Saturday, March 29, 2008

Meditation Can Benefit Your Mind And Body Health.

"We encounter the grinding wheels that sharpen our mental blades many places in life.

Adversity, school, parents, spiritual guides, books,

experiences are all sharpening teachers. As we grow older,

to stay sharp we must find new grindstones to whet and sharpen our potential and keep us at our brightest,

most penetrating best."

Kall, Robert


"Relaxation frees the heart.

Courage opens the heart.

Compassion fills the heart

Kall"



How do we stay motivated and carry on with our lives with enthusiasm in the face of life's disappointments. As humans, we encounter many disappointments in our daily lives. We sometimes forget that we cannot always get what we want. The ability to walk away from our disappointments is a trait that we must cultivate. Walking away from our hurts is like having compassion for ourselves.


On the other hand, when our neighbor hurts us, it is difficult to forgive and forget the hurt. When we dwell on the incident that caused the hurt, we replay the scene in our mind's eye repeatedly until we own the hurt, which then cripples us and prevents us from enjoying our sleep and hurting our health.


A new study from the University of Wisconsin that appeared in the Scientific America found that people who meditate develop the ability to show compassion for others. However, if you can show compassion for other people, you should be able to show compassion for yourself. As charity begins at home, you cannot forgive someone without you forgiving yourself. Hence, the art of meditation should be your daily practice as it will help your dealings with the outside world and can also help you forgive yourself and move away from any hurts that may prevent you from being happy. As James Allen said, "you cannot travel within and stand still without."



"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith."


Bertrand Russell quotes (English Logician and Philosopher 1872-1970)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

In Illness, Spirituality Is A Balm For Your Mind And Body Health.


"God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking.

God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.

God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my soul,
God in my heart.

God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity."

Ancient Celtic oral traditions - Carmina Gadelica


When we fall ill, we come face to face with our mortality. We put a hold on unfinished projects, the places we wish to visit before we retire, the grandchildren we want to help raise and other burning projects we want to start die. This is enough to scare us. Paradoxically, this is not the time to get scared because anxiety has its own problems. It makes us sick and causes our body to produce stress hormones that attack our immune system to wreck our body. This is not what we need in sickness as we need our immune system to help us heal. It is therefore imperative that on such occasions, we find the meaning in our suffering.


The only way we can find the meaning in our suffering is to keep God in our sight. The spiritual realm can give us shelter and peace of mind to take one day at a time. It can make us yield to the plans God has for us, not what we want for ourselves. It can make us become like the children who are beholden to their mother and cannot survive without her. It makes us vulnerable and hence gives us the childlike "faith that passeth all understanding." This is the only way we can bask in the God healing light so we can heal. We heal when we upload all our worries unto Him. We have peace of mind when we keep Jesus in our boat and wake Him up when the storms in our life are threatening to drown us. We have assurance when He wakes up and calms the stormy weather and the seas to make our lives easier. This is the only way we can heal when we are ill. The peace of mind that living with Christ in our boat gives us is the only real assurance we need to heal.



Our poetry allows us to remember that our integrity is not in our body,

that despite our physical limitations,

our suffering and our fears, there is something in us that is not touched, something shining.

Our poetry is its voice. To hear that voice is to know the power to heal. To believe.
- Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

"Man is not destroyed by suffering; he is destroyed by suffering without meaning."

Victor Frankl