Spirituality & Health - Enlightening, Empowering, Innovative, Inspiring

We received an advance copy of the book “Messages from Water”, from Dr. Masaru Emoto. This book contains interesting photographs of ice crystals that are shaped by music, prayer, and words. Dr. Emoto’s message seemed fascinating, the crystal structure of water can be altered by the human intention, meaning that love is creating beautiful crystals, and hate is creating ugly crystals.

The studies that were made, were following Emoto’s procedures and his lab for creating and photographing the crystals, so they can test out the validity of his dramatic photographs in his best-selling books.

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Find Spirituality – Positive Psychology Research

March 3, 2019

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| Spirituality

Faith and Religion Bring Benefits of Health, Happiness, Longevity

Psychology studies are finding that spiritualism is good for your health. Learn the benefits of faith and how to find spiritualism.

Recent studies from positive psychology research identify several life benefits of spirituality, religiosity, and faith. Having faith in a higher power is apparently good for one’s health. Not only do the religious or faithful have greater health, but they also experience greater happiness and longevity than others. Apparently, it is in your best interest to find spirituality.

What is Spirituality?

Ken Pargament, renowned religious scholar characterizes spiritualism as “the search for the sacred.” Pargament, a positive psychology researcher, is at the forefront of psychology studies on the benefits of faith and spiritualism on human health, happiness, and longevity.

Another prominent psychology researcher, Christopher Peterson characterizes the religious and spiritual as having unified beliefs that the universe has a higher meaning and purpose; understanding that everyone has a place in the larger scheme, and believing in the meaning of the life that is shaping the behavior of the people and providing comfort.

Are Faith, Religion, and Spiritualism the Same?

The terms of faith, spiritualism, and religion often overlap. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines these as follows: faith is a strong belief in that which cannot be proved, spiritualism is a belief that a supernatural being brings life to physical beings, and religion is a structure for worshiping God.

Peterson distinguishes religion from spiritualism as follows: Religion is a traditional (structured) way of experiencing the sacred and transcendent. Spiritualism includes religious experience but expands to include an individual’s own experience of nature and humanity.

Benefits of Finding Spiritualism

Research studies find that those professing faith or belief in a sacred or divine being, or who find the sacred in daily life:

Enjoy individual happiness and family well-being.
Enjoy lower rates of stress and depression.
Have lower rates of substance abuse.
Smokeless.
Achieve higher academic achievement.
Sleep better.
Have more stable marriages.
Have lower sexual promiscuity.
Are hospitalized less and require fewer medical services.
Require less long-term care.
As a youth, enjoy better mental health and less delinquency.
As seniors, experience higher levels of forgiveness, and
Have closer relationships and fewer depressive symptoms.

How to Find Spirituality

Regardless of religious affiliation or the total absence of religious worship, Pargament’s definition of spirituality offers paths to life benefits for anyone. Spirituality is increased by focusing on the sacred in everyday aspects of living. Even work can be a sacred activity, as can a walk in the park, play with a child or a few moments of quiet meditation.

To take advantage of the benefits of faith and spiritualism:

Reflect on what it is that matters deeply to you in your life.
Examine the sources that bring you to wonder or awe.
Give yourself completely to experiencing the wonder of a clear, starlight night, the quiet beauty of a snowfall, the majesty of a mountain range, or the marvel of an ant colony.
Learn to meditate or spend quiet time in self-reflection.
Examine the intricacies of family relationships.
Identify sources of your joy.

Spirituality and Faith Benefits

Research is showing that people are healthier and happier when grounded in spiritual beliefs. Psychologists are also aware that people can improve their spirituality with the ideas suggested in this article.…

Cook’s House (Print Version)

March 1, 2019

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| Cook Book

Cook’s House is a new cookbook, by the chefs Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson. This book is offering a vast selection of recipes and menus that are completely from nature, offering rich spiritual life, with the purpose of nourishing the body and the soul. Patterson and Blakeslee are partners in a small bistro in northern Michigan. They are believing that the preparation of the food must have seasonal variety and ripeness.

Cooks’ House is not an ordinary recipe collection. It is showing a new way of living through cooking. Cooking is a lot more than simply cutting and mixing the ingredients in a bowl. True cooking is when we try to listen on the season rhythms and live life at its fullest while finding meaning and truth.…

Interactive: Self-Test

February 28, 2019March 1, 2019

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| Self-Tests

Choose a self-test below. Tests range in size from just a handful of questions to several dozen questions. Depending on the size of the test, it may take one minute or 10 minutes to complete. Each question requires you to choose an answer on an to agree/disagree scale. We value your privacy – test results are not associated with any individual and are not recorded, and are presented instantly to you on your computer screen.

Stages of Consciousness
This self-test will help you identify which stage of consciousness you have reached.

Humor Scale of Dr. Thorson’s
Take this humor scale test and lighten up.

What Archetypes Are Calling You?
This simple self-test will help you identify the archetypes that are calling to you through advertising and the media.

“The Whole Person Nutrition Profile”: Your Personal Eating Profile
Spirituality & Health and Deborah Kesten, M.P.H., a pioneer in the field of whole person nutrition and author of the Winter 2002 article, “The Enlightened Diet,” invite you to take an interactive self-test that will give you your “Personal Eating Profile.”

Coping with Trouble
What’s your style?

Optimism
How well do you handle adversity? This self-test will help you assess your approach.

Depression: A Private Snapshot
Are you affected by the common cold of mental illness? Find out what to do if you are.

Spirituality and Well-Being
Is spirituality empowering your life?

Weight Loss
Will dieting make you healthier and happier? Take this test to understand the inner factors that make all the difference.

Practicing Gratitude
To study anything effectively, you need to be able to measure it. So Robert A. Emmons and Southern Methodist University’s Michael E. McCullough and Jo-Ann Tsang developed an accurate measure of gratitude and looked at how people’s gratitude scores relate to their own health and well-being. Here’s part of their test.

Hope Self-Test (external link)
There are fourteen distinct qualities of hope. Test yourself to see how hopeful you are and which qualities you might like to strengthen.

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