Archive for the ‘New Year’ Category
2023 has now slid into 2024. Before long we will be planning for 2025. Sometimes it seems that the years slip by more and more quickly and as every year goes by, we add another unit to our age. For each stage in life there seem to be expectations for health, behaviour and appearance. Don’t we talk about the terrible twos or stroppy teenagers? How often do you hear people of advanced years say, when talking about their health: ‘What can you expect at my age?’
How much of this do we have to accept as inevitable? Do we have to accept the subtle, and not so subtle, standards that society places upon us? Do the years under our belt really define who we are and how we function, how attractive we are?
I was looking at an old black and white photo of my mum the other day. I guess she would have been in her early twenties, so the photo was taken over seventy years ago. As a young woman my mum was very lovely. She had a special grace about her that made you want to look longer.
I began to think, if she was around today looking like that you would still have to say she was beautiful, but she wouldn’t fit today’s standards of beauty. Her skin was whiter, her body fleshier, her hair contrived into curls and she wore a pretty frock. Standards of beauty change. This set me to thinking about what beauty really is. In each era fashion seems to give us strict dictates as to what the ideal look is – how tanned our skin should be, how lean our body, even the shape of our eyebrows. Not many of us fit that ideal model. So does this mean that we are not beautiful? If we do fit those standards, are we only beautiful for a short while? Does age diminish true beauty? Our society is currently quite preoccupied with youthfulness but true youthfulness is not defined by our age but by the youthful qualities we express.
My mother knew the impact that thought has on experience. To the end she was a strong, healthy, active woman. The qualities people saw in her – intelligence, calmness and strength in the face of trouble, joy at the little things, devotion to family and friends, innocence, resilience, energy – these qualities shone out of her right to the last. They were the qualities that people mentioned when they commented on how lovely my mother was.
Mary Baker Eddy, one of the first women to investigate thoroughly the connection between consciousness and experience, writes in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p208): You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. Perhaps if we put as much thought and effort into developing beautiful qualities of Mind as we do our outward appearance our beauty and health would be less ephemeral and blossom with the passing years.
Hymn 245 from the Christian Science Hymnal
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O tender, loving Shepherd,
We long to follow thee,
To follow where thou leadest,
Though rough the path may be;
Though dark and heavy shadows
Enshroud the way with gloom,
We know that Love will guide us,
And safely lead us home.
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We know, beloved Shepherd,
The path that thou hast trod
Leads ever out of darkness,
And on and up to God.
If from that path we wander,
And far astray we roam,
O, call us, faithful Shepherd,
And bring us safely home.
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Throughout the way, dear Shepherd,
Thy strong hand doth uphold;
The weary ones, at nightfall,
Thou gently dost enfold.
And when to Truth’s green pastures
With joy at length we come,
There shall we find, O Shepherd,
Our blest, eternal home.
Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p66)
While some of us are still dealing with the influx of visitors, festivities and sun-soaked holidays, in the back of our minds is the niggling thought that 2015 has already begun and now is the time to make our New Year’s resolutions, before it’s too late.
Some are choosing to eat healthier and exercise more. That certainly can make us feel better.
Two other resolutions that go hand-in-hand will not only increase your health but be game-changers in your life: always opt for the positive viewpoint over the negative and choose to be kinder to others.
A friend related how his acquaintance was in hospital recently, suffering from a life-threatening illness.
Things were looking pretty grim and it seemed that he was hanging on by a thread. Then his heart stopped and he ceased breathing.
At that moment, the medical staff on duty in that area of the hospital noticed that he was passing on and began to congregate around his bed …. not rushing to him with defibrillator or drip, but unexpectedly telling jokes, laughing and talking loudly and animatedly about everyday things.
They continued by his bedside including everyone in the ward in the jovial conversation until he began to regain consciousness. The man made a full recovery.
What happened? Did the nurses and doctors know that their confident and caring presence was more effective than apparatus or medication? Yes.
Something similar is at play when a teacher disregards the negative ‘label’ attached to the child and responds with love and recognition of that child’s higher nature and abilities, bringing a turnaround in attitude at school.
Or when a brick wall tumbles down between two people who haven’t spoken to each other for years as one reaches out with forgiveness.
The reasons for such changes for the better spring from (1) choosing a positive, solution-based approach, and (2) trusting our instinct to be warm and caring, despite a temptation to take an impersonal, defeatist or hard-line approach.
Lissa Rankin MD, sought-after TEDx presenter and one of the keynote speakers at the Byron Bay Uplift Festival a few weeks ago, urges us to strip back everything that isn’t really us that we’ve learned in the world of hard knocks, to find that inner pilot light or divine spark of love within.
Research results from studies on cancer recovery and remission support her claim to the beneficial effects of this practice.
Rankin also cites conclusive evidence that an essential part of any successful treatment is engaging a health practitioner who is reassuring, gentle and kind, and treats patients with compassion.
Did Jesus mean in his well-known parable, that the warmth and care that the Good Samaritan showed had as much to do with the traveller’s recovery (who was robbed and beaten by thieves) as the bandages, oil and wine provided?
Mary Baker Eddy believed so and based her scientific, healing method on this premise. An important researcher into how consciousness affects health, she discovered in her investigations and successful treatments through prayer that…
“Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
Forgetting ourselves and putting others first really FEELS divine and invariably makes us glow with happiness.
I hope your 2015 takes wings. Seems it’s sure to do so if you choose to take this two-pronged approach to a happier, healthier year ahead – adopting a positive, solution-based viewpoint, and actively and warmly caring for yourself and others.
Kay is a freelance writer focussing on the undeniable connection between our thinking and our health. She writes for metropolitan and regional news media throughout Australia and beyond, and is a regular contributor to Australia’s national forum, Online Opinion.
Christian Science Canberra 