“A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being” writes Melinda Beck in a November 23, 2010 HealthJournal article in the Wall Street Journal.
If someone makes you mad, if they say or do something that makes you angry, how would you feel if they then came to you, told you they had a serious illness, and asked if you would pray for them?
Lemmings courtesy of Flickr user quikelopez
Did you know that the reputation lemmings have for committing mass suicide, mindlessly jumping off a cliff, is actually a misconception? I didn’t know that. More about this in a minute.
There’s been a lot in the news lately about destructive flash mob type activity: rioting and looting in England and more recently a flash mob robbery in Maryland in the U.S. This activity appears to be orchestrated through the use of social media.
Does praying change the brain? Does prayer change the brain?
A study conducted in Michigan a few years ago by Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D. at Wayne State University and recently published in Rehabilitation Psychology found that patients with traumatic brain injuries who “felt a connection with a higher power” experienced better rehabilitation. Waldron-Perrine said, “among healthy adults, religion and spirituality have shown strong association with improved life satisfaction and physical and mental health outcomes.” And her research showed that this is also true for those with brain injuries.
Is the public finding better health by turning more to prayer? According to the Pew Forum’s Religious Landscape Survey, 56% of those surveyed in Michigan pray at least once a day and that goes up to 76% who pray at least once a week. Here is a thoughtful post entitled, “The Positive Health Effects of
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Don’t worry, be happy”. It’s a catchy tune sung by Bob Marley. Being healthy makes us happy. But did you know that being happy can help keep us healthy?
“Happy people live longer, probably because happiness protects physical health.”
This was the conclusion of a research paper by Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven
in The Journal of Happiness Studies in 2008 that looked at 30 follow-up studies on happiness and its effect on health and longevity.
“To control negative physical and verbal actions, it is necessary to get at their root, the mind, and tame it.” The Dalai Lama recently tweeted this. In a talk last year he spoke of how a healthy mind is needed for a healthy body. This tweet of his got me to thinking – what are some phrases
Does thought know no bounds?
In my previous blog post, “Science and spirituality”, I shared a new shift in thought identified by Larry Dossey M.D. that he describes as moving from “local” (brain-body) to “non-local” (mind-body) healing. This non-local healing is a shift from one place at one time to any place at any time, and this further trends towards every place at any time, and thus every place at every time. This therefore trends towards an omnipresent, unitary mind, or in other words, one omnipresent mind.
Here is a guest post by a colleague of mine, Sharon Frey, that shares how quantum physicists are seeing “non-locality“.
Guest post by Sharon Frey, Media Manager, First Church of Christ, Scientist
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Rethinking the universe
Living in a Quantum World. The June cover of Scientific American really caught my eye. It seems that for a while now, physicists have been saying yes, quantum mechanics exists, but it only applies to a category of small things, very small things. However, the author of this article, along with a growing chorus of other physicists, says it looks like quantum mechanics applies to bigger things too.
“The choice between science and spirituality appears increasingly artificial today, even from a scientific perspective.” writes Larry Dossey M.D.¹
It does seem difficult for thought entrenched in the material to consider something quite different. But all that is needed really is a change in thought.
Declaration of Independence courtesy of Flickr user kyteacher
Unalienable: not subject to being taken away and incapable of being given away.
Our Creator – God – gives us certain things – including life and liberty, happiness and health. And not only are these things not subject to being taken away, but they are actually incapable of being taken away, and even incapable of being given away! They’re ours.
We have the God-given right to be free from disease, free from sadness, free from anything and everything that would restrict our ability to live a happy and fulfilling life.
Our Forefathers declared their freedom. They wrote a declaration of independence. In it they declared that “…these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free…” They declared that they ARE free, and that they should therefore BE free. They gave their consent to this fact in their thought first and declared it and then it was brought to pass.