From Chaos to Calm

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In this post I'll discuss how to respond, not to the effects of stress, but to the stressful situations themselves. I'm talking about how to respond when we’re in the heat of battle and life continues to throw us curveball after curveball. How to respond when we’re feeling overwhelmed and don't know which way to turn for relief.  How to respond in a manner that gets us from chaos to calm!

In order to do so I’ll use the framework provided by my 3R concept. If you remember the 3R's stand for Recognize, Reconcile and Reconnect. The first step is to recognize the impartial forces, factors and issues that are currently working in our life. By their very nature impartial events do not ask permission to be present in our lives. They will occur whether we like it or not.

Examples of impartial events are: natural disasters, failed personal relationships (have you ever tried to continue a relationship with someone who has made up their mind to leave?), bankruptcy, sickness, disease and death. We must recognize that these events are going to occur anyway and it's our emotional attachment to them that causes most of our stress. We must also recognize that our core beliefs as well as the Law of Cause and Effect also contribute to our stress levels.

Next we must learn to reconcile (re-create a close working relationship with) all of this stress in our life and our desire to remain connected to our inner being, which is that part that allows us to experience stress in a manner that keeps us calm, confident and creative. However, in order to do this, we must (like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz) face our fears.

As difficult as it may seem, the first step in facing our fears is to accept responsibility for our part in creating the stressful situations that currently exist. You see, if we created them then we can change them. The next step in reconciling our life is to immediately create a vision that will allow us to handle the stress in a manner that keeps us connected to our inner being.

Finally, we must take this vision that we've created and reconnect back into our lives. Let me give you an example. A number of years ago I was having a very difficult time with my oldest son. Every time we got together the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I could feel my stress increasing prior to each meeting. Then one day I took responsibility and decided to create a vision that helped me experience our encounters in a manner that kept me connected to my inner being.

It was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. After a few months all of the tension surrounding these meetings was gone. We even got to the point where we hugged each other at the conclusion of our meetings. Today, I'm proud to say he is one of my best friends.

I hope this post is able to help you get from chaos to calm. Here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose.  Thank you and God bless.

Are You Worried Sick?

Hello, and thanks for your interest. If you’ve noticed, my last few series of posts have concentrated on: our intellectual, spiritual and physical nature as well as the importance of our inner voice. It's important to understand that these aspects of our nature do not work independently of each other and in a void. They must all work together as a team in order for us to experience life to the fullest.

In the mid-1900s the medical industry believed that our mind was completely isolated from our body. Doctors treated mental issues separately from physical issues. They did not believe that the mind could affect bodily functions. Since that time there has been a tremendous amount of research, which proves our mind plays an important role in the health of our body.

Now, before you get up in arms and say, “Al thinks all illness is mental in nature.” let me assure you that’s not true. I believe no matter how physically or mentally fit we are it’s possible for us all to be afflicted by illnesses of opportunity. I also believe that a positive outlook on life provides the medicine we need to quickly bounce back from these illnesses. Conversely, I believe that fear, anxiety and worry cause an overwhelming majority of our sickness and diseases. Let me share with you what I mean.

Medical experts are finding that there’s a definite relationship between chronic stress and heart disease. In many cases they have found that long after stressful events have ended many individuals will relive them over and over again in their mind. And as stated in earlier posts, our brain, not being able to distinguish between real and imagined events, signals our bodies to increase the amount of adrenaline in our bloodstream. This prepares us to fight or flee from events that aren’t present. The events may not be present but the effect adrenaline has on our body is real non-the-less.

The Mayo Clinic has determined that long-term activation of the stress-response system  and the subsequent overexposure to adrenaline and other stress hormones  can disrupt almost all our body's processes. This puts us at increased risk of numerous health problems, including: heart disease, sleep problems, digestive problems, depression, obesity, memory impairment, worsening of skin conditions, etc. That’s pretty depressing isn’t it?

I'm sharing this information with you because I care and also know that every cloud has a silver lining. Our silver lining is if our mind had something to do with creating our health problems then it can also be helpful in curing them. It’s never too late and we can begin healing ourselves NOW by using our mind to take direct control over our response to the events, circumstances and situations occurring in our life.  We don't have to wait for or depend on others to do this for us. As soon as we change our minds we will change our lives.

Our age, current health, ethnicity or socio-economic condition does not matter. One day spent in the light of knowing what to do and doing it is better than 1000 days spent in the darkness of ignorance. We’ll explore this subject more in future posts. Until then here’s hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose.

Thank you and God Bless!

Belief, Faith, Sight - Part 4 - Do Your Beliefs Work for You?

This is my final post in this series on belief; faith, sight and their importance in helping us experience a full and successful life. It's important we recognize a successful life does not necessarily mean we will experience wealth, public favor or eminence. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines success as: a favorable result or outcome. It's my assertion that a successful life is one in which we experience peace (even in the midst of chaos) and attain the desires of our heart.

As stated in earlier posts, our beliefs influence our faith. Our faith then influences what we find (see) in this physical world. It naturally follows that flawed beliefs lead to flawed conclusions. These flawed conclusions lead to illusions (which distort reality). The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines illusions as: perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature.

The problem is that we attribute qualities or traits to an object (person, place, or thing) that aren't part of its nature. This is why many of us become stressed while going from illusion to illusion believing that life would be better if we could just find this, that or the other thing. We don’t realize that the solution is internal and in most cases resolved by examining our core beliefs. Let me provide an example.

It’s public knowledge I have gone through 3 divorces. It was not until I was willing to face this painful area and found the courage to ask some really tough questions that I was able to take steps to resolve my issues. What I found was as a young boy I went through a very hurtful experience that left me with feelings of not being good enough, unlovable and not worthy.  This event, unbeknownst to me, left me emotionally scarred. It also left me subconsciously avoiding any area of life that included the possibility of my being rejected.

Upon examination, I was able to find the painful emotions that attached themselves to this event and determine they were value judgments that were not true and nonexistent. Now, when I find myself in similar circumstances or situations I separate my emotions from the event. I recognize that while my emotions are an indicator of how I feel at a particular point in time they do not indicate who I really am. These feelings result from my core beliefs.

Once you are able to clear up those areas of your life that aren't working you will begin to reduce the stress in your life. And as you know reducing stress in your life goes a long way to improving your health. In conclusion, a successful life begins with a belief system that consistently works.

What areas of your life aren't working? Is it your finances, relationships, health, home or work environment, etc.? If you like I will e-mail you a questionnaire that will help you to identify those areas as well as the possible emotions and value judgments attached to them.  E-mail me at Al@asapresents.com to receive this free offer.

I hope that you have enjoyed this series on belief; faith, sight and their importance in helping us experience a full and successful life. Let me know what you think. Peace and God bless!      

Dust Thou Art ….. But That’s Not All!

Biblical Beginnings
Do you know experts have said that anywhere from 75% to 90% of all disease in humans is caused by either diet or stress? This statement is easily verifiable by going on the Internet and entering a query into Google. These numbers lead me to believe that we can improve the health of our body by watching what we eat and being careful of what we think. In my previous post I stated that, in future posts, we would examine the connection between the body, mind and spirit. It seems to me that the body is as good a place as any to begin.

The book of Genesis states: “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Gen. 2:7). My interpretation of this text is that God formed the body of man from inert material (i.e. the dust of the ground) and brought him to life with his breath. The above passage should lead us to believe that man is composed of material and nonmaterial parts.

Not until God blew the breath of life into man did man become alive. Therefore without the “breath of life”, the body is just inert material and as dumb as a door nail, i.e. “stuff”. It is unable to function purposefully without some type of guidance. The question becomes “who or what tells the body what to do and what does the health of the body have to do with biblical scripture”?

Health & Wellness
A restatement of the opening sentence of this post would be as follows: “We, as humans, are placing our bodies in a state of “dis-ease” by what we eat and think and how we allow our circumstances to affect us”. If this is true, then something is making our bodies place us in this predicament. I submit to you that that something is our mind.

Our mind is the thinking, reasoning part of ourselves that signals the body into action. We all know that cookies are good, but if we only ate cookies every day, after a while our bodies would become sick. As a result we try to balance what we feed our bodies with nutritious daily helpings from the different food groups. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

Additionally, my oldest son made an interesting statement on his Face book page a few weeks ago. He quoted Scipio Africanus (a Roman General) who said:”I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 96% how I react to it.” You see, my friend, much of the stress in our lives comes from how we respond to the circumstances in our lives. It is a well known fact that stress which continues unrelieved over a period of time has a devastating effect upon the health of the body.

As A Man Thinks in His Heart….
Proverbs 23:7 states: "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is."

Change your thoughts and you will change your world!

We will focus on the benefits of controlling/changing our thoughts in my next post.

Peace….Al