You Matter

Yesterday the NewScientist.com published an article entitled Kids' asthma linked to mother's depression.

I am not surprised. I have relied upon Louise Hay's little book Heal Your Body for over twenty years to help self-diagnose illnesses and - with prayer - heal the spiritual cause.

Hay attributes problems with asthma in babies and children to "Fear of life" and "Not wanting to be here."

Hay's book has proved so useful in my own life, I don't question her explanations, but even if I did, this one rings true.

For does it not make sense that if a mother is broadcasting thoughts and feelings of depression during a pregnancy - and/or after childbirth - that her child would be afraid of life and not want to be here?

After all, a child doesn't have to think thoughts to sense fear and lack of joy, react to it and be shaped by it.

And who would want to be here if he or she was continually bathed in feelings of depression, dread, fear or anxiety?

Yet, I bring this up not to create guilt for these mothers, but to raise awareness and promote an understanding of how important it is to feed ourselves a steady diet of prayer and positive thought.

We do not yet fully understand the extent to which the thoughts we think create our lives - and what we see in the world.

We do not yet realize how the thoughts we think create subconscious programs nor do we understand how that programming - especially the negative programming - works. Yet Psalm 19:12 gives us a clue about how it affects us and how difficult it is to understand: Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

So how do we get programmed?

By words. We are programmed by the words we hear and the words we say. Matthew 15:11 confirms this with: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

What this means is that what we say to ourselves - all day long - that is what shapes our lives and makes them either joyous or unbearable.

In Romans 12:2 we are instructed further: ...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

What this means, is that the real potential for change is in changing our thoughts - what we tell ourselves all day long - from negative to positive.

We cannot - we must not - allow our minds to indulge in negativity. But I'm not talking about sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring the suffering of others.

The negativity I'm referring to is the type of thoughts that tear the self down and deny what the Apostle Paul stated in Corinthians 3:16: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

God is here, now, within us. All He asks is that we think those thoughts that will allow us to feel His Presence and do the greatest good - thoughts which enable Him to heal us individually and collectively.

Thoughts that nurture depression tend to be a continuous loop of ideas that say we are not good enough, we cannot make a difference and/or that our lives have no meaning.

In a celebrity and media driven culture it's easy to feel that way. It's easy to feel very small and as thought we must achieve some "larger" recognition by millions of people to prove we are important and our lives are worth living. Still, we must resist that type of thinking because it is a web of lies.

We're all important - immensely important - to all the people with whom we interact. When you go to the store, do you smile at the clerk and compliment her smile or her efficiency? If you do, you actually improve her health - according to scientific studies - because her serotonin levels rise when she's praised. You also set her up to greet the next customer with a smile and pass that boost on.

You make an impression - one way or the other - on every person you meet and even every person you pass on the street. As Dr. Deepak Chopra writes in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (pg.46, para.3) "There is no flicker of activity in any of your cells that goes unnoticed across the entire quantum field."

Likewise - and you know this - everything we do, say and are is absorbed by our children.

So if not for our own sakes, let it be for the sake of our children that we choose to "renew our minds" through prayer and positive thinking.

To that end - and for anyone who is feeling depressed - I tell you, there is nothing wrong with you that cannot be cured by the love in your heart.

Turn the great love within you upon yourself - instead of damaging yourself with those critical thoughts I know you have - and see what happens. To help, I offer this prayer:

I Release Anxiety About Who I Am

Dear God,

As I think on who I am,
Let me consider myself
Like a beautiful crystal
With a hundred facets
All reflecting Your light.

No one facet is all that I am.

And no one, ten or twenty aspects of myself
Define me.

A band of ranging frequencies,
A rainbow of many colors,
I am a thousand points of light
And I am beautiful in Your eyes.

I release anxiety about who I am, Lord,
For I am as You made me.

You turn me in the palm of Your hand
Marveling at my beauty
And all anxiety dissolves.

Thank You, God.

I feel secure and happy
As I release all anxiety about who I am.

Amen.

©Prayerforce: 365 Days To A New Life