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Archive for the ‘Beverly Goldsmith’ Category
How to be resilient in tough times 1 comment
Be comforted and comforting. It’s good for your health 1 comment
Sometimes life can seem too hard to bear. When this happens we need to be comforted – to receive a gentle hug, comforting words, a helping hand, or other supportive actions. Such compassionate and thoughtful attention can lessen grief, make distress seem lighter, and bring healing relief. These tender outcomes demonstrate how allowing yourself to be comforted, or giving comfort to someone else, is beneficial, and therefore is good for your health.
BE COMFORTED BY OTHERS
When difficult times come along, being comforted by a family member, friend or work colleague, can help ease feelings of sorrow, reduce worry, strengthen courage and inspire hope.
TIPS:
– Humbly accept someone’s gift of caring. Comfort is love. It’s a spiritual quality that soothes hurt and brings peace. Never be too proud to be comforted by others.
– Allow the comfort of others to inspire you. Comfort is hope. It’s courage to overcome trouble through the uplifting “wisdom, Truth, or Love — [that] blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort… ”. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health p. 234
– If you’re alone. Don’t feel comfortless. There‘s a divine Love always present with you. And just like a mother, that Love is supporting, comforting and strengthening you, now and always.
BE COMFORTING TO OTHERS
Bless others. Comfort them. Help restore their wellbeing, contentment and security.
TIPS:
– Comfort your children. In times of tragedy remind them that good is always present. Fred Rogers, a popular American children’s’ TV show host, relates how as a boy when he saw scary things in the news, his mother would say to him, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping”. To this day, especially in times of disaster, he says, “I remember my mother’s words, and I’m always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”
– Express your mothering qualities. Never withhold comforting words or actions. Be ready to console, reassure, encourage. Reach out to others through the divine Love “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received”. The Bible,
II Corinthians 1:4
– Be brave. Put aside any doubts. Do what you can to lessen someone’s sorrow. Don’t hold back. No matter how small or simple you think your words or actions are, be assured that if they come from your heart, they will be just right. You can be comforted and comforting. It’s good for your health.
ABOUT THE EXPERT:
Beverly Goldsmith writes about the connection between spirituality and health and is a Practitioner and Teacher of Christian Science healing. Twitter: @GoldsmithBev
Embrace life changes! It’s good for your health. Leave a comment
Like the weather, some changes in life are unpredictable. They can be surprising, unforeseen – like suddenly being promoted at work, or becoming a parent for the first time. While a life-changing event can be exciting, others can be hard to cope with – especially if they’re unexpectedly thrust upon you. One way to deal with stormy life-changing events, is to change up one’s thinking, take positive action and embrace life changes! Doing so is good for your health.
EMBRACE CHANGE
When something you’ve loved is snatched away, feelings of hurt and disappointment can rain down upon you. You wonder how to carry on. When this happens, it’s time to use the umbrella of spiritual-type thinking to shelter your heart, restore peace of mind and move you forward to happiness and healing.
TIPS:
– Rather than standing under the grey clouds of disappointment and discouragement, lift up your thinking. Have courage. Embrace the change. Open your heart and welcome the good that lies ahead.
– Don’t begrudge the experience of a life change. Instead, focus on what you’ve gained, rather than what you’ve been forced to give up.
– Remember with thankfulness all that you’ve achieved, and what you can still do, and be.
– Realize that change doesn’t end things. Look past any unhappiness to the new opportunities that lie ahead. Change can be a stepping-stone to fresh prospects.
– Weather a stormy life-change. Be brave. Work on, and await the outcome. You can “steer safely amid the storm”. Mary Baker Eddy – Science and Health p.67
– Be encouraged, strengthened and reassured. You have within you the spiritual qualities of buoyancy, adaptability, and resilience. You will bounce back. You’ve been created to be mentally and emotionally strong. You can handle changed circumstances with grace and poise, and be triumphant.
– Let this poem comfort and help you embrace life changes. You’ll find it’s good for your health.
“In heavenly Love abiding, No change my heart shall fear; And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here. The storm may roar without me, My heart may low be laid; But God [divine Love] is round about me, And can I be dismayed?
Green pastures are before me, Which yet I have not seen; Bright skies will soon be o’er me, Where darkest clouds have been. My hope I cannot measure, My path in life is free; My Father has my treasure, And He will walk with me.” Anna L. Waring – In heavenly love abiding.
ABOUT THE EXPERT:
Beverly Goldsmith writes on the connection between spirituality and health and is a Practitioner and Teacher of Christian Science healing. Twitter: @GoldsmithBev
Have More Patience! It’s Good for Your Health Leave a comment
At this time of year, life can be very hectic. Holidays are over. It’s back-to-school and back-to-work time for many families. Teachers are making preparations. Parents are working hard to establish a smooth daily routine that enables them to get their children up and out-the-door on time. Such an undertaking can be a challenge! As one father said, “Getting kids ready for school each day would test the patience of a Saint”. What’s the answer? Have MORE patience. It’s good for your health.
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HAVE MORE PATIENCE
Teachers, parents, and child-minding grandparents, often need truckloads of patience. Why? Because this relationship-smoothing, health-giving quality of thought produces well-balanced, harmonious, daily activity. It fosters calmness, and enables us to be tolerant of delays or problems, without becoming angry or upset. Patience is so valuable and needed these days that it’s considered to be a virtue – a character trait that’s not only morally good, but very desirable in every person.
TIPS
– Overcome frustrating family situations with patience. Stay calm. Don’t let anyone or anything upset you.
– Master the art of patience. Embrace it more fully. Patience helps build emotional and spiritual maturity. It produces a better balanced mental state and attitude to family life. It enables you to move through stressful times with grace and poise.
– Have patience with learning, and with learners. Be prepared to teach kids what they have to do as part of the daily routine. Establish a logical order for the day ahead. In time you’ll build helpful attitudes and practices, and achieve a smooth running household.
– In dealing with a difficult, or grumpy family member, resist the impulse to react. Stay calm-and-collected. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” Bible James 1:19
– Remind yourself that you have an abundance of self-control. You have patience. You’ve been created a cool, composed, unruffled person. You have equanimity – evenness of mind. You’re mentally balanced.
– If confronted with willfulness or disobedience, take a deep breath. Stay loving. A loving attitude helps you stay patient, calm. It helps you keep an emotional balance. Love “…is not easily provoked”. Bible 1 Corinthians 13:5
– Remember what’s most needed from all of us – parents, children and teachers, is “… growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.” – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health p.4
– Be calm. Resolve delays or problems without becoming angry or upset. Be proactive. Have MORE patience. You’ll find it’s good for your health.
This article was contributed by Beverly Goldsmith who is a former secondary school teacher and is now a health blogger and a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science healing.
Memory and Good Mental Health 1 comment
Memory is an important faculty for coping with daily life and an essential ingredient for maintaining good mental health. Being able to retain and recall information, ideas, or instructions, is essential in caring for one’s self, completing jobs at home, or undertaking tasks at work. The notion that this capability is diminishing, or that it could be lost completely, can produce debilitating anxiety or extreme fear.
So concerning is this issue for mature aged people, that even small memory lapses, such as not remembering a person’s name, are worrying. They’re concerned that perhaps they’ve inherited a poor memory, that the ability to recall information is diminishing with age, or that it is being lost entirely through disease.
Since thought and experience are closely connected, it follows that if someone believes that memory is threatened by any or all of these scenarios, then the fear of losing it appears understandable. But no one has to fear losing their thinking capacity—or any other capacity, for that matter.
From a physiological standpoint, memory is believed to reside in a fleshly brain that may or may not be healthy; that matter is the source or manager of intelligence because it supposedly thinks, and remembers. But what if memory was actually spiritual, ageless, and always intact? What if a person was totally exempt from theories that predict the inevitable decline of the body and subsequent loss of mental capacity? What if it was possible to overcome the fear of not having instant recall, and even to improve one’s mental capacity? Is this something that’s achievable?
Mary Baker Eddy, a great thinker, author, and religious leader who lived to her nineties, thought so. She writes in her book, Science and Health, “If delusion says, ‘I have lost my memory,’ contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.” p.407
How reassuring to be told, that no matter what your age, the capacity to retain needed knowledge is always present. There’s no need to be afraid. Not remembering where one put the car keys, does not have to indicate aging, or the presence of disease!
The source of intelligence and wisdom is from divine Mind. The ability to think, is in, and of, Spirit. Memory, that is, the facility to recollect information, is thus a spiritually mental faculty. That capacity is not something that’s here today, and gone tomorrow. The divine Mind that created each person to be intelligent, to reason, think, and remember, also keeps each person’s thinking intact. Thus ideas, along with instant recall, are permanent in everyone.
I discovered this several years ago when I was employed to speak at various public venues, as well as on radio and television programs. There was a lot of material to remember for these presentations. Fear of forgetting crept in. I addressed the dread of short-term or long-term memory loss, from a spiritual standpoint. I gave up the notion that remembering is associated with a material brain, and affirmed that memory is a permanent spiritual faculty. When the fear of not retaining information was removed, I spoke freely and recalled ideas and information readily.
Thinking of one’s self in spiritual terms, means age and decline are no longer a threat to memory or continued good mental health. Right now it’s possible to stop being afraid of forgetting. Anyone can utilize this spiritual approach. They can affirm, accept, believe in, and expect to have excellent memory – always.
This article, Memory and Good Mental Health, by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site, Spirituality and Health Connect. Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
Mentally Soar! It’s good for your health Leave a comment
Feeling down-in the-dumps is not uncommon. But when dejection strikes, it’s time to fire-up your “thought-burners”, experience that mental lift-off which allows your spirits to rise, and mentally soar above despondency. Such action is good for your health.
Let your thought rise.
Four colorful hot air balloons hovered over the Melbourne Cricket Ground. From my 20th floor room, I watched them soar upward and away with effortless ease. This reminded me how to rise out of gloom when our spirits nose-dive.
TIP:
- Take on board the thought-soaring fuels of hope and gratitude.
- Ignite the spark of hope that exists in thinking to help you rise above negative feelings.
- Fire-up hopefulness and be confident, optimistic, and expectant of good.
- Accelerate your emotional lift-off by allowing gratitude to warm-up your heart and mind.
- Be grateful for the good times you’ve had, and for those ahead. Gratitude prepares you to receive further good in your life.
Believe you can soar.
American singer R Kelly says in his Grammy-award winning song “I believe I Can Fly” that with belief, everyone can soar.
TIP:
- Let your spirits soar with the mental energy of firm belief.
- Be confident that “All things are possible to him who believes.” (The Scriptures – Mark 9:23)
- Believe that if others can be happy, then you can too.
Elevate thinking.
One morning, two men went fishing in a rowboat. By afternoon, they were surrounded by thick fog and couldn’t see land. As they drifted out to sea, one man decided to stand up. Instantly his head rose above the low-level fog. From his elevated position he saw the shoreline. They rowed to safety.
TIP:
- Make the effort to elevate thinking. Don’t stay resigned to negative feelings. Stand up to them.
- Let your thought soar effortlessly above the fog of gloomy thinking.
- Raise your spirits. Expect to “Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good.” (Science and Health. Mary Baker Eddy.)
This article, Mentally Soar! It’s Good For Your Health, by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site, Spirituality and Health Connect. Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
Detox your mind. It’s good for your health Leave a comment
Detoxing one’s body it seems, has become as popular as visiting a health spa to be massaged, mud-packed or steamed. Yet cleansing the body inside and out, is not all we can do to be healthier. It can also be beneficial to detox your mind. Such action is good for your health – both mental and physical.
From time-to-time negative feelings, when unchecked, can build up to alarming levels of distress in thinking. Without a good clean out, unhealthy emotions such as hurt and anger can fester away, spoiling a person’s good nature, destroying their peace of mind, and damaging their wellbeing.
Flush out corrosive feelings
There’s an ancient story about a woman who was forced to leave her home and country. Filled with resentment at this incident in her life, she was unable to mentally move forward and looked back in anger. In so doing, she turned herself into a “pillar of salt” – she became permanently embittered by what she perceived as the wrong done to her.
TIP:
● Avoid the mistake of harbouring destructive feelings such as resentment and estrangement.
● When showering, don’t just think about keeping the body externally clean. Look within.
● Use a mental-loofah to scrub and exfoliate dead-end thinking.
● Gently wash away any build-up of disappointment or bitterness.
● Rinse off unhappy thoughts about the past.
● Allow calming, comforting, reassuring, and peace-encouraging ideas to flow into thinking.
Cleanse wounded feelings.
Soaking one’s thinking in past insults or hurtful comments is not health-giving. Imagine how freeing it would feel if the memory of unkind words or deeds were erased from thinking.
TIP:
● If someone has personally said or done something mean, rather than rehearsing the unkindness, mentally pull the plug on it. Let unpleasant memories flow down the drain – right out of thinking.
● Dwell on good things that have taken place – a spontaneous hug from a child, a kindness received.
● Embrace this advice. “Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
● “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” (Science and Health, p. 261, Mary Baker Eddy)
Purify thinking
It’s long been considered that hatred is toxic. So too are harsh thoughts and acidic attitudes, holding a grudge, or seeking revenge. These eat away at the fabric of one’s thinking and good health. That’s why it’s helpful to detox the mind.
TIP:
● Hatred requires feeding to flourish so starve it of nourishment.
● Snuff out the desire for revenge – to verbally or physically retaliate. Refuse to give it oxygen, or breath.
● Filter out unwholesome emotions and attitudes.
● Pour into thinking the health-bringing, health-sustaining qualities of love, forgiveness, mercy, and kindness.
● Make time to meditate, purify and regenerate thinking. It’s good for your health.
This article, Detox your mind. It’s good for your health, by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site, Spirituality and Health Connect . Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
Is Your Health Growing Older by the Minute? Leave a comment
Is time speeding up? Not really, but it sure feels that way. Everywhere I hear people saying, ‘Where has the month gone?’ Is it just “oldies” that feel this way? Apparently not. Even the younger-set are surprised at how quickly the days fly-by.
It makes you think about the passage of time and what it means for one’s health and life-style. As one diner in my local food-court was heard to say, “I’m getting older with each tick of the clock.” It’s a bit depressing when one looks at aging that way. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite what we may think, there’s no evidence to suggest that time is toxic to us humans.
In an article for the Seattle Times, Richard Cutler of the National Institute of Health’s Gerontology Research Center states, “aging is unnatural… there may be no immutable biological law that decrees human beings have to get old and sick and die.” And in the same newspaper article, university biochemist Elliott Crooke says, “There is no clear reason why aging starts to occur. By design, the body should go on forever.”
If the remarks of those scientists are accepted, then aging is not caused by the number of sunrises and sunsets we accumulate, nor does this have to negatively impact our mental or bodily health. It would seem entirely possible for our faculties, mental alertness, energy and wellness to remain intact – in spite of the rotation of the earth around the sun.
So what makes us think that an aging body is related to how many birthdays we’ve had? Perhaps it’s because of what we see, read and hear about aging from a variety of sources – including drug companies, the media, and people we know. Examples of advanced years being accompanied by decline tend to be more prevalent than stories of mature people being active and useful in later years. Yet from time-to-time we come across inspiring individuals – past and present, who have overcome the limitations traditionally associated with old age. Clara Barton (1821 – 1912) was one such person.
Barton founded the Red Cross in America and she worked tirelessly into her nineties. She not only believed that we can live longer, useful lives, but she did just that herself. In an interview with Viola Rogers – a journalist for the New York American, Barton explains her viewpoint on not letting the age-clock beat us into submission.
“Most troubles are exaggerated by the mental attitude, if not entirely caused by them. … Now it has been my plan in life never to celebrate or make anything of birthday anniversaries, because this only depresses and exaggerates the passing of years. The mind is so constructed that we have become firmly convinced that after a certain length of time we cease to be useful, and when our birthday calendar indicates that we have reached or are nearing that time, we become lax in our work and finally cease to accomplish; not because we feel in reality that we are no longer useful, but because we are supposed by all laws and dictums to have finished the span of life allotted to work. Birthday celebrations after one is ten are without any value, and what is more, I verily believe that they are harmful.”
Barton continues in the interview with this good advice. “Let your life be counted by the mile-stones of achievement and not by the timepiece of years. We would all be younger if that were so, and would live to be much older than we do at the present time. … To-day I feel as young in my own mind as I did a half century ago, and that is because I have not folded my hands and given up, and have also given up the thought that I was not as useful as I had been in other years.”
There are many other individuals – famous and not so famous, who have thought and done likewise. They’re the folks who’ve refused to say that they used to be able to do this or that, and now they can’t because they’re old. In so doing, they’ve shown us what’s possible – what we can aim for.
For example, can we anticipate being healthy and active into the future? Can we say no to becoming limited in mind or body? Can we continue to learn how our mental state governs the physical. Can we find, as I’ve done, that prayer is useful in aligning our thought with the divine source of life and its perpetual longevity?
Such prayerful religious practice, according to scientists, can actually aid longevity. That’s why I’m finding encouragement in a favourite Scriptural text. “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: …They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be healthy and flourishing.”
Surrendering the notion that time impacts our health, means you and I could look forward to a longer, more productive life. We might even join the ranks of the 76 female and 2 male documented supercentenarians – individuals who have reached the ripe old age of 110 years or more. And why not? Without the spectre of time looming in our thinking, a long, healthy, active life, might just become the norm.
This article by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site Spirituality and Health Connect. Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
Beat the Clock – It’s Good for Your Health Leave a comment
Staying active and well at every stage of life is a goal most of us hope to attain. One way to accomplish healthy longevity, is to beat the clock and fears of an aging mind and body. It’s doable, and what’s more, it’s good for your health.
Time isn’t toxic
There’s no reason for our wellbeing to decline after a certain number of sunrises and sunsets. Nor should our thinking capacity wind-down with each tick of the clock. Researchers believe “aging is unnatural… there may be no immutable biological law that decrees human beings have to get old and sick and die…By design, the body should go on forever.” Also, meditative practices can actually aid longevity.
This is certainly encouraging news that can change our outlook and raise our expectations for living a long and healthy life .
TIP:
● Resist noting the passage of time and fearing what it might mean for your health and life-style.
● Don’t limit the good things you can accomplish down the track.
● Look forward to maintaining your “vigor, freshness and promise” at every stage. (Science and Health p. 246)
● Quit thinking that you grow old because of the number of birthdays you’ve clocked up.
● Plan now to join the growing number of supercentenarians – those who’ve reached 110 years or more.
Encouraging role models
Maybe you’ve heard more about mature people declining in later years, than those who’ve remained active and useful. Yet mental faculties, energy, and wellness can remain intact throughout life despite the number of times the earth revolves around the sun.
Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross, never let the age clock beat her into submission. She lived a long, useful life, working tirelessly into her nineties. Interviewed by journalist Viola Rogers for the New York American, Barton expressed this opinion about aging.
“Most troubles are exaggerated by the mental attitude, if not entirely caused by them. The mind” she maintained, “is so constructed that we have become firmly convinced that after a certain length of time we cease to be useful, and when our birthday calendar indicates that we have reached or are nearing that time, we become lax in our work and finally cease to accomplish; not because we feel in reality that we are no longer useful, but because we are supposed by all laws and dictums to have finished the span of life allotted to work.”
Barton’s advice to beat the time clock and remain alert and healthy is simple. “Let your life be counted by the mile-stones of achievement and not by the timepiece of years.” As a consequence, she believed that we’d “all be younger and would live to be much older”.
TIP:
● Be heartened by individuals who’ve beaten the mental and physical limitations often associated with old age.
● Refuse to say that you used to be able to do this or that, and now you can’t because you’re older.
● Accept as true this ancient wisdom. You can “flourish like the palm tree: …bring forth fruit in old age…and be healthy and flourishing.” (Psalm 92)
● Beat the stop clock by expecting to retain a fit mind and body as the norm into the future.
● Look forward to leading a long, active, productive life.
This article by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site Spirituality and Health Connect. Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
Reading Your Way to Good Mental Health Leave a comment
What would you think if you went along to a doctor and you were prescribed a self-help book instead of medication? Well, that’s not so far-fetched as you might think.
A new project initiated by the UK’s The Reading Agency called the Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme, has doctors now prescribing books to patients with mental health problems such as anger, anxiety, binge eating, depression, obsessions and compulsions, panic attacks, phobias, self-esteem, stress and worry.
The scheme, which works within the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines, and is backed by the Royal Colleges of GPs, Nursing and Psychiatry, the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies and the Department of Health, aims to bring reading’s healing benefits to sufferers of anxiety and depression.
According to the Reading Agency, “there is growing evidence showing that self-help reading can help people with certain mental health conditions get better.” GPs and mental health professionals can prescribe patients a visit to the library, where they show their prescription for one or more of 30 endorsed books with acknowledged cognitive behavioural therapy benefits.
Books on Prescription has made it to New Zealand. It’s also being implemented at Boab Health Services in outback Australia’s Kimberley region. Boab says, “… the best self-help books can be highly effective … Many practitioners regularly recommend particular books to their clients or patients … The use of self-help books is known as ‘bibliotherapy’.” … a coined term “for the therapeutic use of books in the treatment of illness or personal problems. Evidence in the UK, suggests that bibliotherapy has a therapeutic benefit for people experiencing common mental health issues.”
Books as medicine, sounds like it could be good news for many in the community. Some people have told me that being treated with drugs for mental health issues has led to other problems, such as adverse side-effects and dependency. With that in mind, reading a self-help book could just be “what the doctor ordered”.
But help can’t be found in just any old tome. If you want to improve your mental wellbeing, you might want to choose a book that has a proven track record. For example, it could be one that’s been around for a long time, has been read by many people around the world, and has perhaps even received testimonials regarding its practicality and effectiveness.
Another way to gauge a good self-help book is to ask if it’s one that brings inspiration, gives you a lift, encourages you to change your thinking or life-style, shows you how to be fearless and calm in difficult situations, or strengthens your mental resilience.
I can certainly testify that reading a self-help book is beneficial. Over the years I’ve referred to my two all-time favourites – the Scriptures and Science and Health, almost every day. These books have provided me with lots of practical ideas and helped me focus my thinking on life-changing spiritual ideas. As a result, many times my exact need has been met. I’ve found uplifting, empowering concepts that have enabled me to beat anxiety or stress and lead a happier, healthier life.
Today, a growing number of people are turning to books that discuss the mind-body connection or explain the relationship between consciousness and experience. This can be seen in the burgeoning number of books and magazines devoted to such topics. It seems that there is even a desire to explore a spiritually mental approach to mental and emotional health issues through books on meditation and prayer.
All of this interest augers well for the future of mental health. It’s quite possible that somewhere down the track, books will also be prescribed to people who suffer chronic pain or fatigue, or perhaps have relationship problems. Stay tuned for more news on this front. Books as medicine? I can’t think of a better prescription.
This article by Beverly Goldsmith was originally published on her blog site Spirituality and Health Connect. Beverly is a Melbourne-based health writer who provides a diversity of health content on how spirituality and thought affect health.
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