Positively Real

Dr. Caroline Leaf says, among a multitude of magnificent things, our brains are naturally wired to praise God and have hold a constant dialogue with Him. How often do the scriptures teach us to "pray always" (Luke 21:36) and "look unto [Him] in every thought" (D&C 6:36)? Through 25 years of research and study Dr. Leaf found that when we do this the activity in our brains increases and our intelligence improves. Imagine that!

In addition to Dr. Leaf there have been many other doctors, prophets, personal mentors, and other respected individuals that have helped me understand the importance of gratitude and positive thinking. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we even make solemn covenants to always remember Christ. That is pretty all inclusive and unmistakably clear.

Now, anyone can sit down, philosophize, theorize, and speculate on all this, but what I want to share is the reality of it. Like the dutiful human I am, I have not always tried to be positive or believe in my own goodness and the perfection of God's plan for me. However, inspired by my study of Faith in Christ and the findings of Dr. Leaf, combined with what I learned from siblings learning the same truths, I have been putting principles into practice.

Every Saturday morning I work in the Salt Lake Temple and there are many things to remember and memorize. This last Saturday was my last day there - I am going back home to Idaho this week - and I still had not finished memorizing the last major presentation I had personally made a goal to learn. Early on in the day I tried to pass it off with my trainer and made a cute mess of the whole thing. This is where my maturing positivity had to kick in; thankfully I chose to be thankful.

With a sense of gratitude I went back later to study it for an an hour or so, but I took a different approach. In my mind I kept praising God and thanking Him for being able to His work in His holy house. I thanked Him for enabling me to memorize everything. I continually told myself I already had it memorized. I reminded myself over and over that I can, I am capable, I love, I feel, I understand, etc. (that thought pattern comes from Dr. David Pesek) and any other positive thing I could tell God. My approach was to tell myself I am already where I want to be and be thankful for it.

Through the grace of God manifest in expanded capacity, miracles, and help from fellow Temple workers I passed the part I wanted to learn within a few hours of failing it and was able to use it at the end of the day. How that happened is another miracle in and of itself.

As I worked through this whole experience I was accompanied by an incredible sense of power. Whenever I drew my mind back to positive thoughts and the Savior I felt my mind and body relax. Strength, confidence, and determination would flow in like a deep river washing away the darkness of doubt and fear. The rest of the day I was filled with praise and thanksgiving to my Father in Heaven. My soul wanted to sing and let Him know how great He is (which is an interesting phenomena because of anybody He knows that better than we do, but it still the normal reaction.)

Do not wait too long to recognize the Hand of the Lord in your life. His tender mercies are showering down all around us all the time.  So count your blessings and not the minutes until the next post, because you never know when I will post again.