Freedom from Pornography is essential to health and happiness

New post on Health 4 Thinkers

Freedom from pornography is essential to health and happiness by health4thinkers - Kay Stroud

This year Youth Week in NSW announced their partnership with NSW Health for National Youth Week 2015, running from 10-19 April. Their website advises that governments across Australia are committed to improving sexual health outcomes and are making every effort to inform young people how to prevent sexually transmissible infections (STIs). However, the website states that they have stopped short at addressing the cause of the problem.

It is suggested that the proliferation of online pornography is compounding the problems associated with promiscuity. This article reports a surprising advocate for a pornography-free society, while asserting that knowledge of our mental and spiritual nature gives the ability to be an agent for change within ourselves and in the wider community.

Who’d have thought that the clearest voice to raise concerns about the film “Fifty Shades of Grey” would belong to Russell Brand?”

In an honest and heartfelt video Brand said he didn’t like the way he felt about himself after watching pornography. So, instead, he’s trying to blaze a trail in learning how to close the laptop and turn off, what he calls, the “waves of filth.”

“This cloud of pornographic information … is making it impossible for us to relate to our sexuality and our own psychology and our own spirituality,” Brand said. “It’s jarring and distracting… (and) really difficult to remain connected to truth.”

Brand is clued-in to the fact that pornography has stealthily entered the conversation, in the media and on social media, and is proliferating like some socially infectious disease. But like many today, he became “infected” by it when he was young and most impressionable.

He cites the latest research which found watching porn leads to an exaggerated perception of sex in society, diminishes trust between couples, results in abandoning hope of sexual monogamy and promotes the belief that promiscuity is a natural state.

While trying to tackle the harmful effects porn has had in his own life, Brand has become a change-agent for a healthier society. He is joining the groundswell of people tuning into this spiritual millennium.

Each generation gets the opportunity to come to their own conclusions about the place of sexuality in life. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s most young people were caught up to some degree in the ideals of the hippy generation. Some of those ideals have certainly left a positive legacy, but the so-called “sexual revolution” proved to many that sex for sex’s sake was not all it was cracked up to be.

Instead, we eventually discovered we could only find truth and happiness in a relationship that was built on honesty, loyalty, selfless giving and care for our partner’s happiness … all of which I have come to consider to be divine qualities.

We needed to upgrade our thinking to acknowledge our mental and spiritual side, just like Brand advocates.

At the end of the 19^th century - an era that has recently been losing some of its reputation as strait-laced - a shrewd observer of human nature commented on the less overt but similar problems of her day.

“In the present or future, some extra throe of error may conjure up a new-style conjugality, which...severs the marriage covenant, puts virtue in the shambles, and coolly notifies the public of broken vows,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, adding that this would fly in the face of “...common law, common sense, and common honesty...”

That honesty, the noted thought-leader wrote, “is spiritual power”, because it has its source in the divine Mind.

She also made the connection between such spiritual thinking and how healthy and content we are - doing better when we take a step away from the human reasoning which chooses paths that seem easier or more self-satisfying, to be guided instead by motives like honesty and love.

Like Albert Einstein, she laboured to “know God’s thoughts,” eventually leaving behind a life of sickness and dead-ends as this deeper understanding of divine reality dawned on her.

In my own life, I’ve found her book Science and Health unlocks a life-changing view of men and women as actually being the sons and daughters of God, the divine Mind.

When we’re awake to this spiritual nature of ourselves and others, the need to objectify women or to allow ourselves to be objectified, to seek women as trophies to validate masculinity or to allow ourselves to be used in that way can no longer motivate us. And the temptation to seek out porn will fade away. We won’t spend hours locked away, wasting opportunities to climb a mountain, cook a meal, become a volunteer or laugh with friends.

The truth is that we each have an inherent spiritual strength to enable us to shut that laptop down when we need to.

This article was published on Online Opinion.

health4thinkers | April 10, 2015 at 4:10 pm | Tags: divine qualities, femininity, Fifty Shades of Grey,honesty, infectious, marriage, Mary Baker Eddy, masculinity, monogamy, National Youth Week,NSW Health, pornographic, pornography, promiscuity, psychology, relationships, Russell Brand,sex, sexual health, sexual revolution, sexuality, spiritual power, Spirituality, upgrade thinking, Youth Week NSW | Categories: Christian Science, Health, Health policy, Kay's posts, Lifestyle diseases,Mary Baker Eddy, Mental health, Science and Health | URL: http://wp.me/p4fkgi-13A

Alone or Lonely?

Sacred Solitude
by Annette Kreutziger-Herr

What's the distinction between loneliness and being alone - between a kind of "solitary confinement" and sacred solitude with God?

If you search for loneliness on the Internet, you'll get everything from articles about the basic need for social connection and interaction to warnings about how being lonely can increase the chance of illness. While inclusion is often the goal, exclusion seems to be very common.

The term lonely hints at a state of being that is remote from everything else. The word is defined as a lack of companionship, the depressing feeling of helplessness, and the hazy notion that the basic fact of the human condition is living in solitude. Loneliness brings with it a feeling of distance, a sense of being thrown into a world without compassion and cohesion. The whole world seems as if it's a family, and we're not a part of it. If we subscribe to a material, mortal, concept of life, nothing feels permanently connected; things seem to be in constant competition for attention and people are labelled as winners and losers. This point of view brings with it many forms of loneliness.

Being alone, on the other hand, is different. When I am alone, I find I have an opportunity to practise the discipline to "know thyself". When I am on my own, I am often pushed to learn more about my true sense of spiritual individuality. I am confronted by an opportunity to accept the God-given good that never leaves us comfortless and to let this realization take deeper root. I learn to express more gratitude and humility for the "little" things. This, in turn, deepens my sense of benelvolence and compassion, and it prompts me to bring blessings to others. Being alone is an important condition for me to get to know God truly and feel the true connection with Love and Love's whole creation.

A spiritual idea is never alone. I love the assurance I receive in prayer that man, as the image and likeness of divine Love, Spirit, (God) can never be removed from the wondrous whole of spiritual creation and can never be cut off from his or her intelligent source. Spirit fills all space since God is All-in-all. And creation was, is, and always will be Spirit's, Mind's, supplying infinite self-knowledge and endless joy. Since Love, God, is the cause of creation, life is all about the circulation and unfoldment of love. It is impossible to keep Love out of its own creation and block Love from being expressed.

At three points in my life, I faced loneliness in different forms and learned valuable lessons about being alone that continue to bless me.

The first time I truly lived on my own was during a research trip on invitation from the Italian government. I was granted a generous fellowship at the University of Bologna and had a small apartment in the centre of the city. This experience was new, exciting and scary, and as the days progressed, my research thrived and my knowledge of my surrrounding increased. Despite this growth, my loneliness increased. It was my dad who pointed out to me that being "lonely" and feeling "alone" are two different concepts. He encouraged me to explore what being "alone" really means. I did, reluctantly at first, and ended up discovering the grandeur and possibilities of my experience. I went on inspiring trips to historic sites, met wonderful people, appreciated countless treats at little cafes, and took strolls to wondow-shop. When the two-month period came to a conclusion, I had wonderful memories and had finished my research project.

In the second instance, a debilitating back inury had made it impossible for me to move even slightly. The only thing I could do was lie still and pray. I had all the help that I could want from my family seeking and finding my healing through Christian Science treatment. Our apartment is spacious and during one particularly difficult morning, all family members were out of range and it felt like the telephone was a million miles away in the next room. The Christian Science practitioner I was praying with at the time had asked me this truly challenging question: If I was willing to admit this spiritual fact to be true - that "the realm of the real is Spirit"(Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.277) - was I willing to let go of any claim of a material life, a life separate from God?

That was the question in front of me as spiritual sense and material sense seemed to be "fighting it out". In this very dark moment, I felt like the loneliest person on the planet. I called out to my husband as loudly as I could, but he couldn't hear me and didn't respond, and the realization struck me that this is what a feeling of mortality included - separated lives, unable to communicate even to others the pain and despair we might be facing.

Much later on I read this quote from Aldous Huxley summarizing my feeling: "In spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody. The essential substance of every thought and feeling remains incommunicable, locked up in the impenetrable strong-room of the individual soul and body. Our life is a sentence of perpetual solitary confinement".

This insight into the nature of mortality - without sugarcoating or avoiding it - was crucial to m progress I came face to face with the human condition, and yet saw that mortality wasn't a part of my true being. I was immortal, spiritual. How comforting. I let go of even the desire to find human help or the desire to communicate to others how helpless I felt and how terrible everything seemed to be.

The door of my thought opened to spiritual intuition, helping me to say, "yes" to the Christian Science practitioner's question. Yes, I was willing to let go of any claim to a mortal, material life. This was the turning point for me. The healing unfolded beautifully as if a spell had been broken, and the same day I was up again for the first time in a week. The complete healing, that followed was quick and permanent.

In the thrid instance, I was preparing for a long workday when I suddenly felt as though I was by myself, lonely, that I was walking through my days helping people without getting anything in return. This thought that I should be sad was such a blunt temptation that I sat down to deal with it through prayer and replace it with gratitude. I claimed God, Love, as the only law of my being. I claimed unselfishness and humility as being the main qualities that comprise who I am. I actively endeavoured to not add one more heavy thought to the mass of fears and doubts in the world. I prayed until I felt confident I could walk out the door with the expectancy of God's presence in my daily life and work.

As I walked toward my workplace on a small historic cobblestone road, a motorcyclist slowly passed by, stopped, turned around, took off his helmet, and complimented me. He said that I seemed like one of those people who did not throw my problems into my surroundings, making everyone feel bad, but instead sorted things out with my own conscience. After sharing these thoughts, the man drove off.  Wow.  Imagine a complete stranger saying something like that! This peculiar incident certainly made my day and taught me something valuable about the importance and impact of prayer and unselfishness.

In all three of these instances, loneliness was challenged by humbly acknowledging the supremacy of God and being unwilling to let the human mind play out its games of exclusion, detachment, and isolation. I feel that self-abnegation and unselfed love are the quickest means to move from feeling excluded to feeling the divine inclusion of Spirit. It is as if our true existence is meant to be pure love - and we realize this fact best when we put love into action. The law of Love reveals and sustains our true being, and under this law, everyone is equally blessed.

Christ Jesus was, one could argue, the most solitary person on the planet in his days - the first Christian in his time - misunderstood, neglected by many, and downplayed for his healing work. Although we know he did have a group of disciples, he was often by himself, but the Bible doesn't mention that he was lonley. His "oneness with the Father" (Science and Health, p18) was the open secret of his being.

I believe that the reason for happiness and fulfillment can be found in this astonishing counsel of his: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29,30). It explains that unselfishness is the way to live a life of fulfillment and purpose. The heaviness and downward pull of self-centred thinking is not only eased, but then eliminated when exposed to the shining presence of spiritual consecration.

So what is the yoke Christ Jeus speaks about? I wonder whether he is talking about a strict yet joyful discipline of obedient acceptance that Spirit, Love is All-in-all and man is the perfect and satisfied reflection of Love's being, at one with God, with good. Man is not absorbed in the allness of God (see Science and Health, p.259), but reflects the richess of Life without interruption in substance, power, control and strength.

Loneliness, or a feeling of "solitarty confinement" will dissipate as we see how deeply God cares for all of us. Love's ideas are truly one family. And sacred solitude will illlumine our sweet oneness with Love.

 

Annette Kreutziger-Herr is a professor of musicology and cultural studies. She lives with her husband in Berlin, Germany.
Reprinted from the Christian Science Sentinel April 22,2012

Discovering the Science of Christianity

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?

“The two largest words in the vocabulary of thought are "Christian" and "Science”,” that’s how the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, described these two fascinating words.  They are often words that cause great debate as to their relationship.  So what are the core values of those who dedicate their lives to gaining a deeper understanding of what these two ‘largest words’ mean to the world.

Core Values

Christian Scientists believe in one, infinite God who is All and all-good. They believe that God is not distant and unknowable, but that God is all-encompassing and always present, and that each individual is loved by God, cared for by Him, and made in God’s image—spiritual, not material.
Christian Scientists believe in the Bible and in Christ Jesus as the Son of God, or promised Messiah. And they believe that Jesus’ teachings and healing work expressed scientific Christianity, or the application of the laws of God—laws which are still practical and provable today, by anyone, anywhere. Christian Scientists consider the Commandments, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, to be central to their lives and practice of Christianity.
Above all, Christian Scientists believe in the saving, healing power of God’s love—that no one is beyond redemption, that no problem is too entrenched or overwhelming to be addressed and healed. In other words, Christian Scientists don’t believe that salvation occurs at some point in the future, but that the presence of God’s goodness can be experienced here and now—and by everyone.
One of the best ways to learn more about Christian Science is to explore the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Who is Mary Baker Eddy?

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) discovered the biblically based system of healing through prayer known as Christian Science, and established The Church of Christ, Scientist, to preserve and extend it. Without a doubt, the Bible was the most significant influence in her life. She was a devoted student of the Scriptures from early childhood and gradually gained the conviction that spiritual healing was not limited to biblical times but could be practiced as effectively today.
A native of New Hampshire, she overcame both personal challenges and the prejudices of her time to become an influential author, healer, and religious leader. Her achievements include establishing a religious movement, starting numerous publications—an international newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, among them—and writing a groundbreaking textbook, a textbook that is so closely tied to the Bible that she called it, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that has brought inspiration and healing to millions of people around the world.

A dedicated group of inspired Christian Scientists meet at the Church and Reading Room located above the Post Office in Crown Street Wollongong.They hold a Sunday Service at 10am each week and also a Healing Testimony Meeting on the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesday of each month at noon. If you would like to join any of the services, they are available by skype.  Just email csrr.wgong@1earth.net for more information on times and skype address.

The Reading Room is open Wednesday to Friday 11am to 2pm.  To investigate Christian Science further both www.christianscience.com and www.spirituality.com are informative and inspiring. A basket of free literature is always available near the entrance to the Post Office, or, ring the Church on 42276916.

Christmas All Year Round

"What Christmas Means to Me"
   by Mary Baker Eddy
  

To me Christmas involves an open secret, understood by few — or by none — and unutterable except in Christian Science. Christ was not born of the flesh. Christ  is the Truth and Life born of God — born of Spirit and not of matter. Jesus, the Galilean Prophet, was born of the Virgin Mary's spiritual thoughts of Life and its manifestation.

God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection— an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection.

Observed by material sense, Christmas commemorates the birth of a human, material, mortal babe — a babe born in a manger amidst the flocks and herds of a Jewish village.

This homely origin of the babe Jesus falls far shortof my sense of the eternal Christ, Truth, never born and never dying. I celebrate Christmas with my soul, my spiritual sense, and so commemorate the entrance into  human understanding of the Christ conceived of Spirit,of God and not of a woman — as the birth of Truth, the dawn of divine Love breaking upon the gloom of matter and evil with the glory of infinite being.

Human doctrines or hypotheses or vague human philosophy afford little divine effulgence, deific presence or power. Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift, — His spiritual idea, man and the universe, — a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ's coming.

I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility,benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing.

The splendor of this nativity of Christ reveals infinite meanings and gives manifold blessings. Material gifts and pastimes tend to obliterate the spiritual idea in consciousness, leaving one alone and without His glory.

 - included her collection of writings other than
Science & Health, called "Prose Works" in the chapter entitled,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany pg 261

Drug dependency - a parent's response

Daughter healed of drug use
by Victoria Butler

When I became a student of Christian Science, I was so glad to know about God's constant guidance in everyone's life. A few months after being introduced to Science I took Christian Science class instruction - a short but powerful course on how to pray effectively. The Monday after completing the class, I resigned my position as a private practice psychologist working in the movie industry, as well as my position as CEO of a large nonprofit drug abuse program. I immediately went into the Christian Science practice because I was already receiving calls to help others through prayer.
                      In Christian Science class instruction I learned the importance of praying for the world, and not  just for myself, my family, and the patients who called me. Sometime during those early weeks after class, I heard that there was going to be a television special on cocaine addiction. I didn't think much about it. A few days later there was to be another program on drug addiction. Again, I ignored it. A few days later - yes, another program on drug addiction. This time I "woke up". These back-to-back advertisements alerted me to pray for the world concerning these issues. I did not watch any of thos programs, being very familiar with the subject from my past work experiences, but I spent the next few days praying for the world, specifically regarding drug abuse.
                      I turned to the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy for inspiration. This book is not just any book. Mrs. Eddy was directed by a higher power, God, divine Love, on what to put in its pages. The ideas in Science and Health are one way that God communicates to us. I have found out through healing experiences that this is true. This citations from page 356 made it clear to me that God wouldn't create a desire for destructive drugs, "Does divine Love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, and then punishing him for it?" I also affirmed man's innocence and freedom from  false attractions.
                      One the third day I felt that I had found peace about this world problem. I remembered sitting in my room and feeling I had covered the topic quite thoroughly in my prayers when my 13-year-old daughter came to me crying her eyes out and asking for my help. She confided in me that she had a drug problem. She was very distressed and felt she was in over her head.
                      Normally this would be a very disturbing thing for a parent to hear, but I had just spent three days realizing God's power over drug dependencey and addiction, so I felt calm and confident that this would be healed. I actually didn't ask my daughter what drugs she had been using or for how long. I think because I had been working so spiritually about the issue it didn't feel like, in this case, I needed more details. But of course, I felt my daughter's distress and responded compassionately, free from alarm.
                      I told her I knew this would be healed because we had God's help - a power bigger than us that would guide us in overcoming this. I was able to calm her fears without a lot of talking, and becuase of the prayerful work I had already done, I was able to see my daughter's goodness and innocence. Almost immediately, she calmed down and was completely receptive and cooperative. I could see she was committed to being free, and she told me there were no drugs in the house.
                      That afternoon as I prayed for my daughter, I turned again to Science and Health  for guidance and found this sentence: "Jesus beheld the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals" (p.476-477). I knew that realizing this was a key to my daughter gaining her dominion. I needed to truly understand her as perfect, reflecting God's purity, innocence, and sinlessness.
                       A vision came to me of my daughter in a prison cell calling out to me and saying: "Mum, don't believe that the (picture of a drug-dependency) is really me! I am good and pure and I am being held hostage. My only way out is for you to believe that the picture is not the real me. Don't try to change me or fix me; that could take forever, instead know that the troubled person is an 'imposter' posing as me". It actually made sense to me as I thought about what it says in the Bible; it doesn't say "fix the problem and the person and you will be free," it says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). So I continued to know the truth about my daughter - that this material picture was not the individual of God's creating.
                      Well, this vision lit a fire for "justice" in me, as it would for anyone - seeing an innocent person unjustly imprisoned. My initial prayers of mild pleading with God turned to vehement protests insisting on my daughter's God-given right to be free. Guess what? My prayers began to work immediately. Her behaviour changed radically. Right after asking for my help and my prayers she was more relaxed and loving, instead of tense and rebellious. In a period of a few days she looked healthier and happier. It was obvious to both of us that the problem wasn't any part of my daughter and never truly had been. She was free of the desire for drugs.
                       I realized that before this turnaround, my daughter had been avoiding me and acting guilt-ridden, but with the healing she willingly chose to spend time with me at home and naturally stopped hanging out with the kids she had done drugs with. However, she needed some new friends. I took her to a teen support group where she met kids who didn't use drugs, and they became her friends. She became involved in organizing a teen center where teens could socialize in a safe, drug-free environment. Everything about my daughter's character changed. Undesirable traits of selfishness, anger, and definace stopped practically overnight. She even dressed and decorated her bedroom differently, in ways that reflected the exuberance and joy of divine Soul. Only two weeks after telling me about the drug problem, my daughter's transformation was so complete that a person who she used to do drugs with didn't even recognize her when they had a conversation at the bus stop. I am grateful for the ease of this healing, especially because before being a student of Christian Science I had worked for years under beliefs about drug dependency being a lifelong problem that was very difficult to resolve.
                    My daughter is now an adult with a 17-year-old of her own, and has lived a healthy drug-free lifestyle ever since, thanks to God's merciful love. I am also particularly grateful to God for preparing me to meet this challenge.

Victoria Butler still helps people through prayer in Los Angeles, and she is especially grateful for the spirit of Christian fellowship she's experienced in the Christian Science community.

This article is from the Christian Science Sentinel, Sept.10, 2012
www.jsh.com

Mental Fitness And Olympic Outcomes

MENTAL FITNESS MAKES OR BREAKS OLYMPIANS: BEYOND POSITIVE THINKING

#Olympics2012… Twitter yes, or twitter no, just before entering the race? Well that depends. It’s amazing what thoughts can do, or undo!

The Opening Ceremony entertained and inspired millions to think – think about the past, present and future. The profoundly deaf musician, Dame Evelyn Glennie led a band of 965 ground-shaking drummers. 600 Nurses and patients from the London Great Ormond Street Hospital for children performed their hearts out. The Koas Singing Choir of deaf and hearing children sang in harmonious unison. Flash mob dancers in all shapes and sizes moved in exuberant unity. Mr Bean’s dream of “endurance, persistence and dedication” in Chariots of Fire (you had to see it!) was so Mr Bean. Even the Queen was a sport (yup, you had to see it).

And now it’s all about the amazing athletes – past and present stories, interviews and reports, arousing the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD… “Are you mentally fit for it?” – an important question from a coach.
Dawn Fraser, one of Australia’s all-time darlings was interviewed on ABC Radio National, “The Sporty Ones. Part 1: The Swimmers”, and tells her story beautifully. “In 1962… I felt I was getting older, I’d won gold medals and I thought that I had really achieved a lot of things in swimming… But, there was one little stepping stone I hadn’t.” Her coach asked if she’d thought about breaking her 60.2 second record in the 100m Freestyle race. She hadn’t, and now she was being challenged to “put it in her mind.” Fraser was struggling in the trials and not happy. She told her Mum that she’d had the worst swim in her life. Mum’s advice: “… just go and enjoy it”. (Got to love Mum’s advice!) At the trials Fraser told her coach, “I’m just going to enjoy the race, coach.” She set a new world record as the first woman to break the one minute barrier for the 100m Freestyle at 59.6 seconds. “And that’s the easiest swim I’ve ever done in my life and I still remember the swim.”.

Today there are all sorts of fancy inventions resulting from sports science and psychology; from medicine and diet to equipment. And yet, the relationship between our thoughts and our performance is clear. To today’s Games:

THE BAD… uncovered. Anti-doping agencies are at work once more. And eight badminton athletes were caught blatantly throwing matches in order to improve their positions for the knockout stages.
THE UGLY… Body image issues came up even before the Games began. Aussie swimmer Leisel Jones was criticized as looking unfit (putting it mildly). There was general outrage in the community, for and against. After her excellent race Jones shared how chuffed she was to be at her fourth Olympics, and said, “Smooth sailing doesn’t make for a skilful sailor.” Cathy Freeman, another Aussie icon who ran and won the 400m race in the Olympics 2000, implored the Aussie public to be supportive, not critical of their athletes. When swimmer James “Missile” Magnussen missed his mark for Gold in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay swim, there was a news poll asking the public whether they believed he’d make it or not in his next race. Scientific or not, was this poll helpful? It depends.

FORWARD THINKING… Handling being under pressure to perform is plainly an individual journey. How can the athletes prevent becoming victims of their own hype? Lose graciously and stay motivated despite defeat? Overcome sickness resulting from the strain? What if the highest quality care is to include spirituality into training? According to ‘The Effect of Spirituality on Health and Healing: A Critical Review of Athletic Trainers, Journal of Athletic Training, 2000’:-

Conclusions/Recommendations: The impact of spirituality on health and healing is a topic that has been virtually ignored in the disciplines of athletic training and sports medicine. Because of their lack of exposure to this topic, most athletic trainers are unaware of the many positive associations that exist between spirituality and health and healing. The available literature base regarding this topic is quite large; its findings need to be explored and integrated into our profession.”

After all is said and done, every competitor has permission to shine, beyond positive thinking. It might be the simplest thing that makes one mentally fit for the moment. Like someone reminding us to “enjoy”. Or realising that there is something far greater than ourselves to depend upon.

from Carey Arber's
www.health4thinkers.com
Carey Arber is a health blogger, researching scientific studies and testimonies on the relationship between consciousness and wellbeing, particularly spirituality and health. She finds her own practice effective, as a Christian Science practitioner, and is seeing how scientists are exploring this new-old subject, and the impact it has on medical outcomes. www.health4thinkers.com  Carey also represents Christian Science to the media and government in ACT & NSW.

A spiritual perspective on guilt

Prayer - not guilt - heals
by Deborah Packer

          One day as Jesus was passing by a man who was blind from his birth, his disciples asked him whether the man was born blind because of his own sin or because of his parents' sin. Jesus answered: "Neither hath tthis man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:3). Then Jesus healed the man of his blindness.
         What this Bible passage means to me is that we are not punished for past errors. Even in situations where we initially allowed errors of thinking to go unchallenged, we can still correct our thought - and when we do, we can expect to be free of any bad effects. This rule is in fact the third tenet of Christian Science: "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts" (Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health,p.497).
         An experience that we had in our family some years ago demonstrates this truth in an immediate, certain and undeniable way. At the time, I was teaching in a primary school some 40 minutes' drive from my home, and my son, who was just a year old, was being cared for by a baby sitter, who lived near my work. One day while I was on a field trip to a park with my students, a toddler rushed up the path toward me with her father in hot pursuit. Her happiness made me smile, but as she came closer I realized she had some serious injuries to her face. It so took me by surprise that for a moment I stared. Her father, noticing my attention, offered an explanation: She had fallen down a flight of stone stairs, landing on her face. He added that she had spent more than a week in hospital, and now, three weeks later, she was almost better.
          I was so busy tending to my students that day that I didn't give the incident with the toddler any more thought, but the image of her face had impressed me and would sometimes come to mind.
         About ten days later after this incident, I was at school giving the morning lessons when I received an urgent message to come to the office. The baby sitter had called to say that my son had had an accident. This time I was more alert, and straightaway I claimed that there are no accidents because God, divine Principle, is always in charge.
         Within five minutes I was a the baby sitter's. As I pulled up in the car, she ran out of the front door carrying my son. He was limp in her arms. A glance told me that he had scraped one side of his face; there was much swelling, and he had a large gash in his head.
         Just for one moment I was tempted to be shocked, but I knew not to give in to alarm or distress. I knew that the image before me was not God's child, His perfect image; therefore, I would not give it credence. The baby sitter was distraught and explained that my son had tripped on the top step in the garden and fallen head-first onto the concrete below, scraping his face on the steps as he fell. Instantly I saw that this was a repetition of the story the young father in the park had told me.
          I scooped up my son in my arms, reassuring the baby sitter that he was all right. While I settled my son into his car seat, I talked gently to him and ensured that he was comfortable and secure. He began to respond, and showed no signs of distress. I headed for home, knowing that he was safe and in God's loving care.
          The 40-minute drive allowed me plenty of quiet praying time. Mrs. Eddy directs us in Science & Health: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (p.392). I realized that in a number of ways I had not "stood porter" over my thought. On several occasions in the weeks before, I had admitted the possibility of accidents - this situation with the young girl being the most recent. On other occasions, in little ways, I had allowed that chance, good and bad, could play a part in my life On page 234 of Science & Health, Eddy writes: "Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control you in the second." I knew this also held true for the thought of accidents.
         The drive home was an awakening time for me. It felt as though I was experiencing a huge mental clean-up. At one point I was tempted to feel guilty for not having been more alert in protecting my though, but I dismissed this feeling, I knew that God never sends guilt, that He knows only the perfect man, in whom is no sin or guilt. I also recognized that these thoughts of chance and accident were not my thoughts. I refused to own them.They were evil suggestions for me to accept or reject. I strongly rejected them, and therefore they had no claim me.
           Christian Science teaches that God is Principle and Love. Therefore, I knew that God's care, His love and protection for my son, was a certainty, a law. Any evidence to the contrary was to be denied as false evidence, illusion. I had read this idea many times, but as I drove home that day, I saw it beyond doubt; it became to me an undeniable truth.
           While I was engrossed in my prayer, I could hear my son making happy noises in the back seat, so I knew he was OK. When we pulled up in the driveway at home, I unbuckled him and carried him inside. He was awake and joyful, and he ran out to play with our dog.
          Later that evening, as I was giving my son his bath, I was scrubbing his hair quite vigorously while we talked and laughed. I noticed that it was glued together with red-brown sticky stuff, and I said to him, puzzled, "What have you got in your hair?" Suddenly I remembered the events of the morning. This was the first time I had thought of the fall since I put him in the car. Instinctively now as I washed his hair, I looked to see where this dried blood might have come from, but no cut, no injury remained. I then looked at his face. He had one tiny scab on the side of his nose; the rest of his skin was perfect - not a single mark!
         Needless to say, the baby sitter was more than a little surprised when we arrived the next morning and she saw that my son was so untourched by the incident. The scab on the nose was gone in a day or two.
         Often I think back on this incident to examine what I learned that day. I know that focusing on God was important. In the Bible, Isaiah instructs us: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22). Eddy advises: "We should prevent the images of disease from taking form in thought, and we should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in the minds of mortals" (Science & HealthI,  pp. 174-175). Later in the book, she explains:"To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for God" (p.392).
           Although I was brought up in Christian Science, I was not a truly diligent Christian Scientist at the time of this incident. I loved its teachings, but I often let the human busyness of life crowd out time for spiritual study. Yet, on this day when I turned to God whole-heartedly, He gave me the thoughts I needed to be master of the situation. This has given me great confidence that past mistakes can have no hold over us once we're ready to correct them and move forward.
         This experience has also given me a clearer understanding of my son's true identity as God's chold, and this understanding has helped me parent more wisely and with less fear. My son has grown up with a clear awareness of his spiritual identity and has had many beautiful healings through his own understanding of God. I continue to be unspeakably grateful for this demonstration of God's power and for His ever-present guidance.
Deborah Packer lives in Canberra, Australia
This article appears in the Christian Science Sentinel June18,2012