Just considering thoughts of a higher being or God can foster altruism and generosity.

I’m not a believer in one or more Gods, but I do find it interesting that just considering thoughts of a higher being or God can foster altruism and generosity – especially in a world where religion has been at the root of horrible wars and atrocious behaviors.

For many years, Rapid Eye Technology has encouraged clients and students to consider a higher power when dealing with stressful thoughts and emotions. Apparently, a recent study confirms the usefulness of that concept.

I figure that what you believe is your business – and ask that you not impose your beliefs on me or others. I think that an exemplary life is the best missionary tool for your belief system. Happiness tends to breed happiness. If a belief or belief system – religion – will cultivate that sense of happiness and peace, then I’m all for it.

I also believe that altruism and generosity are not exclusively the property of believers in God or a higher power. Learning to love and appreciate people as worthy of respect also tends to foster altruism and gratitude.

Whatever does the trick, I say… Read on for details of the study…

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My thanks to John Phillips for this little jewel.

“If I had my life to live over again, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I’d limber up. I’d be sillier than I’ve been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would, perhaps, have more actual troubles but fewer imaginary ones. You see, I’m one of those people who was sensible and sane, hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I’ve had my moments. If I had it to do over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else- just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I could do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances, I would ride more merry-go-rounds, I would pick daisies.” –Nadine Stair at age 89

Reach for the Sun to Feel Better.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered that when you are involved in movements in an upward direction you are more likely to have positive emotions and thoughts; and conversely, working in a downward direction tends to elicit more negative emotions and thoughts – metaphoric movements that match our language, feeling “up” or feeling “down.”

“These [study] data suggest that spatial metaphors for emotion aren’t just in language,” researcher Daniel Casasanto says, “linguistic metaphors correspond to mental metaphors, and activating the mental metaphor ‘good is up’ can cause us to think happier thoughts.”

I’m reminded of the Yogic Sun Salutation exercise in which one stretches one’s arms upward toward the sun as far as he/she can reach in a gesture of acknowledgement of the sun. The movement is also used to elevate mood and elicit more positive emotions during times of depression.

Perhaps one way to beat depression is to simply salute the heavens by reaching up as far as you can often during the day – while simultaneously elevating the thoughts and emotions. It’s certainly worth a trial run, I figure.

Study Source: Daniel Casasanto, Ton Dijkstra, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Why leave your happiness up to someone else when you can account for it yourself?

Sometimes we get caught up in the blame game. We are so sure that it is someone else’s fault that we are poor, or angry, or left out, or disrespected, or unappreciated, or ugly, or fat, or clumsy, or afraid – we are the victim of somebody else’s bad behavior. Because we are the victim of somebody else’s actions, someone else’s mistakes, we are helpless to change our circumstance and must take what comes our way.

Blaming makes us feel better temporarily, but somehow, blaming others never really satisfies us for long because blaming others never brings about a change of condition. After a while, we grow accustomed and maybe even addicted to the blame game.

You can only change that which you own. So long as you give your power for change to another through blame, you are powerless to effect change. You will continue to be the victim of others to whom you have given your power.

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Throughout your life you’ve been conditioned and conditioned yourself to believe in certain cause and effect relationships. Some of your cause-effect relationships may be faulty, however, because you formed in your mind some of those cause-effect relationships at times when you were too young, too ignorant, too traumatized, and/or too inexperienced to adequately evaluate the evidence at hand.

With practice, you’ve perfected your cause and effect relationships to such an extent that they have become automatic – so much so that you simply accept them as truth without question. Further, you tend to apply the “rules” of those relationships to later similar events. For example, the rule that “men cannot be trusted” because (cause-effect) one molested me as a child – taints all future encounters – setting up romantic interludes for failure before they even start. And there’s the first rub – your faulty cause-effect relationships have become so automatic you no longer question them – in fact, you may indeed be completely unaware of many of them.

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