What is prayer? Why do we pray? The most basic definition of prayer is “talking to God.” We prayer because we are either asking God for something or thanking God for something.
So, does God answer prayer? in his book “Conversations with God” Neale Donald Walsch says that we are good at prayer when we are talking to God, but we don’t how to listen or hear from God. Prayer is the communication of the human soul with the Lord who created the soul. Prayer is the primary way for the believer to communicate his emotions and desires with God and to fellowship with God.
The bible teaches that for God to answer, prayer, you must first believe and have faith that God is first able and willing to give you the desires of your heart; but there are ways to improve the chances that God will answer your, prayer. A, prayer is a special kind of intention. If you are praying for healing, you must beleive that God can heal you, you have to be able to pick up your mat and walk.
Therefore, the rules that apply to the, Power of intention, which are rules about consciousness, apply. Your prayer will be answered, or not, depending on events happening out of sight – but not out of mind. The mind furnishes the mechanics of making any intention come true. An intention or prayer request, sent to God needs faith to rocket it to the heavens. An intention to graduate at the top of your class or to marry the man of your dreams takes focus, diligence and action. The bible also teaches that when we pray we should recite, The Lord’s prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
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1. How deep into the mind is the intention coming from- how badly do you want it?
2. How steady is your focus- do you think about it every day?
3. How fluid is your intention – are you attached to the outcome?
When you perfect these three things, the power of intention becomes real and powerful.
Learn how to prayer the Serenity prayer
Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
God is in the stillness
The stillness is present, for example, in the space between thoughts. When you are accustomed to experiencing your mind only through activity (i.e., sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts), the silent source of the mind has been missed. The whole point of Eastern meditation practices is to reacquaint a person with this source. The more often you dive into your silent mind, the deeper your intentions are coming from when you aren’t meditating. The bible also teaches that you can find God in the stillness. …
“Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?’…” Job 4:15 – 17
Some ways to access this quiet source are: your, prayer closet, meditation, calm, peaceful surroundings, minimal mental agitation, stress free living, self-acceptance and self-awareness.
Steady mental focus – Calling up an intention is natural to everyone’s mind. The key is that the intention be one-pointed, that is, your desire doesn’t conflict with other desires or get dissipated in mental restlessness. We’ve all experienced moments of knowing exactly what we want and never losing focus as long as our desire holds our attention.
Does God Answer Prayer?
Does God answer, prayer? Absolutely, once we are clear and specific about what we ask for, act purposefully, not lose sight of the goal, have confidence and, faith, and do the works diligently; then we attract our intentions into our experience. When we tap into the supernatural, all power of God and the Holy Spirit, then we make quantum leaps to achieving our desires and intentions.
What hurts Intentions? Multitasking, mental confusion, conflicted desires, lack of self-knowledge, fantasy and daydreaming, short attention span, a craving to escape the self with drugs or alcohol and finally a lack of belief in God and in yourself.
Fluid awareness – Do you have an open mind that can adapt to any response from the world? Do you have a mind that is committed to the destination but allows God to map out the route and the stops along the way to the destination? No better example exists than playing a video game, where the player is fiercely intent of scoring points but must be open to every surprising, unexpected event in order to reach a high score. In everyday life, a desire is focused at its inception; but you should let your attachment to it go, and await whatever response comes your way.
In these three elements, as you can see, lies a lifetime of potentiality unfolding into actuality. Every thought has the power of intention behind it.
Every, prayer, can be answered if you empower it with, faith, believe and action. Prayer for strength, ask God for strength to face life’s adversities. The bible tells us of the paralyzed man who had faith and belief that Jesus can heal him; but Jesus was in a crowded place and he could not get in through the door so he had his helpers knock a hole in the roof of the building and let him down in front of Jesus. Jesus told him immediately that his “sins were forgiven” and he was healed. When you, pray for healing, God answers your prayers.
“Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2:3-5
God not only answers, prayers, but you can access the Universal power of intention and begin co-creating your future. The only issue is how far you are willing to go to cooperate with this ability, to unearth its possibilities, and improve the quality of your life.
Greg Orme, Forbes contributor and Author of the Business book of the Year 2020 “The Human Edge: How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy” shares, leadership, tips on thriving in a world of accelerating change through, creative thinking, curiosity, and consciousness. Greg shares with, leaders, how to remove the threat of, ai, machines taking their jobs by excelling at the 4C’s, consciousness, curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
I’m delighted to be here Myrna, I think we first came across each other through my one of my Forbes articles.
Myrna – Yes, I was browsing through Linkedin and I came across your article on, gratitude, and when I clicked on it, I noticed that you had a book that was awarded Business book of the year. So, I decided to invite you on the show.
Listen the the Full Interview Here:
Greg – Well isn’t serendipity great? Those algorithms brought us together. I’m coming from you Stratford in the UK and you’re on the west coast in Florida, what an amazing world we live in. I’m very grateful for that.
How Can Leaders develop the Human Edge
Myrna – I am sure it was an honor to have the award of business book of the year. I know your book was specifically designed for, leaders, but we’re all individual, leaders. We have to lead ourselves first before we can lead others.
Why did you write The, Human Edge? Can you give us a little background on your research for this topic and why we need a, human edge, in this digital and computer age?
Greg – That’s a great question, four years or so, I became really interested in one of the big issues of our lifetime. Which is our human relationship with this machine age of, ai.
We all have smartphones that we carry around with us. We never leave them anywhere; this thing called, artificial intelligence, is here to stay.
What skills Leaders need to stay Relevant
After a speech one day on, leadership, one of the female CEO’s came up to me and said Greg , I’m kind of interested in the, organizational change, stuff; but what skills do I need to remain relevant in the next 10 years?
That question led me to start the journey which led to the book, The Human Edge. Even though I’m in the, leadership, business the, Human Edge, is for anyone. It’s a little manual for your own humanity that even if your boss is a bit toxic you can keep under your desk and it’s hopefully the keys to some of your own potential.
Myrna – I remember when the digital age started about the mid 80s, I was working at a bank and everybody was really worried about the ATM machines replacing tellers in the bank; but banks still need tellers 40 years later.
Should we be worried about AI machines taking over our jobs?
Greg – Of course we have been worried about, ai, machines as a race of, humans, for a long long time. I think the first anti-machine story was written in the Greek age about a kind of killer robot, and of course we’ve had the, terminator, and all sorts of machines taking over routine jobs.
We’re worried about these, machines, taking us over and being aggressive and of course somebody wise once said about, technology. We always overestimate the impact of, technology, in the short term; but underestimate it in the long term.
Technology, ai, in particular has long term implications for, leaders. Self-learning algorithms make, ai, smarter and smarter. It’s very difficult for the human brain to really get our heads around, AI, but, leaders, are starting to get ahead of the curve.
I don’t think most, leaders, should worry about, artificial intelligence, unless your job is simple and can be replaced by a, machine.
Computer scientists call this an algorithmic job i.e routine. You can plan out every keystroke and every process within that job.
An example would be telemarketers, people who are on a script, jobs like those organizing data in a library, even long distance truck drivers; because autonomous driving is really, ai, technology. Another job going to, ai, is customer service, you can never get someone on the phone when you call major corporations anymore. The, ai, machine can have a conversation with callers and handle most calls without the help of a live agent.
Ai , technology will slice away the very routine tasks that we all do, like booking flights or booking a haircut or booking a restaurant. What’s interesting is it leaves a, human, shaped hole for our careers. We’re seeing capabilities and skills that were admired as, leaders, in the early 80s to late 90s are now being admired again.
The Human Edge
Human Skills that can protect you against AI
Leaders, need Human skills, like:
passion,
gratitude,
empathy,
curiosity,
creativity, are valued.
LinkedIn looked at 20 million job applications in 2020. They noticed that employers are looking for , leaders, with , creative thinking. This is partly to do with, technology, coming into the workplace. Employers need thinking outside the boxes.
Myrna – What is the difference between, creative thinking, and, critical thinking?
Greg- Critical thinking, is being able to analyze a situation and come up with one solution. It has always been admired in the workplace. I think, critical thinking, is one of the top 10 skills employers are looking for in, leaders.
Creative thinking, is a way of connecting one’s domain of knowledge over here with another over there and create a whole new innovation or idea. An example of , leaders, with , creative thinking, are Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google. Google is the creation of two ideas from different worlds that came together.
Myrna – In your book you talk about the 4Cs of the, Human Edge. What are they?
Greg – The first C is, consciousness. Consciousness, is the ability to find meaning in your work.
The second C is curiosity
The third C is creativity
The fourth C is collaboration
Ai machines do not have Consciousness
Myrna – I love the one that you started with, consciousness, because, consciousness, is the big word today and encompasses, awareness, and spirituality. It is a great, human edge, because obviously, ai, doesn’t have, consciousness. How are using it in this context of the, human edge?
Greg – Machines that use, artificial intelligence, don’t ask why? They ask “How do I do this, they ask what do you want to do, but they don’t ask why.”
Understanding why you do things has been a very powerful human trait especially for, leaders. Understanding and being able to articulate in some way your own why is hugely motivational. It releases huge power in yourself as a person. We’ve all met people who have a why and they’ve got shiny eyes and go the extra mile. They’ll work through the night if necessary.
The science of neuroscience data shows that we can actually see the brain light up if you’re living a purposeful life or your best life. The brain releases a chemical called, dopamine, which is the motivation molecule.
The other part of, consciousness, in my model is actually finding the time in your day to observe all the, leaders, and managers in your organization. I literally meet thousands of, leaders, each year through the London business school. If we’re not careful the, ai, enabled algorithms that drive social media, our day is shattered into a thousand pieces and we never actually find time to be curious or creative.
Curiosity gives you a Human Edge
I talk a lot in, The Human Edge, about how you redesign your day to ensure that you have parts of it where you’re not being distracted.
Myrna – True, your why is very important. It’s the only thing that is actually going to get you to your end goal. If you know your why, you will persevere when life knocks you down.
How does, curiosity, give you a, human edge?
Greg – Organizations are asking for people who have built up their, curiosity, in order to drive their own learning. What we’ve seen during the pandemic is many of the disruptors that were moving the world forward at a lightning pace have been accelerated.
One of my former clients, the World Economic Forum, estimate that something like every 18 months or so about 40 percent of what we know becomes obsolete and we need to learn new things. So, the ability to learn rapidly and, curiosity, has become hugely important for any career.
So, the magical thing about, curiosity, is it’s not a fixed trait. You were born with blue eyes and with certain physical factors that you can’t do anything about. Curiosity, is something that you can flex, develop. Like the mercury in a thermometer, it goes up and down depending on what you’re doing every day. It’s like a muscle you can build it up.
Open Ended Questions foster Curiosity
One of the techniques I share for, leaders, in, The Human Edge, to help you build up your, curiosity, is the Five hour rule.
Questions are good for, curiosity; but only a certain type of question. Open ended questions, is preferred to, closed questions. I was a journalist once myself and, closed questions, are useful for checking information or sometimes you want a yes or no answer, but for, curiosity, you need, open ended questions.
Open ended questions, are really powerful for, leaders. Questions like:
What if we tried it this way?
Have you seen what those guys are doing over there?
Do you think we could do that too?
Open ended questions, not only to inspire your own, curiosity, but it sparks, curiosity, it in the people around you.
Ai machines can’t come up with Creativity
Myrna – So now lets talk about, creativity. I know that it is like a top, human edge, because employers want, leaders, who think outside of the box. It is definitely a way to differentiate yourself from, ai.
Greg – Organizations need systems, they also need bureaucracy to run them because they’re very large entities; but what most of the, leaders, that I’m working with across multiple industries are trying to do is trying to find the space where there are fewer rules.
They encourage, leaders, to come with their ideas and, creativity. You cannot really be creative unless you’re first insatiably curious. Curiosity, is about asking questions, you’re interrogating the world and challenging the status quo, but you’re also importantly gathering cognitive fuel for your brain.
Creativity is the characteristic of the World’s Wealthiest
This is why if you look at the life stories of highly successful people, they all talk about, curiosity, and their ability to learn as a foundational skill. Oprah Winfrey talked about, curiosity, and books getting her where she is today. Jeff Bezos was a was a curious learner.
Elon Musk is I think currently the world’s richest man. He has as disrupted multiple industries; but it’s important to realize that even Elon Musk talented he is. When he was as a young boy in South Africa before he came to Canada, he was not the finished product. Elon Musk built his ability to think differently and his, curiosity, through a lifelong of learning. Spacex which is one of his more interesting ventures to disrupt commercial travel to the moon and beyond, got that idea, because he was so fascinated in rocketry and space travel.
Myrna – Our last C is, collaboration. Collaboration, is a, human edge, of being able to bring talents together to create something bigger.
Collaboration, is what you need if you are creative, because you need to come together with other, humans, to get your ideas off the ground.
Greg – You’re correct Myrna. Collaboration, is a very human trait to be able to gather similar or maybe opposite characteristics and bring them together to create something big.
We’ve talked about, consciousness, that gives you the energy and the motivation and the time because of focus. Then we touched on, curiosity, which gives you the fuel.
Collaboration, works when you have a large network of, collaborators. Leaders, are more, innovative, because they’ve got these connections and people can help them with their ideas. So, how do you ensure that your network is big enough and varied enough to help you? Then I talk about experimentation, how you can take these ideas and test them very quickly get some data on it and feedback.
Business Book of the Year 2020 – The Human Edge
Myrna – Your book was awarded Business Book of the Year, because you were talking about, leadership, skills for people and preventing, leaders, from being obsolete by the emergence of ,ai. You mentioned in your bio that you were redundant in 2008 and that’s basically what took you on this journey to discover the, human edge. If we learn these skills can they insulates, leaders, from being redundant?
Greg – Absolutely, my story like most, leaders, did not work out the way that I had planned. It’s the parts where you go wrong in the creative process, where you can learn the most and move forward.
Myrna – Tell our readers how they can get a copy of your book. You also speak all around the world so tell us how organizations can contact you if they’re interested in you speaking at one of their executive functions.
Greg – Thanks for the opportunity. If people want to check out my work it’d be a great idea to just go to my website www.gregorme.com there they can see some videos of me speaking and they can actually get in touch with me through the get in touch function on the website.
Conclusion
There’s one other thing, I’ve just launched something that’s really taking off. A newsletter called the CuriousHuman. This is a complimentary email for, leaders, sent straight to your inbox once a month.
This is the kind of byproduct you were talking about on your podcast. A byproduct of a business writer’s life, because I’m always writing my Forbes pieces or my new books or I have got a great podcast I’ve heard or an interesting book I’ve read or an article or a video. What I do each month is I share that in a two-minute kind of bulletin to the people who have signed up for my emails.
You can sign up on my website, at the bottom of every page there’s a space where you can sign up for the newsletter. If they’d would like to follow me on social media, I think the best place is LinkedIn, that is where I’m most active.
I’d be delighted to connect with people. Also, on Forbes I’ve got my own regular column. If you put Greg Orme Forbes in the search, I will come up. I’m writing regularly on Forbes.
Meditation, is not just for Buddhists and monks: meditation unlocks the power you have within to take your business to the top.
Introduction Meditation for your business
When you, meditate, you strengthen your intuition, spirituality, awareness, and most importantly, your own sense of self. As many successful entrepreneurs know, reduced stress is the foundation to creating the business and lifestyle you want. If you are not removing your limiting beliefs and constantly working on your vision, you are limiting your own growth and the growth of your company. You are the lid!
As a leader or an Entrepreneur there is no better way to overcome obstacles, rise to the top or be creative with out first quieting the noise in your head. When you become still you tap into your creative power by connecting to your source. During, meditation, you experience that peace that surpasses all understanding that the bible talks about.
When you forget about all the things you have to do and just focus on the life inside you by witnessing your breathing, you move closer to becoming conscious and understand your purpose. Being quiet and still allows you to listen to instructions from the higher power who guides you. It is said that it is easier to guide a horse in the direction it is running in; so when you fall into line with what God wants you to do for his Kingdom then your business and your life become less of a struggle.
Reasons meditation works
The reasons we, meditate , are as varied as the many ways there are to meditate. In the West, most people are drawn to, meditation, to quiet the internal chatter of the brain and to reduce stress. Meditation, is indeed, a very effective stress reducer, but its benefits—sometimes mysteriously hidden—are far more bountiful. The actual act of meditation can be as simple as sitting quietly and focusing on your breath while repeating silently a mantra—a word or phrase.
There are countless traditions and no singular “correct” way to practice, meditation. Find a practice that you like and stick with it for a while. Notice how you feel as you go about your days. If you find that you have more patience, feel grounded and better able to respond to stressful situations, and are more in touch with your intuition or “gut feelings,” you are enjoying the many benefits of meditation.
I, meditate, by finding a quiet place in the morning as I drink my coffee. I listen to a, guided meditation, tape on topics such as “activating consciousness”, visionary me meditation, “the law of attraction” etc. as I listen I clear my mind by mentally repeating a centering thought and witnessing my breathing.
At the end of my, meditation, I am relaxed, totally open and creative. I usually write some deep insights after my, meditation, sessions and I get answers from God and the Universe to questions I ask. This is the perfect way to become a visionary and an innovative leader.
1: Meditation is good for our Physical Bodies
Scientists gathering data on, meditation, have found that a consistent practice of, meditation, not only boosts the mind, but it also bolsters the body. Studies shows that, meditation, can help reverse heart disease, reduce pain, and support the immune system, better enabling it to fight disease.
The mind-body connection between stress and disease is abundantly apparent as science is finding that meditation can lower production of the stress hormone cortisol. This means meditators are better able to adapt to stress in their lives.
2: Meditation is good for Our Relationships
Paradoxically, while, meditation, helps us tune in and turn inward to our true essence, it also helps us detach from our own egos to connect with others in more meaningful ways. Couples counselors have found when they assign their clients meditation, the couples become less angry, more self-reflective, and more loving.
When we become aware of—and honor—our interconnection with other beings, we are able to recast our perspectives, see our worries in a different light, and embrace gratitude, which is the heart’s memory. The bible teaches that we can’t change others only ourselves and when we, meditate, we tune into who we really are.
Our ancestral legacy is a brain that is primed to focus on negative experiences and has a tendency to get stuck in conditioned patterns of thinking, returning again and again to thoughts of anxiety, depression, and limitation. So in our relationships we tend to focus on what we do not have instead of what we do have.
As you, meditate, on a regular basis, you develop what is known as “witnessing awareness”—the ability to calmly and objectively observe a situation, notice when you are being triggered, and consciously choose how you want to respond. The ability to be present and aware is extremely valuable in every relationship.
3: Meditation helps prolong our lives
When you, meditate, you strengthen your intuition, awareness, and most importantly, your own sense of self. Yogis and doctors both agree: meditating—even just a few minutes of deep breathing—relaxes the brain, reduces anxiety, and decreases depression. We say we can’t afford the time to meditate, but the truth is we can’t afford not to.
When we tell ourselves we don’t have time to exercise, or meditate, then we will make time for sickness and depression. During most of our waking lives, our minds are engaged in a continuous internal dialogue in which the meaning and emotional associations of one thought triggers the next.
We hear a snippet of music and suddenly we’re thinking about the first time we heard that song with an old boyfriend or girlfriend and how that relationship ended. If we’re still holding emotional pain over that ending, those feelings may bubble up and then our mind may veer into criticism, self-pity, or worries about the future.
Meditation, is one of the best tools we have to counter the brain’s negativity bias, release accumulated stress, foster positive experiences and intentions, and enjoy the peace of present moment awareness. A large body of research has established that having a regular, meditation, practice produces tangible benefits for mental and physical health, including:
Benefits of Meditation
Decreased blood pressure and hypertension
Lowered cholesterol levels
Reduced production of “stress hormones,” including cortisol and adrenaline
More efficient oxygen use by the body
Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA
Improved immune function
Decreased anxiety, and insomnia
4: Meditation Reduces Stress and Burnout
What role is more stressful than the role of a Leader? None, as a Leader you are responsible for the lives of your employees, families, and your commitment to your community? Chronic, unmanaged stress can make you sick and accelerate aging. As many scientific studies have found, prolonged stress can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease, stomach ulcers, autoimmune diseases, anxiety, cancer, insomnia, chronic fatigue, obesity, depression, and accelerated aging.
In meditation, your body releases stress and reverses the effects of the flight-or-fight response—that ancient instinct we all have to either run from perceived danger or take it on in battle. Intended as a short-term protection mechanism, fight or flight causes our body to speed up our heart rate, increase our blood sugar, suppress our immune system, reduce insulin production, pump out stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, and reduce the blood supply to our digestive organs.
All of these reactions happen so that our body can focus on either running away as fast as it can—or staying to fight. Although few people reading this face daily threats to their bodily existence, many live in a prolonged state of fight or flight, generating stress in response to bad traffic, criticism from a spouse, or a disagreement.
Regular, meditation, dissipates accumulated stress and cultivates a state of restful alertness. There are many compelling studies showing the power of meditation to relieve stress and promote inner calm. For example, a 2011 study published in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal found that full-time workers who spent a few hours each week practicing mindfulness meditation reported a significant decrease in job stress, anxiety, and depressed mood.
The reason, meditation, is so popular amongst successful individuals is it helps release stress, lets go of excess thoughts and expand awareness. As you dive deeper into your, meditation, you see people, events and circumstances as they really are, not as they are perceived to be. It allows you to have an internal Locus of control.
That means that you don’t react to external stimuli but are proactive with action plans and goals. It also means that as challenges arise in your, business, you will not get overwhelmed; but face those challenges calmly and efficiently. As an Entrepreneur Leader, meditation, allows you to turn your failures into successes.
5: Meditation Enhances Your Concentration, Memory, and Ability to Learn
As researchers have found, meditation, can help you tap into your brain’s deepest potential to focus, learn, and adapt. While scientists used to believe that beyond a certain age, the brain couldn’t change or grow, we now know that the brain has a quality known as plasticity, enabling it to grow new neurons and transform throughout our lives.
Meditation, is a powerful tool for awakening new neural connections and even transforming regions of the brain. A recent study led by Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that after only eight weeks of, meditation, participants experienced beneficial growth in the brain areas associated with memory, learning, empathy, self-awareness, and stress regulation. In addition, the meditators reported decreased feelings of anxiety and greater feelings of calm. This study adds to the expanding body of research about the brain’s amazing plasticity and ability to change habitual stress patterns.
Many other studies provide evidence for the value of, meditation, in improving the ability to stay focused in world filled with increasing distractions and demands on our attention. For example, research conducted by the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center showed that teenagers and adults with ADHD who practiced various forms of meditation for just eight weeks improved their ability to concentrate on tasks, even when attempts were made to distract them. In the world of the Entrepreneur Leader, the ability to focus when you are pulled in so many different directions is extremely important to your success.
6: Meditation Improves Your Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills
We each have an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day—unfortunately, many of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday, last week, and last year. The mind tends to get stuck in repetitive thought loops that squeeze out the possibility for new ideas and inspiration.
Meditation, is a powerful practice for going beyond habitual, conditioned thought patterns into a state of expanded awareness. We connect to what is known as the field of infinite possibilities or pure potentiality, and we open to new insights, intuition, and ideas. And as we meditate and focus on our breathing, we stop this continuous cycle.
7: Meditation Decreases Anxiety, and Insomnia
The emotional effects of sitting quietly and going within are profound. The deep state of rest produced by, meditation, triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters, including dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Each of these naturally occurring brain chemicals has been linked to different aspects of happiness:
Dopamine plays a key role in the brain’s ability to experience pleasure, feel rewarded, and maintain focus. Serotonin has a calming effect. It eases tension and helps us feel less stressed and more relaxed and focused. Low levels of this neurotransmitter have been linked to migraines, anxiety, bipolar disorder, apathy, feelings of worthlessness, fatigue, and insomnia.
Oxytocin (the same chemical whose levels rise during sexual arousal and breastfeeding), is a pleasure hormone. It creates feelings of calm, contentment, and security, while reducing fear and anxiety. Endorphins are most commonly known as the chemicals that create the exhilaration commonly labeled “the runner’s high.” These neurotransmitters play many roles related to well being, including decreasing feelings of pain and reducing the side effects of stress.
The healing influence of, happiness, travels literally at the speed of light. Like a single inspiring thought that goes out on the internet and reaches millions of people in just a few hours; Happiness, multiplies exponentially, replacing chaos, confusion, and conflict with order, clarity, and peace.
Why do we all want happiness? Everybody wants to be happy.
Happiness, cannot be seen or touched, it is Spiritual. There are two types of, happiness: The first kind of, happiness, comes from things turning out the way we’d like them to. This is known as, happiness, for a reason. We say, “I’m happy because I have a family and friends,” or “I’m happy because I am in a relationship,” or “I’m happy because I’m going on vacation,” and so on.
This kind of, happiness, is inherently fleeting because it depends on external reasons that can be taken away from us at any time. Although we tend to avoid thinking about it, we can lose our friends, our job, our savings, our health, and our loved ones at any time.
These are temporary, external sources of, happiness, that come and go like a passing breeze. But real, happiness, can only flow from the inside out. It cannot be achieved by depending on people, things, employment etc. In the movie “show me the money” Tom Cruise made popular the phrase “you complete me” I know it sounds good and we all would like to know that someone feels that way about us; but someone else cannot truly complete us. Only God is our source of true, happiness. He promises to “never leave you or forsake you.
Laughter – Laughter, is a symptom of spirituality. Laughter, is the flow of love coursing through your body. Laughter, is the nectar of present moment awareness. Invite more, laughter, into your life and relish the magic in every moment.
I am a very happy person. I have massive amounts of energy, I laugh frequently and smile naturally all the time. Once in a while something or someone would knock me off my, happiness, perch; but I don’t linger there. I immediately seek out my Happy place. Remember the movie “Happy Gilmore“? You can’t be your best if you are not in your happy place.
My Happy places are: Taking a walk in nature, either on the beach or in the park. When I lived in Toronto, and it was cold outside, I would take a drive, or watch a funny movie and laugh till I cried, or read a love story. You have to know your happy place and go there often. When you play and laugh with abandon, you enter into the present moment, which is the only place where you can experience happiness.
Happiness is love
Unconditional love – Love is a spiritual emotion. Physiology has a truly alarming statistic that states that if a mother gives up on a child he or she becomes truly lost. If the entire world gives up on him or her the child would still have hope; but if the mother is still supporting him, regardless of how many people write him/her off, that child can change and turn his or her life around.
That is why God hard wired, unconditional love, into mothers. The Disney movie Maleficent does an awesome job with this theory with the love of a mother substitute! The message, the only true love is the love of a mother! I love Angelina Jolie, she is my hero. When you love unconditionally, you access your spiritual realm and radiate happiness from the inside out. The object of your love is able to feel that love and revel in it.
When we don’t practice, unconditional love, we experience pain, doubt, and unhappiness. Love isn’t a capricious emotion but is a state of being. It is an experience of unity with all creation. In spirit we are pure love. We don’t have to search outside ourselves for love, because love is our essence.” David Simon
The peace from meditation contributes to happiness
3 Meditation– Allows us to tap into your own inexhaustible source of inner peace, fulfillment, spiritual development, personal development and self- awareness. The essence of, meditation, is experiencing our innate wholeness, the unity of our body, mind, and spirit. True, happiness, is an internal state of consciousness that allows us to be happy for no reason at all.
It is independent of the circumstances, events, people, and things in our lives. This, happiness, comes from the realization that our true self isn’t our body, thoughts, emotions, personality, possessions, accomplishments, relationships, or any other time-bound attribute.
Our essential nature is pure, unbounded consciousness, also known as the field of all possibilities. The attributes of this field include happiness, love, timelessness, compassion, creativity, wisdom, silence, and grace. This state of consciousness can only be accessed through the stillness of meditation.
4 Replace Fear with Love – One of the clouds that obscure our innate state of, happiness, and block our spiritual awakening is unnecessary fear and anxiety. This fear is a negative emotion that causes anxiety, inflammation and pain. The root cause of this fear, is because we are afraid of rejection, failure, intimacy, embarrassment, abandonment, loss, the unknown, being judged, being alone, losing control, expressing our true feelings, and so many other things.
Spiritual Life Coaching can help you release the grip that fear has on you by expanding your awareness to the pure potentiality of your true self and nature, which is infinite, whole, and unbounded.
5 Become Conscious – In my book “Becoming Conscious, My Awakening” I write about becoming conscious of my spirituality, becoming conscious of Synchro-destiny, a term this is used to label that every moment is as it should be, and that there are no coincidences in life. Everything is preordained.
When you accept this fact, then you will live more in the moment because you realize that in this moment is where miracles happen. The bible says “seek and you will find” if you look for the miracles of life, you will find them and then you will, radiate Happiness, from the inside out.
Just as a radiant sunrise can be hidden behind the clouds, our inner happiness can become obscured by constricted awareness, limiting thought patterns, and emotional turmoil. Yet no matter how long we have been lost in fear and limitation, we can learn to rise above the clouds of conditioning and awaken to the source of, happiness, within us.
About Myrna Morris Young
Myrna Morris Young is a Certified Professional Spiritual, Life and Executive Coach and President and CEO of MyHELPS Inc. She resides in Fort Myers, FL.
OUR MISSION
The mission of MyHelps Inc. is to help you identify and achieve the goals that are necessary in order to improve the quality of your professional and spiritual life. At the moment of conception our purpose and personalities are predetermined and set in place. Personal and business life coaching helps discover and unveil that purpose along with your passions and inner strengths.
It is like the, seed, put in the soil – the more one sows, the greater the harvest. ~~~~Orison Swett Marden
The Law of the Harvest and Seed Planting is one of the Universal Laws.
We are all familiar with the Laws of Gravity. We know that if we jump off a building we will fall to the ground. We know that if an apple rolls off a table it will fall to the ground. Only in space we see things floating around. I was watching a movie recently where someone vomited in space and the vomit well ….you get the picture. It did not fall to the ground!
The, Law of the Harvest, can literally refer to the Power of the, seed. You can’t harvest without first planting a, seed. See an excerpt below on planting and harvesting Lettuce: Lettuce can be started from, seed, or from plants. Some gardeners like to direct, seed, their lettuce but many prefer to start transplants and then move them into the garden after they get off to a good start.
Lettuce, seed, germinates best in moderate to cool temperatures with soil temperatures of 75 degrees being about ideal. The, seeds, are small and flat so some, seed, companies now offer palatalized, seed, for easier more accurate seeding and germination. Lettuce, seed, won’t germinate well if buried too deep so cover them with about 1/4 inch of light sand or screened compost.
Press them lightly on the surface to firm soil or growing media against the seed and then mist them well to thoroughly moisten. One mistake many gardeners make when direct seeding lettuce out in the garden is to not prepare a fine textured, smooth, seed, bed.
Planting Seeds of lettuce
Scattered into chunky, crusty soil lettuce, seed, will seldom make a good stand. Keep the, seeds, moist until they sprout and get off to a good start. If a, seed, dries out at any time during the germination process it will die. If you start, seed, outdoors it helps a lot to place a row cover fabric over the seed row, suspended to prevent the row cover from getting pressed into the soil surface with watering or rains. The row cover helps to keep the, seeds, from drying out quickly in the sun and drying wind.
Remove the cover to water the, seeds, once or twice a day to keep them moist. Use a mister nozzle on the water hose to prevent blasting the seeds away. Gardeners often tend to plant more lettuce than they need. Think about it. How many heads or plants of leaf lettuce do you eat a week?
Plant enough to last a couple of weeks and a few extras to allow for some that won’t make it. Scatter the seeds one half to an inch apart. It is really easy to plant them too thick. Then when you try to thin the seeds it’s difficult not to do significant damage to the remaining plants. Plant Care Lettuce performs best if you keep it growing well with adequate soil moisture and moderate fertilization. Water transplants in with a dilute solution of soluble fertilizer according to label instructions.
Repeat this application twice weekly for a couple of weeks to ensure the new plants are off to a good start. A light application of dry fertilizer when the plants have been in about two weeks should take them on through their harvest time. Sprinkle one half cup of a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ratio fertilizer per 10 foot of planting row. Then lightly scratch it into the surface and water it in well. Lettuce is shallow rooted so avoid deep cultivation.
Stay ahead of weeds so you don’t disturb the lettuce plants later when removing large competing weeds. Light, shallow cultivation is best. You can mulch the best when plants are well on their way. This will also help prevent soil from splashing onto the leaves during rain or irrigation. Problems Lettuce used to be plagued by several diseases that could wipe out plantings.
Most modern varieties have some good resistance built in, but at times during wet periods some fungal rots and mildews may show up. I suggest that should such a problem arise just pull out affected plants and keep the new plantings coming rather than resort to sprays, especially since by the time some rot shows up it is too late to do that plant much good with a spray.
Lettuce is fairly cold hardy and will tolerate light frosts with little to no damage. Young seedlings are more prone to freeze damage. Harvest Head types are best harvested after they develop a firm head. Bibb lettuce is ready to harvest when the plants have reached about their full size and the leaves are just starting to cup inward slightly as if to form a loose head.
Leaf lettuce can be harvested at any time from when you are thinning young plants on. But is it best to either harvest older leaves, leaving the plants to grow for later harvests or cut entire plants out when they reach near full size for the variety. I generally make harvest decisions based on how much other lettuce is coming along for later harvest. If I have plenty on the way I’ll pull more plants when they are younger. If not then I may just harvest outer leaves to get more later on from the older plants.
The laws of the harvest can be applied to all areas of life.
The Law’s most popular text reference is from the book of Galatians in the Bible which reads, “For whatever a man sows that and that only is what he will reap.” Most people are inclined to ask the “why” question when things happen to them. In most instances the answer is found in this law. You are simply reaping the harvests of what you have previously sown.
Whenever you get results you do not desire, begin to interrogate what kind of, seeds, you have been planting. From the lettuce illustration above; if you plant lettuce, seeds, you will not reap or harvest cabbage. Thus the reference that you always, reap what you sow!
The reason why some probably do not have happiness is because they don’t sow happiness. When you sow strife you reap strife. This is why it is necessary to carefully analyze what seeds you plant in your relationships, be it with your friends, family, or business associates.
The quality of that relationship is solely premised on the, seeds, you plant with your actions and words. If you plant mistrust, you will reap mistrust. One of the best advice I have every received on seed planting in relationships was “treat your marriage and relationships like a bank account, you have to make more deposits than withdrawals or you become overdrawn”.
Every time you give of yourself or serve another, you are planting seeds that will grow into a harvest. I believe that even if you are planting into a relationship now that does not bear fruit, you will still harvest in another relationship or in your job or in your children! So keep planting.
Another, law of the harvest, is that you will reap according to the measure that you sow. The Law states that: “He who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously and with blessings.”
Once you have identified the kind of harvest you desire, it is important to realize that again you determine the amount of harvest you receive with the amount of, seed, you plant. In the illustration above the farmer planted much more, seed, than was necessary for the harvest because he knew that some will die, either from decease, from thinning, or from rocky soil.
If the, seed, you are planting is for the, harvest, of a promotion then you have to work harder than the rest and stand out. If the, seed, you are planting is to harvest a spouse, then you have to plant trust, service, love, affection, stability, and much more, seeds, than the other suitors.
We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow
The promise and warning of Scripture is that we reap what we sow. This means that life’s choices are filled with consequences both good and bad — Reaping what we sow means we reap only what has been sown, we reap in kind as we sow, we reap in a different season than we sow, we reap more than we sow, but we also reap in proportion to what we sow.
We Reap More Than We Sow
No fact is more significant and sobering than this one. When we sow good, we bountifully receive from the hand of God who is debtor to no man; for the harvest is always greater than the seed planted. If this were not the case, no farmer would ever plant a thing; if he only got back what germinated in the ground.
He would be on the losing end and spend his life in utter futility. Reaping more than we sow is fundamental to the Laws of the Harvest and this is not just true for the agricultural world, it is true for nearly every aspect of life: for the physical and the spiritual, for believers and unbelievers alike. This law works in reverse as well. When we sow evil, we will generally reap more evil than we sowed as well.
Just knowing these alone alone is not enough! Application of the Laws and conforming to them will always give the expected result.
Some people are in the habit of expecting way too much than what they give in. A salesperson who does not do the activity of calling on customers or engaging in the sales activity; but who hopes to get lucky by customers falling in his or her lap soon finds out that the, Law of the Harvest, is finite.
“You can’t reap what you don’t plant” Only miracles supersede and defy these laws. The effort you put in determines the outcome you receive. Always! Another law is that the harvest follows planting and not vice versa. Some people are naïve to say the least. They expect to reap first then they harvest. That is absurd.
You first sow then you reap. How miraculous would it be that you find a field of lettuce and no one planted any, seeds, or seedlings? I would bet that you would not eat that lettuce because you would be suspicious of where it came from. So expecting the rewards before you do the work is ludicrous. You have to plant the seed, you have to water every day, you have to fertilize, you have to make sure the plants get sunlight, you have to protect from pests; only then you can taste the sweetness of the harvest.
Are you eating your seed?
Most average and poor people are guilty of this statement, “we don’t give because we don’t have.” The reality is the opposite however; you don’t have because you don’t give. Someone told me a great analogy once at a party. “If your hands are closed, then not only can you not give, but you also cannot receive” so make sure your hand is open to give and to receive.
Everyone has a seed which will take them to a next level of plenty (with regard to the seed sown). The problem is most people think they should have plenty in order to plant. That is why some people need thousands to start a business while some can start from just a few dollars. I read about a lady who borrowed $3000.00 from family and friends to start her own business as a pottery consultant. I don’t remember the name of her company but she purchased pots and pans and taught people how to cook in those pots and pans. She had just sold her Company to Warren Buffet for 900 million! God can do a lot with very little!
The last Law of Harvests I will share states that, “There is always a time interval between planting and harvesting.”
You sow in a different season from the one you reap in. Most people cannot endure the season of waiting for the, harvest, which is why they do not plant at all. They seek instant gratification so they would rather eat the seed, rather than plant it and wait for the harvest. They do something today and expect results tomorrow.
There is nothing like that! You can’t circumvent the, Law of the Harvest! You miss or eliminate a step and you get no lettuce or fruit. If you decide that to plant and not water, your seedlings will die. If you start watering and caring for the soil and there is no seed planted you reap nice dirt!
You have to plant, water, protect and wait for the, harvest. You plant your, seed, in the spring and harvest in the summer or fall. Remember that for everything you need in life, there is a seed that you can plant. Everything that you have ever wanted in your life can be planted and you will begin to enjoy the benefits of the laws of harvests.
If you plant nothing you reap nothing. Start planting the, seeds, that give you the results you require. Remember if you eat your, seed, there can be no, harvest. Everyone has something they can plant!
These laws can be applied to your Academics, Spiritual life, Finances, Relationships, Career, Business and anywhere else you desire to see results.
Myrna Morris Young is a Spiritual Life and Executive Leadership Coach And President and CEO of Myhelps Inc. You can reach her by Phone: 954-999-6125 by Skype at Myrna.Young.3 Or by Email:myrna@myhelps.us Web: http://www.myhelps.us She is also the Author: “Becoming Conscious, My Awakening”
