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"When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left" Sufi saying

Find something here to make your life richer and brighter on the path of personal and spiritual growth.

If you have any questions about personal and spiritual growth or about physical or emotional pain send them to joy@instantnaturalpainrelief.com and they will be answered on this blog

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Knowledge by Contrast: The Spiritual Way

People often view the path of spiritual enlightenment as a search for the light. In fact, spirituality involves bringing both the light and the darkness together in wholeness. And in truth, this is the only possible solution. In this world of duality, if we try to focus all of our attention on the light this can only serve to increase the power of the darkness by contrast. Our aim is not to deny or reject anything but to embrace it all. We are only able to distinguish and make aware choices for ourselves if we recognise and accept this duality, for it is by contrast that awareness is made possible. How can we know what love is if we don't also have hate? We can choose to act from love and also to respect the existence of hate which allows love to be known. We can choose to be happy, knowing what it is in contrast to unhappiness. A famous Sufi mystic once said something to the effect of 'I don't mind if I ride the steed of difficulty or the steed of ease' ... and in a way this makes perfect sense (although it took me a while to be able to say the same thing) We live in a world of perfect imperfection. Let's stop resisting it.

Have a pefectly imperfect day!

Joy :-)

Friday, June 5, 2009

The Benefits Of Laughter

Here is an interesting and inspiring article I found recently on the benefits of laughter by author Jennifer Macleay that I would like to share with you today... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

For those who want to go straight to laughter therapy to begin healing immediately click here to go to a site all about how laughter can heal. You'll also find an opt in box there on the right hand side, to sign up for a complimentary 'Benefits Of laughter' E-Course, packed with tips, interesting information and advice

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I have been doing some study on the benefits of laughter . The reason for this is that my husband and I have the responsibility of managing a guesthouse. One of the functions of this guesthouse is to provide accommodation for workers who are assisting in third world countries.

These workers may be sick or burnt out or just in need of a break. I set about to collect a book of jokes to place on the coffee table to be a source of cheer. I decided to go further and include some of the physical benefits of laughing . What I found was quite enlightening and I found that my own spirits were lifted from doing this study.

One may question does God have a sense of humor?
The stock answer is: of course, He made you and me didn't He

In recent years there has been many studies and much written on the benefits of laughter so I won't go into detail in this article, except to serve as a reminder.

Laughing is thought to help you to fight illnesses and tumours.

Laughing reduces pain

Laughing acts as a muscle relaxant for example if someone is fearful of injections, a laugh just before will do wonders.
Laughing reduces allergic responses.
Laughing lifts your mood or your spirit.
Laughing reduces the effect of stress by lowering stress hormone levels.
One study showed that laughing helped keep diabetes under control.
Lowers blood pressure.
Improves brain and mental functions.
Gives a feeling of inner joy.

This is just a brief view of a few benefits of laughing. Although these are from relatively recent studies, the ancient words of Proverbs, which is writings of practical advice for daily living, confirms that: A cheerful heart is good medicine. The second half of this verse confirms what recent studies have found in angry, unhappy people, that their health deteriorates. Proverbs says: a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)

Learn how to transform pain into joy

My work as a clinical nurse has bought me in contact with a lot of older people. What stands out to me is that just about every old person 85 years plus, who does not have dementia, has a wonderful sense of humor. One dear old lady, had a long list of severe physical problems on her medical records, but to see her it was hard to believe, she just kept on keeping on with life, laughing and telling jokes as she went.

Although times may be tough and hard, Proverbs also says: the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

For a number of years we lived in a remote part of Papua New Guinea. We had to radio out to a town on the other side of the range with an order for the supplies that we needed. These supplies were bought and put on a boat that took several days to get to where we could pick them up. From our place to the pickup point was a two-day hike over rough mountainous trails and across dangerous rivers.

Quite often on arrival to meet the boat we would find that rough seas had turned the boat back. Or we may have ordered crucial parts for the chainsaw. Then after this long process to get them, we found that the wrong parts had been sent. This of course was causing much delay and frustration. We ate a lot of local foods when they were available, but we took the opportunity when a supply trip was coming up to order in some special things like canned foods and eggs. You can imagine our despair to find 18 dozen eggs, all broken and smelly after the two-day hike back from the boat because someone did not treat them with care.

So how does one deal with these extra frustrations in an already trying situation. For starters we had a deep conviction that despite all these events, God was still sovereign.

We would sit around the meal table, there were four of us, and we would take these frustrating events and turn them into humor.

We would use our imagination to concoct the most way out stories of how these events went wrong. We would laugh and laugh at each ones story. Then we might see who could think up the most uses for 18 dozen rotten eggs. Or what could we make out of all these useless chainsaw parts that we had collected through frustrating mistakes. We found that despite our often-desperate situations that the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

As wonderful as laughing is it is not always appropriate to laugh, and discernment is needed to be wise with ones humor. As the Bible states in Ecclesiastes: There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

By Jennifer Macleay Article Directory http://www.articledashboard.com