Worried about your health?
December 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Of course you’re worried about your health; most Americans are – and with good reason, too. Did you know that over two-thirds of Americans are overweight; and half of those are actually obese? That’s 200-million Americans who are overweight – which is simply an indicator of poor health – and stress.
And that’s just weight. There are hundreds of chronic health problems in this country, like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, fibromyalgia, lupus, and many other serious and not-so-serious health problems which don’t just affect people who are overweight. What I am saying is that there are only 300-million Americans and almost every one of them has a health problem of some sort – all of which diminish the quality of life.
So why wouldn’t you worry about your health if you live in America? Don’t you read? Don’t you watch television like everyone else? Fast food kills; the air will suffocate you; the water is polluted; and everything else seems to cause cancer, or some other affliction; and the most popular ways of moderating the stress and pain of this kind of life – smoking, drinking, eating junk food, and taking medicine prescribed by a doctor – are statistically among the most dangerous activities on the planet!
Besides the fact that our bodies seem to be trying to kill us with stress and disease, and our lifestyle and diet are only making matters worse, the Sun is also trying to kill us despite being the only thing keeping us alive. Can you imagine all the years people just ran around outside without clothes or sunscreen or sunglasses – without knowing that the Sun only creates life on this planet so it can give it sunburns, cancer, and interfere with its satellites, etc…?
And on top of all of that, our neighbors rob and kill us; our foreign neighbors go to war against us (like we do against them); religious extremist and other terrorists are likely to blow you up at any minute (according to the Dept. of Homeland Security…), and according to most religions, God was either already angry and sadistic, or He is now after all the foolishness WHO created? Is there anything not to be afraid of? What’s the point of even going on?
The truth is that there is nothing to worry about. Period. Ever. Fear not; all is well. Plans are good; but fear kills – end of story. Americans are fed a diet of fear simply because on the way to killing you fear causes stress; and stress causes you to spend money on things you don’t need – like junk food, gadgets, illness, medicine, etc… I have helped people quit smoking who have burned up over $50,000.00 in cigarettes over the years! All that money was wasted simply because the way they were taught to think and be in the world gave those individuals stresses that they only knew one way to moderate – cigarettes. Not everyone smokes; but most people have stress and do something to moderate it. Smokers choose cigarettes, in most cases, because their parents did, their friends did, or because they were readily available – and stress, boredom, or anxiety were present.
Stress is caused by fear; and fear is caused by thinking about frightening things. Job stress, for instance, can be caused by a million different things, but the only reason you would subject yourself to those reasons is out of fear of leaving that job. Relax and do the things you love; you’ll find less to be stressed about, and you’ll be a much happier and healthier person.
Likewise, financial stress, relationship stress, health stress, and any other stress is caused by the way we think about these things. Remember the old axioms, “Don’t worry about those things you are powerless to change,” and “Don’t sweat the small stuff…” Learn to love the things in your life and stress will simply melt away. “Somebody’s got to worry about these things!” you say? “The sick and poor,” as they say, “will always be among us.” And now you know why.
Worrying inhibits your immune system as it activates your stress response — opening your body up to illness as it breaks down your cells. In other words, quit worrying about your health before you wreck your health. Besides, if you had one-hour, one-day, one-week, or one-year to live, worrying would either shorten that time or make what time you had left miserable, scary, and uncomfortable. There is no good reason to worry about your health, or anything else for that matter. “Fear not; be of good cheer…”
The Greatest Discovery Ever!
December 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The greatest discovery you will ever make is not a wooden chest filled with gold coins, or the true location of Noah’s ark, or a new species of plant or animal, or anything of the sort. The greatest discovery a person could ever make is the discovery of the potential of their own mind.
History is full of great minds and great achievements; but those achievements were all born in the mind of a person willing to listen to their own greatness – their own power from within. I can think about airplanes, and flying, for instance; but only because others thought of such things first – and in such ways that great, flying creations naturally resulted.
I say “naturally resulted” simply because everyone knows the only truly verifiable law of human nature is, “As a man thinketh, so it is done…” Other great minds throughout history have said the same thing in many ways; and it is up to us to come to understand what they mean – if we want true dominion over our own lives, anyway. How do some people turn their thoughts into reality — regardless of the size of the thought — when others seem completely unable to control the thoughts they choose to dwell on? There are at least two very different things going on here — two very different ways of using the mind and its ability to believe.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge;” and Henry Ford put it this way: “If you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right!” Both men – great and remembered for very different accomplishments – were simply paraphrasing the same teachings Jesus was passing along, and the same axiom investors must come to understand: “Past performance is no guarantee of future success.” It doesn’t matter what we “know” from experience, in other words; it matters what we “think” and “believe” about the future. As William James writes, “Belief creates the actual fact.”
The person who knows that men cannot fly in airplanes is not the person who spends long hours seeking such a thing, nor is he the person remembered for inventing the airplane. There are certain “rewards” reserved for he who believes. The difference between these men is not that one has a mind and the other does not; the difference is that one is using his mind while the other is using his brain.
The brain is where we receive and process signals from our environment – sight, sound, etc, enter our brain as waves of energy passing through the holes in our heads (pupils, ears, nostrils, mouth, pores, etc…). The brain and nervous system is also where we store that information as memory – just as your computer does. The things that go into our head are said to either stay in, or be accessible by, the brain. But that’s not where NEW things come from; they come from the Mind.
The brain stores and processes historical archives, or memory; creation comes from the Mind, arrives as a positive, uplifting feeling in your heart, and then travels to the brain as inspiration, just as sound travels there from your ears, light from your eyes, and smells detected by your nose. The heart is the “sensory organ for truth and inspiration;” hence statements such as, “As you believeth in your heart…,” by people who are wise enough to know the difference between “information” from the heart and head.
Just because you assume they mean “head” when they say “heart,” doesn’t mean they did. Research done by neurocardiologists at The Institute of Heart Math has highlighted for the entire medical world that the Heart is the source of Intelligence in the body – not the brain. And, in fact, the belief that the brain tells the heart when to beat is also a thing of the past.
The fact is that the signals sent out by the heart are much stronger (perhaps 40-times stronger) than the signals produced by the brain. The brain communicates with the heart, in other words, but only because it lives is it able to do so; and the source of that life, and the information that allows the brain to operate, is within the heart – just as is the source of the human heartbeat (another new understanding in medicine). The brain sends information wherever nerves go; the heart sends information to every living cell in your body.
The next time you say to yourself, “Man! I knew I should have…!” ask yourself which “part” of you KNEW what to do. You will find the part that “knows” is different than the part that “thinks and plans.” We represent these as a little “demon” on one shoulder and a little “angel” on the other, but this is the choice we are always faced with – whether to listen to our hearts or to our heads.
Unfortunately, because our heads are so close to our ears and our hearts are a little further south, most people listen to their brain (“I’d better do this; or something bad might happen…”) and respond to common fears and judgments about potential outcomes. This is why they say, “Think long; think wrong;” and the fact it is so easy and common is why they say that “the path to destruction is wide…”
Dream; dream big; and believe in yourself, your dreams, and in your heart. You can either believe you can, or think you can’t, but the choice is yours alone to make; and the choice you make is the reality you get. The world isn’t expecting you to be afraid; it is waiting for you to shine. So put your hand on your heart and be still. Ask for what you want, think and dream about it no matter what it is, or how big or small. When that thought feels like love in your heart, it is on its way. Then, do whatever you feel inspired to do; and do it boldly.
If you feel it in your heart, it is part of your plan. Have faith in yourself and keep knocking until the door opens. “Knock and it shall be opened unto you…” doesn’t mean knock once and walk away from your dream. Why would you do that at the door to your future? You deserve to live your dreams as much as the next person; but you can’t live them if you don’t have them, and you can’t enjoy them if you don’t learn to enjoy! If you want to live and be happy, you must be like a child; responsible adults are far more likely to die than happy, playing children. Don’t let your beliefs about life, and time, steal your time and life from you. Discover the power of your heart and mind. Discover your self; and discover your dreams.
Seek and You Will Find
December 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
One of the most common elements of modern physics is a phenomenon called the “Observer Effect.” Simply put, when you observe an experiment, you change the outcome of the experiment; you cannot observe an experiment without affecting it. In the early part of the last century, physicists performed a very interesting experiment, called the “Double-slit Experiment,” in which this phenomenon can be consistently observed in a most fascinating way.
In the experiment, it was shown that the outcome of the experiment changed as the point of observation changed; when you look at the experiment from one point, a certain thing happens, and when you change perspectives, the same conditions produce different results!
You can “Google” the “Double-slit experiment” and learn more about it; but the key point is that this experiment defies linear reason and logic (indicating that there is only so far we can go with the intellect alone). The double-slit experiment proved in a highly reproducible and scientific way that you get what you’re looking for — and that it isn’t always easy to explain, or understand, the things we see. (If you’ve never heard of this phenomenon, there is a fun and informative video at the end of this article that explains it in an easy-to-understand way.)
Of course, if you are registering a visual image, you are actually thinking about the image; your observations are based on what you think you are observing, or what you expect to observe. Basically, what the double-slit experiment really shows is that your intention, or thought, is what actually changes the outcome — through the process of observation and contemplation. The point of view doesn’t change until there is an idea (awareness) and desire to seek a new perspective. The only reason to seek a new perspective would be to see if something different can be seen. You ask for it; you got it.
Ancient teachers of wisdom (such as Jesus, for instance) didn’t use particle accelerators to arrive at their conclusions, but nonetheless taught that you will find whatever it is you seek. If you ask for a thing, you will receive it. This wisdom is not new, unique, or limited to the Bible or any particular culture. All cultures have known this; though few people in any culture ever seem to demonstrate this wisdom. More than 3,000-years before the time of Jesus, the Chinese wrote a saying that translates roughly to “Be careful what you ask for, you’ll probably get it.” And every known religion and philosophy is somehow based on the principles of mind and thought; prayer, meditation, contemplation, reflection, etc, are all methods of thinking, and the purpose of each is to achieve something “real.”
Another term for this teaching is the “Law of Attraction;” which basically means “whatever you think about will be attracted to your life,” or “As a man thinketh, so it is done unto him.” Modern day philosopher Ernest Holmes simply said, “Thoughts are things;” but this is no different than saying that “those things which are formed come from that which has no form” or “faith is the substance of those things which are formed.” If you think a thing long enough and hard enough, it will become a reality. Consider living in a world where everyone knows flying is impossible; and then imagine being the Wright Brothers.
So, think only on those things you truly wish to experience. Next time you look in the mirror and criticize what you see, next time you watch the news and have people you don’t really know telling you to be afraid of things that will probably never really affect your life, or the next time you sit mesmerized by a scary or violent movie or crime drama, don’t judge yourself; but ask yourself if you really believe the things Jesus, Socrates, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, and even Hippocrates (the father of medicine), said about thoughts and what they truly are. If you do, then you have found the secret of creating any kind of life you want; if you don’t, then fear not – anytime you want to end your stress and worry, you can still simply stop thinking and doing the things that have caused you to be stressed. “Be still and know…”
It isn’t bad to indulge in negativity and drama; but it does diminish the quality of your health and life. Peace is the only way to peace; health is the only way to health; and being happy is the only way to happiness. Just look around at your life and you will see (just like everyone else can…) what kinds of things you think about. Don’t judge what you see; but realize that you can create anything else you want just like you created what you see. You can’t judge and criticize without thinking about whatever it is you are judging; you’re unfavorable thoughts will show up in your experience just as you hope your fondest thoughts, or wishes, will. The things you greatly fear often come upon you; so fear not! Be of good cheer because what goes around comes around.
It is your life. It is your choice. Think about what you truly want, ceaselessly, and it will soon be yours. Look for your dreams and you will find them.
