I have actually, (I’m finally ready to write that book, Helen!) but that’s not what I want to talk about. I was reading Elder Scott’s talk at the last General Conference tonight and was preparing to make my lists of activities that help improve inspiration and choices that get in the way as I aligned my thoughts for a regular Fast Sunday, when I came to this:
We will live for our appointed life span. However, we can improve both the quality of our service and our well-being by making careful, appropriate choices. It is important that our daily activities do not distract us from listening to the Spirit.
We’ve simplified our lives a great deal in our family, much of that very consciously. We don’t do lessons or sports, partly because I can’t bring myself to become slave to a schedule. I don’t feel any sense of self-righteousness about that and have great respect for others who provide abundant opportunities for their children to grow. I just can’t do it, and they’re not interested enough to push. And despite my pathological need to make charts and talk about “being productive” – I don’t enforce those consistently either, preferring for the people in my life to nurture their own productivities.
So, one plays beautifully by ear, another is a budding artist, another a gymnast, another a researcher, another an incredible homemaker, another a strategist (okay, I admit to owning gaming stuff). Today. Tomorrow it could all change. For the most part, the only thing that could be said about us is that if you call us, we’ll come help you. Not too impressive, but I’m okay with it.
So the part about our daily activities not distracting is important to me because I think the opportunities to go help are closely associated with the opportunities to feel the spirit and both are marginalized by being too busy. However, I screeched to a halt at that life span thing.
You get how long you get. I’m a bit of a health nut, and so I’ve made more than a couple of decades of choices specifically designed to lengthen and strengthen mine and my children’s timespan here. I watched my father, who died at age 68, make abysmal health choices and despite having an incredibly strong constitution, he was almost unable to move by the time a massive stroke took his life. It would have been nice to have enjoyed my Dad a bit longer, but as I chew on Elder Scott’s quote, I realize that I didn’t need longer, I needed better: improvements in both the quality of his life and his well-being.
So, of the list of “practical principles” Elder Scott shares that will improve our receipt of revelation and inspiration (eliminating anger or hurt or defensiveness, a good sense of humor, modesty in sharing inspiration received), good health practices seem very emotionally accessible, not requiring us to throw our entire bundle of bad spiritual habits away at once. Get appropriate exercise, reasonable amounts of sleep, and eat responsibly. Seems pretty straightforward. No superhuman charity required to become more spiritually in-tune.
I’m curious if you have noticed a difference in your sense of personal awareness, spiritual connection, or inspiration while engaging in simple health practices.
Do your daily activities get in the way of or support your quality of life and sense of well-being?
How does improving the quality of your life and your well-being improve your receptiveness?
poetrysansonions
July 1, 2012
I think this can work both ways. For about two years I had a very consistent exercise routine of walking four miles 4-6 dats a week. The first two miles were pretty consistent as far as route went. At about 2.1 miles there was a beautiful little grove of trees, that I named in my mind “the little cathedral.” I would stop for a little break and take a couple of pulls from my water bottle. After a few months I started taking a few minutes to say a prayer while I was there. I didn’t pray everytime, and given my asthma, I didn’t go walking when it was too cold, too rainy, or both. So, let’s say I prayed there about 150 times a year.
I received quite a few promptings on those walks, both before and after my prayers. I cherished the time when my body felt good, that my mind could think through issues without interruption and my spirit had a little more quiet time to listen to promptings.
Several times in my life I have been on extended bedrest. Some were related to pregnancies, but the latest has been from an issue with my knee that actually turned out to be an issue with a few bones and a nerve in my back. While the pain has been excruciating and the extrovert in me has been trying its best to not feel suffocated by my inability to drive, I have found that I am probably as close to the Lord as I have ever been. Despite some trials, beyind my body, that sometimes make it temptingto just give up, I feel the promptings of the Lord. While many of the promptings come in sharing a thought or experience with someone, even more of them are promptings about how I can serve someone else in a way that makes me feel less isolated and alone. I may not be able to fulfill every request for service, but I have been prompted to reach out and offer service that I can do.
I think that the common factor from those experiences says less about how well or poorly my physical body is working, and more about whether I am spiritually in a space where, if I have time without a lot of distractions, I am ready to listen for the Savior’s knock. Sometimes the business of our lives can make the knock hard to hear, but I think that what usually is the real barrier is that we simply aren’t in tune enough to tell the difference between the Savior and something “worldly” that is competing for our attention.
Sage
July 1, 2012
I’m also a bit of a health nut! Presently I’m studying t certify as a yoga teacher. My purpose is to be healthier and not just be sitting watching tv in my old age! I do feel that my hour to hour and a half of exercise (usually yoga, but sometimes running or dance) helps me be more receptive to the Spirit. It alo just plain makes it easier to chase my kids around. I had my last two a bit late, 39 and 42, so I’m still in chasing mode despite being about to send off a missionary this month.
I also limit my kids activities. They are creative types so as long as I chase them off the tv and games they do productive things (at least I consider writing fiction productive, or my kids wouldn’t be). I do try to let each one do one class…but I don’t try that hard. It becomes a bit crazy to have five places to go every week. I’m very thankful for music in the schools where I live.
I’d love to hear more about what your healthy efforts are. I’m intrigued by Elder Scott’s statement as well. I think it is comforting even if I’ve been hoping my efforts extended my life. Now my responsibility is to improve quality, not prolong. Thanks for always sharing great ideas!
Bonnie
July 2, 2012
I agree that health setbacks can be great opportunities to approach the Lord more fully – I suppose any setbacks serve as the wilderness in that way.
Sage – For us, long ago we eliminated hydrogenated fats, sodas, prepared foods, and we don’t use antibiotics or OTC medications except for an occasional ibuprofen. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and some meat, but little grain since leaky gut is a tendency around here. Lemon in our water as often as possible and smaller meals when we can. We slip and have prepared foods and refined grains sometimes, and have had times where we’ve dipped into our food storage and had to eat things that weren’t the best for our systems. I walk 6X/wk, meditate, and am mindful of my feelings and thoughts. We also try to work together as a family as often as we can and I don’t watch any TV. I have been on a news fast for several years and it has done wonders.
Melody
July 4, 2012
Hi,
My sis-in-law (a mutual friend) told me about your blog today. I love how you write and the way you express yourself. I appreciated this article, too, though several quotes popped into my mind as I read it. I recently gave a presentation to our R.S. about the Word of Wisdom, so I’ve recently been studying the words of the prophets and other church sources on the subject. Not everyone has the same view of the lifespan thing as Elder Scott. Here’s a sampling:
By a proper observance of the Word of Wisdom, man may hope to regain what he has lost by transgression and live to the age of a tree, that as the sun’s rays in springtime gladden all nature and awaken life and hope, the Word of Wisdom given of God may remove the thorns and briers from our pathway and strew the same with joy and peace. – Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith as a Prophet,Scrapbook of Mormon Literature, Vol 1, p.118
• The First Presidency declared: “Drunken with strong drink, men have lost their reason; their counsel has been destroyed; their judgment and vision are fled. … Drink has brought more woe and misery, broken more hearts, wrecked more homes, committed more crimes, filled more coffins, than all the wars the world has suffered” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1942, 8).
• Each year tobacco use causes nearly 2.5 million premature deaths worldwide. Tobacco use also harms millions of innocent victims. For example, smoking by pregnant mothers passes on toxic chemicals that interfere with fetal development, afflicting approximately 3 million babies each year. These babies have lower birth weight and increased risk for neurological and intellectual delays and for premature death. Other innocent victims include nonsmokers who regularly inhale secondhand smoke. These people have much higher rates of respiratory illness and are three times more likely to die of lung cancer than those who do not inhale secondhand smoke. Smokeless tobacco is just as addictive as cigarettes, and users of smokeless tobacco have cancer rates up to fifty times higher than those who do not use tobacco. (See James O. Mason, “I Have a Question,”Ensign, Sept. 1986, 59–61.)
President Brigham Young said: “Instead of doing two days’ work in one day, wisdom would dictate to [the Saints] that if they desire long life and good health, they must, after sufficient exertion, allow the body to rest before it is entirely exhausted. When exhausted, some argue that they need stimulants. … But instead of these kind of stimulants they should recruit by rest” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 187).
You may want to point out that those who obey the Word of Wisdom will generally live longer and have a better quality of life than if they did not obey it. However, some people have severe illnesses or disabilities despite obeying the Word of Wisdom. Explain that these people can receive the spiritual blessings of obeying the Word of Wisdom even if their physical difficulties continue. Moreover, the Lord’s promises are for eternity, and those who do not receive all the promised blessings in this life will receive them hereafter. (From Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual)
The constitution that a person has should be nourished and cherished; and whenever we take anything into the system to force and stimulate it beyond its natural capacity, it shortens life. I am physician enough to know that. … If you will follow this counsel, you will be full of life and health, and you will increase your intelligence, your joy, and comfort (Discourses of Brigham Young, 183).
[End of quotes]
Joseph Smith and Brigham Young seemed to think it extended our lifespan, and quotes in the church manuals also seem to point that direction. Not to pick a fight, just pointing out that there are differing opinions among church leaders on the subject, so we’ll all have to be in tune with the Spirit to decide who is right, if it needs to matter to us. Being that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment for church members might be a good enough reason to follow it, regardless of whether or not we believe it will extend the length of our life.
Bonnie
July 5, 2012
It’s fun to dip our toes into metaphysical questions such as whether extending life is a foreordained and known choice or not, isn’t it? I love the revelation to Joseph in which the Lord says, “Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less” (D&C 122:9), and yet also “For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be” (D&C 121:25). Certainly, improving quality may have the effect of improving quantity, if that works with the Lord’s plan for us, and there is no harm in improving quality anyway!
Melody
July 5, 2012
Those are good scriptures! The second one makes me wonder if doing things to harm our bodies (whether intentionally or out of ignorance), might affect our time here under the “according as [our] works shall be” clause. There are obviously different ways to look at these things.
A number of years ago, I saw some quotes by different general authorities on the concept of evolution that totally contradicted each other. They all seemed rather sure of their position. I decided at that point that they, like all of us, are human, and also may not have all the answers to everything. Both sides of any issue can’t be right when their views are diametrically opposed to one another, which brings us back to the necessity of having to be able to follow the Spirit in our lives–something they do all seem to agree on. For my part, I guess it doesn’t really matter whether I can live longer, or not, since I can’t change whatever happens to be the truth of the matter. I’ll just keep doing the best I can, and figure that it will be good enough.
I appreciate your thoughts on this.