Self Help: Too Stuck to Pray

Too Stuck to Pray

Written by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

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Title: Too Stuck to Pray Author: Margaret Paul, Ph.D. E-mail: mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com Copyright: © 2003 by Margaret Paul Web Address: http://www.innerbonding.com Word Count: 784 Category: Spiritual Growth, Emotional Healing

TOO STUCK TO PRAY By Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

Prayer is a powerful way to open repparttar 130700 heart when you are stuck in anger, fear, self-judgment, resistance or depression. When you can sincerely pray for spiritual help in opening your heart and taking responsibility for your own feelings and needs, help is there. Spirit will find some way to support you when you really desire repparttar 130701 help. Spiritual help may come through words that pop into your mind, through images, feelings, dreams, or through other people - but it will come.

However, what if you are too stuck to pray? What if you are in resistance to opening to spiritual help, or what if you don’t believe in prayer or in God?

There are many other ways of opening repparttar 130702 heart, but none of them will work unless your intent - your deepest desire - is to learn about what is loving to you and take action in your own behalf.

There are only two intentions we can choose in any given moment:

• To protect against pain and avoid responsibility for our own feelings with some form of controlling or addictive behavior - anger, compliance, resistance, withdrawal, alcohol, drugs, TV, gambling, food, and so on.

• To learn about loving ourselves and others and to be willing to take loving action in our own highest good.

When our intention is to protect against pain, then even prayer can be another way to avoid responsibility for ourselves. Prayers with repparttar 130703 intent to control rather than learn will not be answered.

When our deepest desire is to take responsibility for our own well-being, then many things, including prayer, will help.

If you want to move out of your stuck place and prayer just isn’t your thing or you just can’t get yourself there, you may be able to open your heart if you:

• Think about what you are grateful for • Find a way to help someone else • Listen to music • Take a walk • Spend time in nature • Open up to a friend • Read personal growth books or spiritual literature • Journal • Do a creative activity • Dance • Do yoga • Attend a Twelve-Step or other support-group meeting • Play with a child or a pet • Get held by a loving person • Let yourself cry and lovingly hold a doll or stuffed animal that represents repparttar 130704 sad part of you • Release anger by yelling and pounding

Three Effective Ways to Reduce Stress

Written by Michael G. Rayel, MD

The American Institute of Stress reports that stress among Americans is significantly rising. About $300 billion a year is lost due to stress-related reduced productivity, absenteeism, insurance cost, health-related programs, and employee dissatisfaction.

This is a sad fact.

Signs of stress are palpable everywhere. Demanding bosses, adamant customers, arrogant experts and consultants, irresponsible workers, intriguing politics cause apprehension in repparttar workplace. While fighting couples, nagging wives, philandering husbands, and behaviorally-challenged kids inflict chaos in repparttar 130696 homes.

However, a little stress is as necessary as repparttar 130697 need to breathe fresh air or eat nutritious food. Stress somehow serves a purpose. A little stress helps a person prepare better, perform better, and think better. Sometimes without stress, there is no push.

But for some people, being stressed becomes repparttar 130698 sole purpose and is a way of life. While breathing and eating are physiologic needs, excessive stress is too costly – a luxury that we can’t afford to have.

How can you effectively deal with stress? What’s repparttar 130699 role of repparttar 130700 I AM principle?

The I AM principle is an acronym that corresponds to repparttar 130701 three practical ways to effectively deal with tension: Ignore trifles, Accept repparttar 130702 things that can’t be changed, and Move on.

Ignore Trifles

What are trifles? Trifles are by definition small, superficial, inconsequential, unimportant, insignificant entities. Office politics, unfair rumors, bigot’s opinion, unpolished shoes, prolonged traffic, and stained shirt are good examples. Trifles in general don’t matter in repparttar 130703 great scheme of things.

Why are people then so preoccupied with trivial things?

People focus on trifles because there is nothing big going on in their lives. Some people, despite repparttar 130704 presence of major things in their lives, prefer to focus on repparttar 130705 trivial for fear that repparttar 130706 “big ones” will overwhelm them. Some prefer to rot in repparttar 130707 comforts of inactivity for fear of failure.

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