Hi First name / Beautiful Friend,
I cannot believe it is the end of October! As I look back at the month and think about some of the topics and ideas that resonated with me and while they weren't new ideas they did hit in a different way. I'm sharing them with you today because I think some of the most important things we can do in a world speeding towards AI and robots is to express ourselves, connect with each other both in person and in ideas, grow our faith, chooose love and giving each and every day, and keep learning.
1. Do we need to Believe Differently or Believe for More? Over the past month I've recorded many powerful conversations for the podcast that have grown my faith and allowed me to see that many believers may need to have bigger Belief in how God can move.
Each Friday I send out a Faith Friday email to a group of my community where I encourage them from a blibical perspective. This week's email was all about Believing God for what He promises us and that many of us may need to grow our belief..If you aren't getting these emails but would like to be added just
click here to read this week's Faith Friday email and I'll add you.
My question is what are you believing in, and what is holding you back from believing in more?
2. These three words have huge impact on our mind, body and spirit- Suppress, Repress, Express- I continue to learn the many ways our bodys and minds are negatively impacted when we suppress and repress our emotions, feelings, trauma or hurt. You can find plenty of research and data that explains why it's important release our emotions, feelings, trauma, hurt (ex. anger, unforgiveness, shame, guilt, sadness, betrayal,etc)- basically when we hold it all in it can get stuck in our body and cause a physical and mental environment that we are more likely to develop chronic disease or ailments and have mental health struggles.
Even today I learned that crying- releases emotions and cortisol because when we have a strong emotional reaction to something it creates cortisol and crying (or learning breathing techniques) helps our body calm down our nervous system and our brain. If we hold in the emotions and don't release them we harm our body in many ways including lowering our immune function, increasing chance of depression, increasing our blood pressure and potential to have an emotional outburst.
This is why we have to learn how to regularly address and release or emotions, feelings and trauma so we are not keeping it inside. In other words, the better we get at expressing ourselves in healthy ways and communicating our needs, desires and being who we are- the more fulfilled and healthy we will be. It is an unlearning process for many of us that have been suppressing, repressing or not expressing ourselves but it is 100% worth it. And there are bible verses that speak to us not holding onto unforgiveness, anger and more and renewing our thoughts.
what do you need to let go of and release? What do you need to say or express?
3. Always Be a Giver - We have opportunities to give, to be of service, to show or be love and show kindness every single day. Sometimes we have the opportunity for just a moment with a stranger, or how or where we chose to volunteer, or mentor someone or use our talent, time or treasure as Mark Batterson says.
And the opportunities continue with how we show up for our spouse, our children and to our neighbors and those we work with. We get to choose to do good over and over again if we allow ourselves to be present and purposeful.
Even today, in the US as our government has still not voted and approved a budget, 42 million Americans that get food assistance will not get that money or it will be delayed that they expected on Nov 1. This is another opportunity for us to do what we can - to donate to your local food bank or organize a food event or check in on your neighbors.
4. Keep Going, Growing and Getting Curious - I love to learn new things- about health, growing food, how our body works, relationships, the bible, nature and so on. But we live in a time that we can get the easy answer to most anything in an instant with an internet search or AI but do we consider the trade off of this. And we live in a time that the world is pushing us towards more survellance and control - of our speech, our habits and more and again the question is what are we giving up or trading off if we do not allow different opinions and perspectives to be heard.
I think as the world speeds up we need to learn to slow down and pass down or learn skills that our grandparents or great-grandparents knew. In other words, keep learning, be curious and don't let the ease of getting an answer in an instant keep you from learning through doing.
A
new study looking at individuals that regularly use AI shows it can make us less inteligent- lower cognitive ability, skill erosion and generational gaps- I'm not saying we should not use AI- that time has passed but I am saying now is the time to learn new things the old fashioned way too- to learn out in the world from people in your community is even more important than ever. There is and will be a resurgence of people who want goods made by hand when AI and robotics replace even more of our goods and services. What are you learning or where are you growing and are you getting curious about something.
