Many of us are inclined to rebel when someone tells us what to do. We do not always take kindly to being told what is right and wrong sex behaviour. However, ethical living is part of spiritual healing according to the world’s spiritual traditions. Following a set of rules of conduct such as monogamy is … Continue reading Sex – Is it a spiritual matter?
Some people wonder whether human beings can change. Another way of putting it is to ask whether they can find spiritual healing. I would suggest that the answer depends on our view of human nature. We all know that there are differences in the temperaments of children. Some cry more easily and some sleep less soundly. As the child … Continue reading Healing of the spirit – How?
Tragically within weeks of the wedding, the wife was given a diagnosis of cancer and soon found herself needing a mastectomy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She and her husband needed spiritual as well as physical healing. In his case the grinding role of a full-time carer takes a devastating toll unless sufficient respite care is available.
There are things in all of us that we need to face up to for which we need spiritual healing. The problem is worse if we are the kind of person who isn’t used to taking the initiative. The good news is it is possible to become more assertive and proactive. This is because of our inner freedom to change. In my experience if I asked my therapy clients about the aspects of therapy that they found particularly useful, they often cite the discovery and assumption of personal responsibility. Courage to change arose when they started to act on this insight.
Many of us have developed at least one way of acting that can hurt ourselves, annoy others or damage relationships. Something is out of control. Something needs some spiritual healing. We weren’t born with these actions and what is learned can be unlearned. Gaining better control over our behaviour can be done but requires a conscious effort and persistence. There is an important distinction between on the one hand the notion of resisting bad impulses by our own efforts alone and on the other hand resisting them in God’s strength ‘as of ourselves’.
To many people, work seems to be a humdrum monotonous time that goes on and on involving much the same thing day after day. Spiritual healing is needed in some work places. It is true that being a small cog in a big factory or organisation, it may be hard to see that we are contributing any real service to the community but people can assume that other jobs like house-keeping, gardening or labouring are necessarily uninteresting.
The attitude we bring to a job can have a big effect on whether or not we find it boring. Do we have negative or positive reasons for what we are doing at work?
An occupation can exercise a positive pull on some workers as when it brings its own rewards for them. One example is the opportunity to learn on the job.
Have you been hopping mad recently? Some people temperamentally seem to be more easily roused to anger than are others. Yet, to some extent we all get irritated at times. We feel cross when others attack what we love like our child or pet animal for instance.
It could be something we love in ourselves, that when attacked, causes us a sense of wounded pride. We may experience `road rage’ in our heart, reasoning defensively in our head about it being the other driver’s entire fault.
We might then use our hands to make rude gestures or write letters making unreasonable demands. Offensive putdowns thrown at us in a condescending tone of voice also can get to us. Then irritation easily spirals when we retaliate in kind and the heated things that are said – which on reflection we often do not even mean – hurt both parties. It is possible to harbour resentment for years especially if we continually avoid someone or allow ourselves to slip into the habit of not conversing with them when we do have an opportunity.
Spiritual healing may be a relevant way forward. However making up may be easier said than done. In addition, not every attempt at reconciliation works. After all, it takes two to tango. We need to eat a little humble pie even if the other person does not. The trouble is as …..
According to the Perth Now News, a man bravely tackled a shark to save the life of a young woman. Trevor Burns a middle aged tourist was enjoying a snorkelling trip off the coast of Western Australia, when a 10 foot Great White sank its teeth into 20 year old Elyse Frankcom. She had been hosting a swim-with-the-dolphins tour when the terrifying brush with death unfolded. Surgeons had to extract teeth from Ms Frankcom’s wounds and
You’ve just had your laptop stolen. You are cross. These thieves are a ruddy nuisance. Then you remember you haven’t got a data back up. This happened to an unnamed university professor in Sweden. Only in his case the computer stolen contained ten years worth of work. Anyone would be devastated. So we can imagine his feelings when only a week later he received an envelope in the post containing a
Ten steps to bring the magic back into your life by Steve Wetton Aber Publishing 2007 pp 144
By his own admission, the author is no intellectual, yet neither is he a fantasist and what he reports has the ring of authenticity. He offers us the chance to find a meaning of life for ourselves and he does this by discussing his approach to positive mental attitude and the idea that whatever we get out of life depends on what we’ve put into it. He takes the view that many of us consistently undervalue our own potential. But more dramatically he illustrates his theme, encouraging us to learn from his mistakes. He shares his own experiences and that of others he knows – real life stories that keep one’s attention.
Wetton tells us something of his younger days – excessive alcohol consumption, womanising, and sometimes violence. Someone who hated all the numerous jobs he tried. Spiritually speaking he was lost. But he eventually found a path.
One job he had involved driving around in a little van visiting customers on a door-to-door basis selling stuff and collecting weekly payments. One particular day he was running late rushing away from a house call when he got back into his van that was parked on the driveway. “I looked over my shoulder and prepared to zoom into the street without any obstructions to worry about. But for some unaccountable reason I found my foot lifting off the accelerator and