No, but in all seriousness. I am SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to conference! We don't get to watch General Conference here "Live" like when we were in Utah. It doesn't come on a local channel where we get to sit at home in our pajamas and watch it all weekend. We actually have to get dressed for church and head over to one of the nearest buildings it is being broadcast in and watch all 8 hours of it (10 hours if you are a priesthood holder going to the priesthood session). I think it was like that when we lived in California too, but I'm not sure if it's still like that now. However, because of the time zone difference here in Australia, we don't have conference weekend until a week after it actually broadcasts. Jeremy and I cheat though... since there is no way we are dragging our kids, dressed up to church for 8 hours over the weekend, we just download it and watch it at home anyway. The last conference we had in April was PHENOMENAL! I'm not sure if it's because we desperately needed to hear everything that was said in the last conference or if it's because we actually only watched 1-2 talks a night after the kids were in bed and got to really listen and take it all in. We probably listened to April's conference about 4-5 times total! Plus, I am the "Teaching of our Times" teacher in Relief Society and teach on one of the recent conference talks once a month. So, I listen to those particular talks over and over until something strikes me for a certain direction to teach my lesson on. Jeremy probably listened to it more than I did because he listened to talks on his way to and from work. I loved and really appreciated how much he would really apply things in the talk to our life. It truly has made such a difference when we are "actively pondering and applying" those teachings.
It's funny how when you are young how much you dread conference weekend because you don't want to sit there and watch it (or sleep through it) ...but now, I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say. Does that mean I'm a grown up now? ha ha
This move to Australia has really boosted my spiritual level up a notch. And much of that has to do with the wonderful, amazing people that we have met along the way. It has inspired me to want to be better. I want to go back to Utah and give back what others have given to me. I hope that I can maintain the strength that others have passed along to me and that I don't fall back into my previous mentality. Maybe writing it here will help me to remember that!
The last lesson I taught in Relief Society was on Elder Russel M. Nelson's talk, "Thanks Be To God". I read and re-read this talk and felt it was so 'simple'. The message was "Gratitude":
“How much
better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and
express that gratitude to Him.”
We all know that we need to remember to be "grateful" for our physical, spiritual and gospel gifts. It is one of the basic primary answers we can all respond to with out much thought provocation. I wanted people to get thinking about it. So I shared some studied statistics relating to gratitude.
Gratitude
has been said to have one of the
strongest links with mental health of any character trait. Numerous studies
suggest that grateful people are more likely to have:
- Higher levels of happiness
- Lower levels of stress and depression
I read that psychologists and therapists are starting to focus their efforts on how "grateful" a person is instead of focusing on the negative circumstances in a persons life. They are giving their clients "gratitude" exercises to increase mental and physical health in a short amount of time. The list below shows all of the benefits you get from a true "attitude of gratitude" in your heart.
Who wants this?
·
To have higher levels of subjective well-being?
·
To be happier - To be
less depressed
·
To be more satisfied with their
lives
·
To be more satisfied with their social
relationships
·
To have higher levels of control
of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life,
and self-acceptance
·
To have more positive ways of coping
with the difficulties they experience in life
·
To be more likely to seek support from other
people when needed
·
To be more likely to reinterpret and grow
from experience
·
To spend more time planning how to deal with a
problem, than to react rashly
·
To have less negative coping strategies
·
To be less likely to try and avoid a problem or less
likely to deny there is a problem
·
To be less likely to blame yourself
·
To be less likely to cope through substance use
·
To sleep better (which
would be because you think less negative and more positive thoughts just before
going to sleep)
·
To be physically healthier
·
To be more giving
As I searched through other conference talks, I found numerous general conference talks that also support the "gratitude exercises" therapists are currently using.
If you want to increase these areas in your own life all you have to do are these two things:
- "Gratitude Visit" – Write and deliver a letter of gratitude to someone in your life.
- Make a “Gratitude Journal” - Write down three things you are grateful for every day.
This is SO SIMPLE and you get SO MUCH RETURN! You can relate it to so many things in the gospel... the principles are basic and simple, yet you get so much in return in the short and long run.
We can lift ourselves and others as well, when we refuse to
remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude
of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude
takes its place among the noblest of virtues.
–Thomas S Monson (An Attitude of Gratitude: April Gen.Conf. 1992)
Well, instead of reading my next lesson, I guess I've added to my own 'gratitude journal' tonight. :)
Yeah for Conference! I can't wait! I think it does mean you are an adult! I remember dreading conference but liked it cause we didn't have to go to church. Now I love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder of being GRATEFUL. We always need to remember to be grateful to our Heavenly Father and to others. "An Attitude of Gratitude" good words to go by.
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