Exercise for the Weary Soul

Many people have come to me for help because they sometimes feel like giving up on life. Some people ask, "What is it all for?" And others say, "I am done; I'm ready not to be here anymore."

To hear words like that is heartbreaking for me. It's disheartening because I've been there. My soul has been, in my past, very hungered for something and very weary.

There may be nothing I could say that might bring anyone out of such a feeling. I cannot remember anything anyone ever said to me that got me out of that state.

One thing I do know, with all my heart, is that I have a never-ending desire to know God. God has brought me to a place of profound joy deep within my soul. This joy did not happen overnight. This joy came from loving myself enough to turn to God for relief, respite, and solace.

If I could accomplish anything in my entire lifetime, it would be to point the weary soul to God repeatedly until they find the relief and joy that I have seen.

The number one thing I see in people with a weary soul is the lack of belief in themselves. This lack of faith can lead to blaming others for misery. The joy in this life comes from a connection to God and a focus on purpose. This connection and direction come from within. It originates from the mind, which gives us the power to make choices. When we do not use this power, we feel powerless. Appreciation is the truth to choose, and it takes focus.

When we appreciate ourselves and the things we have, and when things go our way, we feel good. The opposite of this is complaining about and criticizing ourselves, including the things we have and don't have, as well as when things don't go our way. Complaining and criticizing makes us feel inadequate and sustains misery. In addition, this fault finding is the epitome of taking life for granted (certainly a topic for another post). 

The words in the last paragraph are not an easy thing to read, and I do not mean to be unkind. I am attempting to provoke thought, not to hurt feelings. To think that we have no control over our focus and expectations, yet expect others to do the same, is pure insanity. That is also a challenging thing to read.

Please forgive me if I offend you. Please understand I am attempting to explain basic behavior and common sense. Common sense suggests that we have a choice, and that is what our mind is for - to choose our focus by desire, not by default.

The crux of human conditioning can and will convince us that we are not competent or strong enough to adopt a better attitude. However, if we improve our attitude, we will develop a more positive personality, which, in turn, will relieve weariness.

Do you believe in yourself?

Can you choose your focus?

Do you believe you can connect to God?

Let's try a spiritual experiment! Are you willing?

I have a scripture for you.

"In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." ~1 Thessalonians 5:18, Holy Bible, KJV

For at least a week, meditate, memorize, and think about this scripture, especially when things don't go your way. When things do not go our way, we may become angry, anxious, or depressed, but there is a valuable lesson to be learned from these emotions. Negative emotions disconnect us from God, who is, in fact, in charge, and He allows things to happen for our spiritual growth. This expansion is a testing of our faith, which works out our patience.

The lesson is ALWAYS appreciation, faith, love, patience, and trust in the Lord. You may or may not know this intellectually and may or may not behave as though you believe it. Nevertheless, this is the lesson of life.

Behaving as though we believe the lesson is ALWAYS appreciation, faith, love, patience, and trust in the Lord because He is, in fact, in charge, is how and when we live in our power. 

A life of joy is a spiritual life, and this living from the spirit will relieve the weary soul.  

I ramble and repeat. Nevertheless, I do it for you, and I do it for me, so we may level up in life and live the bliss of joy through God.

God gives joy to the soul, and no one could ever convince me otherwise. Focus, focus, focus on your new mission, as outlined in the scripture above, and let us elevate ourselves in life towards God.

Practice appreciation when things go your way, and when they don't, look up into the sky and say, "Thank you, Heavenly Father." If you do, you will get a glimpse of your true power and begin to believe in yourself. If anything, it will seem silly, and you will laugh, and what better way to transform a weary soul?

Big or little, good or bad, I always thank my Heavenly Father. I do! I'm not perfect, and sometimes it may take me a while, but it's better to be thankful than to complain about anything.

Try the experiment proposed above for at least a week and see if you experience relief from your stress. If you are brave enough, keep going for as many days as you can. Do it for yourself, and you will get a glimpse of your power if you haven't already.

Take care my friend,

Elizabeth

Spiritual Expansion

Well, Hey There!

Spiritual Expansion is the topic of this day.

How are you doing, my friend? My dear sweet friend.

I pray that you feel calm, confident, and connected to God.

In my last post, Training Your Brain to Destress, I offered the affirmation, "God loves me, God cares for me, and He is giving me all good things for my spiritual expansion."

Spiritual Expansion is always greater, increased confidence and faith, which is basically love. 

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." ~1 John 4:18, New Testament, The Holy Bible, KJV

I love that scripture so much!

Spiritual Expansion is relearning the love that we are. The love that we came into this world being and that was cast out by conditioning. 

Hate is the opposite of love, and so it must be fear. I never say the "H" word except when I am teaching about it because I have no hate. Therefore, there is no reason to use that word. Nevertheless, hate is taught to us and grows with practice. It is a powerful emotion and expression, but love is above it. 

Love is above it all.

Love is for giving to the self and to others.

It is my humble opinion that people who hate have hate for themselves, and it is displayed outward toward others and certain things. 

Hate is the strongest negative emotion, and love is the strongest affirmative emotion that gives energy.

Do you love yourself?

Crazy question, I know! But the craziest part is that if you dislike or even hate yourself, you are not only harming your future and life, you are draining your energy.

In this ramble, I am trying to say that God loves you, cares for you, and gives you all good things. Anyone can and will see this if they are willing to stop hating and start looking for the lesson in the things they proclaim to hate.

In my humble opinion, the lesson is always faith, love, and patience, usually towards the self. The task truly is an exquisite focus on trusting God.

It is human conditioning to focus on what is wrong, for example: 

A person may hate themselves because they aren't good-looking enough, rich enough, slim enough, smart enough, or young enough, and so they are so focused on that hate that they are too busy to appreciate what they are and what they have.

Appreciation is the truth. 

Appreciation feels very close to love, and when we focus exquisitely on what we appreciate and love, we can and will feel much more joy.

There is so much good in this world than there is wrong, and no one can say that I am asking anyone to ignore the bad; I am just saying focus on what is right!

Appreciation is the key!

Love is the truth!

With an exquisite focus on appreciation and love for others and the self, anyone can and will expand spiritually.

You just gotta practice and never give up!

Affirm and remind yourself daily, hourly, and moment by moment.

I have a very joyful life, and it is all because of God and the blessing from practicing appreciation, love, and never giving up on God or me, EVER!

Connecting to God is a constant practice, which is the authority and power I choose.

We have a choice, and if you do not believe you do, you just may not believe in yourself.

If you do not believe in yourself, you may not appreciate and love yourself enough.

That's all I got, my friend!

Appreciation and love for God, for life, and for you!

Hocus, pocus, focus!

Practice makes perfect permanence!

That's what life is all about!

God bless you, my dear friend. 

Ever praying for your calm, confidence, and connection to God. That is the healing.

That is my passion, and my purpose in serving the Lord. 

May God bless you with more authority and power to focus on your benefits and blessings.

Speak soon...

Elizabeth Stanfill

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

Destress Yourself With Appreciation And Sleep

Well, Hello Again, My Friend!

Destressing by way of appreciation and sleep is what I'd like to ramble about this day!

How are you doing?

I pray a powerful prayer that you are clear, happy, and healthy.

Got some questions for you...

Are you experiencing any fatigue?

Do you have difficulty falling asleep?

Do you have a hard time staying asleep?

Did you know that sleep is vital because it takes energy to handle stressful situations?

Do you know that stressful times can and will make it difficult to fall asleep and/or stay asleep?

It may be due to a racing mind if it is not easy for you to fall asleep or stay asleep. Therefore, one of the most important things one can do before sleep is quiet the mind so that the thousand thoughts in the head cease. 

One way to quiet your mind is to focus on the sounds as you listen to this video.

But what if it is too challenging to lay in bed at night and focus on listening? 

The answer is that you could change your thoughts by way of appreciation. 

You could think of things that you really appreciate and are grateful for. 

You could think of things that happened during the day that you really liked. 

You could think of any angelic beings that crossed your path this day. 

You could think of anything fun or funny that happened this day.

Stress is provoked by things we think about in the state of anger, anxiety, or depression, aka forms of fear. We may be angry about something at work or at home. We may be anxious about the future due to finances or health. We may have deep sadness over any life situation.

It is pretty impossible to relax when we think about stress because it is the opposite of relaxing.

When we think of people, places, and things we appreciate, we feel better and can relax.

Please know, and understand I am not asking or telling anyone to ignore the horrible things happening in life; I am asking stressed-out people to change their focus so that they may sleep.

We have the power to choose our thoughts, and if you do not believe that is true, one day, you will. One day you will know the power within you to choose healing or hurting, helping or hindering.

Every night, before I go to sleep, I pray a powerful prayer of appreciation. That means I thank God for everything I have and all the beautiful things that happened throughout the day. With practice, I've become so good at it; I can, and do, go on and on about the beautiful and brilliant things that happened.

Every night I fall asleep right away, right after my prayer. I lay my head on the pillow, and I am out.

Every morning, I wake up eager, excited, and exhilarated for the day.

I know with all my heart and soul that my deep sleep and renewed energy are because of my habit of appreciation for life and my connection to God.

That's it!

Try it!

Choose to focus on appreciation for all the thingys before you sleepy. Go on and on and on in your head, and make it a habit.

Practice it into permanence, and watch you destress yourself and your sleep.

Your life is really the most essential thing in this world to you because the choices you make will break or make it.

You've got the power, my friend!

Have a wonderful day!

I care for you!

I love you!

God cares for you and loves you!

He is giving you all good things for your spiritual expansion.

Until next time!

Speak soon...

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

Thank You!

Hey there! 

Hi! 

How are you, my friend?

Praying a prayer in my heart that you are alright, you are doing fine, you are discovering how brilliant and beautiful you are, and you are connecting to God for your comfort and strength.

I just want to thank you so much for the email because I don't always answer them. But I want you to know I appreciate the comments.

I get three kinds of emails: appreciation, gratitude, and thankful emails, the questions seeking answers emails, and the complaint or criticism about my blog or post emails.

It is my heart's desire to convey to you that I genuinely appreciate each and every email. Usually, I only answer the ones that ask a question, and I want to answer because I honestly want to help.

So thank you!

I've been blogging for over ten years, and many people are reading this particular blog. I know that God wants me to continue to help others in any way I can. Relieving despair or any kind of emotional harm or hurt is very important to God, and it's important to me too.

I know without a doubt that God wants you to be happy, and I do too.

I know without a doubt that you can lift yourself from any hurt you are suffering, and I want to help you do that, even if it's just a little bit at a time.

Thank you for the email! It's encouraging to me and just confirms my belief that relieving any emotional anguish is imperative, even if it's through a blog.

That's it...

Except, I love you!

God bless...

Take care...

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

Connecting to God

Well Hello!

How are you doing today? I pray that you are happy, healthy, and wealthy! (insert me winking here)
 

In my last post, I wrote about letting go of stress by appreciating it more. Did you read it? If so, did you practice appreciation more?

When we feel appreciation, we are so close to the feeling of love, and it's a great way of connecting to God.

The scriptures say to be thankful for all things. They also say God is love and abides in us when we love. Appreciation is very close to the feeling of love, and loving others is an excellent way of connecting to God.

When we connect to God, we feel good, and that's why people may attend church every Sunday or when times are hard. When times are difficult, everyone wants to feel better, and that's why we turn to God; we feel better, we feel good, we feel love, and we feel relief from our stress.

With all my heart and soul, I hope you took upon yourself the mission to practice appreciation by searching for the good in others, the environment in which you stand, and yourself.

I also hope and pray that you will practice loving the person before you, your environment, and yourself more. When you do, you connect to God, which relieves stress; it destresses you!

It's all about focus and practicing for permanence. We have the free agency to choose what we focus on. We can choose thoughts of happiness or heartache. We can choose to heal our beliefs, behaviors, and emotions, or we can choose to hurt them. Desire versus default.

Holding on tightly in your mind to what is wrong makes it difficult to see what is right and makes it challenging to heal.

Hold on tight to what is right, what you appreciate, what you are thankful for, and what there is to love in life, and let what's wrong dissipate and fall away; it's the law of faith.

If you find no things to appreciate or love, it may be a significant indicator that you are out of practice.

What about appreciating the simple things like eyes to see with, a nose to smell with, a tongue to taste delicious food, arms to hug your loved ones with, legs to walk on, ears to hear awesome music, and family and friends that are always there for you?

My dear, sweet friend, I pray that you may consider connecting to God in these significant ways of practicing appreciation and love more.

That's all I have, except a prayer held tight in my heart that you will consider these things for yourself because you are the most critical person in your life and are very important to God and me.

God bless.

Take care.

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

Letting Go of Stress

Hey! Happy New Year!

How was it? Did you enjoy bringing in the New Year? Did you start your New Year off right?

Well, I pray that your experience in bringing in the new year was perfect, and if not, let it be water under the bridge. That's an old saying for letting it go.

Stress is provoked by fear. Did you know that?

Doubts and worry about the future are fear, provoking stress.

Anger is the fear that one will not be okay if things don't go their way, and it provokes stress.

Anxiety is severe worry about future events, and it provokes stress.

Depression is practiced fear of not being good enough. Stress!

I understand that many people would disagree with my theories about emotions and fear, and that's alright.

I also understand that people don't want to hear certain things about themselves because it makes it seem like it's their fault, but it's not.

Negative emotions are never anyone's fault. Negative emotions are normal human behaviors and conditions.

So, if you're not mad at me for saying those things, I'd like to give you a way to release your negative emotions or at least minimize them if you'd like to.

A great way to minimize stress is practicing appreciation because when we are thankful, we focus on what is right in our lives rather than what is going wrong.

The scriptures say to be thankful for all things, which is one of the most brilliant pieces of advice.

It is my humble opinion that if God were to speak to us, He would tell us how great we are doing because He would focus on all the good we do. He would also tell us we are too hard on ourselves, which is the foundation of our negative emotions.

So! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to practice appreciation more often and watch how things feel better. Just focus on what's right in others, your environment, and yourself.

That's it, except Happy New Year, my wonderful friend! And I pray you will have the most abundant and happy year yet!

God bless you!

I love you!

Take care. 

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, please find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

Destress Your Life with Awareness

Destressing your life with awareness is what I'd like to ramble about this day.

Hello, there, my lovely friend. How are you? Happy Memorial Day.

Did you know that you could, and should, wake up on the right side of the bed every day?

I have no idea where that saying came from, but if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it implies that you are in a bad mood, and so if you wake up on the right side of the bed, you are in a good mood.

You could wake up on the right side of the bed because you are the chooser of your choices.

You should wake up on the right side of the bed because you should do things for yourself! You are the most crucial choice-maker of your life!

The best way to wake up, in my personal opinion, is with awareness on the right side of the bed.

Awareness is living in a space where you make moment-to-moment decisions based on appropriate thought processes by being fully present in the now. The opposite of attention would be reacting to situations out of sheer habit.

Do you wake up and struggle out of bed?

Or...

Do you wake up and jump out of bed?

To wake up, struggle, and/or jump out of bed is just a way of reacting out of habit.

What if you woke up and just lay there appreciating life, others, and yourself for a little while?

Every morning, believe it or not, when I wake up, I lay there for at least thirty minutes appreciating the warm, soft bed that I am lying in and whatever else I can think of that I am grateful for. This is one of my ways of cultivating awareness and how I start my day.

Depending on what day it is and what I must do, sometimes I wake up and lay in bed for a couple hours contemplating, reading, or both. I do this because I know that it is my duty to begin the day with awareness on the right side of the bed, and so I do.

You may say, "Who in the hellackey has time to do all that stuff in the morning?" My answer is that it only takes a moment to bring yourself to full awareness and begin the day with appreciation.

How often have you been in a bad mood in the morning and just went about your day in that mood, not knowing why or doing anything about it?

That moodiness used to be a massive part of my life, but now, I will not allow it. You do not have to enable it if it is a part of your life.

If I am ever in a not-so-great mood, I notice it and ask myself, "Why are you in this not-so-great mood?" That question alone provokes awareness and then destresses me.

Whenever we are in a bad mood, we are not enjoying life, which is supposed to be joyous. Life is supposed to be fun. 

This is what I am trying to say...

You can and will destress your life further if you develop the habit of waking up on the right side of the bed with a few moments of awareness and appreciation.

This is what I really want you to hear...

If you are stressed out, I mean really stressed out, you can relieve your stress a little bit more each day if you choose to wake up, consciously become aware and appreciate the soft, warm bed that you are in, and think of things you are grateful for, and/or eager for in this day.

Even if you are only a little stressed, this awareness and appreciation practice will allow you to increase your feeling-good status. And who in the heck wouldn't want to improve their feeling-good status?

You are the most critical person in your life.

You can make yourself a priority by being good to yourself first thing in the morning.

You can start every day on the right side of the bed and begin your day with joy.

And that is how you destress your life with awareness.

Have a wonderful day!!! 

I love you... You know I do...

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

REMEMBER YOUR DREAM

Hello, my friend!

Thought I'd share a compelling motivational video with you today. It's Joel Osteen speaking the words of faith and hope about dreams.

I believe we all have dreams, and this video is too good not to share.

Someone sent it to me via email, and I listened, it really touched my heart, and I hope it touches yours as well.

Enjoy...





I have a dream, and I believe I live it daily.

My dream is to focus on being the most effective destress specialist in the Universe! I kid you not!

To be the most impactful destress specialist, I must be effective and successful at what I do, and what I do is bring people from crisis and despair to a place of calm, certainty, and confidence. I do it every day in one way or another, and I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Living in a place of gratitude and feeling good is the outcome of living my dream, which is what I want for everyone. I want everyone to appreciate and feel joy; we can by focusing on and moving towards our dreams.

I pray that you enjoyed the video and feel inspired to remember your dream.

I love you...

Enjoy your weekend...

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you enjoyed what you read here, you may find my books by clicking books by Elizabeth Stanfill.