You start to swell
These are all signs of stress and anxiety. Recent studies show that participants who practice empathy and forgiveness to those who do them wrong have a lowered stress response. To further deepen this point, roughly 1,500 Americans who forgave reported greater satisfaction with their lives, less distress symptoms, less nervousness, and less sadness.
Forgiveness even helps in cases of severe emotional abuse. Women were placed into two treatment groups; the first using techniques such as anger validation, assertiveness, interpersonal skill building, and the second using forgiveness. Women in the forgiveness group had significant improvements in depression scores, post-traumatic stress symptom, self-esteem, less anxiety, and better overall mastery of their life. Months later all these gains were still present! YAY! Forgiveness is powerful!
Forgiveness Positively Impacts Your Immunity
One controlled study assessed 78 medicated HIV patients for feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of forgiveness. Participants who truly forgave had higher percentages of CD4 immune cancer-fighting cells!
The improvement of blood pressure and cardiovagal tone is yet another benefit of forgiveness. Researchers have been able to show …. that forgiveness has a cardioprotective effect on the heart. While anger, is cardiotoxic, which can damage the heart muscle.
Forgiveness Benefits Your Quality of Sleep
One study found that forgiveness of interpersonal transgressions is related to better sleep. While staying resentful, angry or even keeping hostile feelings around relate to a poorer quality of sleep.
The list goes on and on. The health benefits of forgiveness are monumental. Now that you have some facts, think and devise a forgiveness plan. Start by forgiving yourself, and then move onto forgiving others. If you do not know how to forgive, and contact a spiritual psychotherapist or psychologist in your area for help.
It is time to let go of past grievances. It is time to feel lighter. It is time to be free of the past to create space for a brighter present!
Could suppress emotions cause cancer …while outward anxiety cause heart attacks !!!
Sources: educateinspirechange,
A Simple Mindfulness Technique!
We often get asked what is Mindfulness and How do I incorporate it into my busy life? Below I answer that question and provide you with a Simple Mindfulness Technique to make your day more calm and productive!
Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of your present moment. This process of awareness is the same thing as observing. It allows you to observe your thoughts, your emotions and your actions. You are almost a third person watching yourself going through your experiences.
When you are mindful of your thoughts you start to see that they are in fact just thoughts reoccurring. For instance, “I’m so stupid, why did I act that way in front of my boss last week!”, “What if I get fired?” The same automated thoughts will come up over and over again. Thoughts that are of the past, or future will surface often repeating themselves.
In the same way if you are mindful of your emotions, you see each emotion as a feeling you feel. It does not define you. Each feeling is temporary, it will soon pass. Mindfulness teaches us that we do not have to be controlled by these automated thoughts or feelings. Instead we can quiet our mind, observe these factors and choose to let them go.
Below is a simple mindfulness technique for you to practice. With each day you will notice a significant feeling of calm come over you. You are no longer pulled by your thoughts and emotions. You choose to acknowledge them yet stay centered and calm. Try it!
Simple Mindfulness Technique
Goal: Do this exercise for 1 min / 5 times a day/ for one week.
Tip: Set a reminder alarm
Posture: Upright and relaxed
Technique:
Close your eyes and take one deep breath. Breathe air into your belly.
1st Become completely aware of what is going on in your mind; what are your thoughts?
Ex. “this exercise is so stupid” “I have no time for this” etc.
Note: these are just thoughts you are having, they are not you, just thoughts you are thinking.
2nd Become completely aware of your emotions; what are you feeling?
Ex. Are you feeling sad, irritated, lonely
Note: Instead of pushing these feelings away or down, acknowledge that you are feeling this way. However, know that these are simply emotions you are experiencing right now. They do not define who you are.
3rd Become completely aware of how you feel in your body (physical sensations); is your chest tight, are your shoulders squeezing up towards your ears?
Note: These are physical sensations you may have in this moment. But these too can be slowly released.
These 3 steps take you out of your autopilot mode. You connect to your body. You build your awareness to what you are experiencing in this moment. Now to shift and release some of the unwanted sensations, feelings and thoughts, shift your attention to your breath.
4th Become completely aware of your breath. Shift all your attention from thoughts, feelings and physical sensations to your breath. Take a slow deep belly breath. Watch the breath come in through the nose, inhaling deeply. Feel the air fill the lower lungs, expanding the lower belly out. Then feel yourself pushing the air all out. Continue breathing like this for an entire minute. Ending this exercise by shaking out the shoulders and hands and opening the eyes back up.
Your deep belly breaths are calming every cell in your body. Relaxing you. In this state, you are calm centered and productive. Now you are ready to proceed with your day!
Don’t hold back. You are literally minutes away from feeling so much better!
Try this and send us a message with your feedback!
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Preview YouTube video The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Audiobook complete, unabridged David Harrel
