Giving thanks

I have been pondering gratitude as I am sure many of you have with Thanksgiving rapidly approaching. When I searched the scriptures for gratitude, I found that it does not appear in that form in the standard works. But thanksgiving and thanks are common in the scriptures. Thanksgiving is an act of joy and joy is often mentioned in conjunction with thanksgiving.

The truly beautiful thing about thanksgiving, is that as you sow the seeds of gratitude they grow. The more we sow, the more we reap. I loved the scripture in 2 Cor 9,

6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

This is not specifically focusing on gratitude, but I certainly think it applies. God wants us to give of our substance freely. And when we give from our heart, holding nothing back, he will make us sufficient in all things. Now that's a blessing we all need.

The opposite is also true. If we withhold our substance or gratitude, we offend God. D&C 59: 21 says, And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things... That verse comes at the end of a very long description of the abundant blessings we can freely receive and enjoy by loving God with our heart, might, mind and strength as well as our neighbor, doing so with thanksgiving and cheerful hearts.

I received an email from a friend named April this week. I don't know April well, but I do know he has had struggles in her life. In spite of that, she has the kind of face that shows she normally wears a smile. You know how some people always look grouchy and some always look happy? April is one of the ones that looks happy. She brought up a good point in her note asking why it takes a holiday, one day, for us to "deeply feel the many blessings in our lives." Good point. That is why I encourage people to keep a gratitude journal. It doesn't have to be daily. But frequently pondering our blessings is a wonderful exercise to do on a regular basis.

I want to close with her three wonderful suggestions for expressing gratitude/thanksgiving/thankfulness.

"Expressing gratitude for the things we value and appreciate (counting our blessings one by one) is a good beginning on our journey of thankfulness. I would like to share three ideas on expressing thankfulness.
1. Saying "Thank you" in our mind and heart after experiences that stir our emotions, regardless of whether we think them good or bad.
2. Say "Thank you" for your experiences during prayer, pondering and meditation.
3. By not thinking and speaking ill of yourself, other people, circumstances, situations, events or experiences, you are receiving those things with thankfulness. Staying calm, unruffled, quiet and peaceful during trying situations demonstrates your thankfulness. During a trying experience, and even after, you may not feel like being thankful, yet that is the VERY TIME your thankfulness HAS THE MOST POWER (remember, it's easy to be thankful for the good times.) These and many others are ways for us each to express gratitude, not just at Thanksgiving, but everyday of our lives."

I hope these suggestions will be a blessing to you. Happy Thanksgiving.
Blessings, Dawn

Men are that they might have JOY!

I have a friend that is a Rapid Eye Technician and she asked me to write an article for her blog that is all about joy. You can see it here: http://choosejoynow.blogspot.com/ She asked me to address how EFT can facilitate more joy. Because of space constraints, we limited the length of the article, but it follows completely below.

Tap into Joy

Although, this article is more specifically about “tapping”, I want to offer a few ways to tap into joy generally. Joy is a more specific state than happiness. We can be happy about many things, but joy comes specifically from living a righteous life. God means for all people to have joy, and a fullness comes through our belief in Christ. Joy is also a choice. The Bible tells us that no man can take away our joy. We can know if we are living in accordance with the Spirit because joy, along with love, peace, gentleness, longsuffering, faith, meekness, temperance are fruits of the Spirit.

Choose joy? How do you do that? One key way to feel true joy is to acknowledge what there is in your life to be grateful for. Feel gratitude and joy will follow. Two months ago, I decided I wanted more joy and more of all things good in my life. I wanted to begin by being grateful for what I have now. Gratitude raises your energetic vibration. I started a gratitude journal. Each day, I find ten things to be grateful for. I don’t always get exactly ten and I don’t always write every day. It’s not about perfection. But, when I am at my computer and I think of something I am grateful for, I open the gratitude file and start writing. The funny thing about gratitude is, once you get started, you think of more, which creates more gratitude and more joy.

Here is one of my first entries.

“Aug 29, Sunday was really wonderful. I had a change of heart after Sat and during sacrament meeting I prayed something like this. Heavenly Father, I am so thankful for (my family, I listed them all). If that were all I had in life, I would be so thankful. But, I have health, and I can walk, and I can smell and taste and hear and see and feel. And if that were all I had, I would be so grateful. But, I have family and friends and the church and an opportunity to serve and my savior. And if that were all I had, I would be so thankful. And yet, I have a home and furniture and a car to take me places and a computer to learn anything I want and many time saving machines to make my life easy And if that is all I had, how blessed would I be, but I have even more. So much more that I can’t list it all. And as a result I had the greatest outpouring of joy I have felt in a long while. I just wanted to smile and felt so happy. Gratitude is a wonderful thing.”

This works equally well with negative experiences. You just list them in a way that turns them around. I don’t have room to share the experience that happened only three days later with my septic tank, but you can email me at help@ldseft.com if you really want to hear a bad situation that I was thankful for in many ways.

EFT is a tool for releasing negative emotions and experiences that block you from being the child of God you were meant to be and fulfilling the measure of your creation. There are two wonderful procedures to help facilitate this. The first is called the Personal Peace Procedure. Make a list of all the negative experiences or people in your life. Each day, choose one and use EFT to dissipate any remaining negative emotions about it. If there aren’t any that you can connect to, just list the ones you felt at the time and go through the process three times. Pay attention to any new thoughts or memories that come up in association with the tapping and work on those. By the time you get to the end of your list, and probably much sooner, you will have peace like you’ve never known. This is because you have removed the specific emotional drivers that keep you from the joy you seek.

The other technique is one that Carol Tuttle calls the Emotional Joy technique. While “normal” EFT can be stated in the negative with great results, this technique comes from a point of being positive. Take a positive poem, a personal proclamation, or write out I am statements and begin tapping. I like to start with, even though I am NOT perfect, I deeply and completely accept myself, or I am a child of God. Then at each point, you tap a positive statement. Because there are 8 points, I like to tap in multiples of 2, 4, or 8, so I can end on the 8^th point. If you choose 2 or 4, you just alternate them.

(1) Eyebrow (EB), I am grateful for my life.

(2) Side of Eye (SE), I am grateful for my Savior.

(3) Under Eye (UE), I am grateful for my husband.

(4) Under Nose (UN), I am grateful for my children.

(5) Chin (CH), I am grateful for the knowledge I have of healing tools.

(6) Collarbone (CB), I am grateful for financial prosperity.

(7) Under Arm (UA), I am grateful for every blessing that comes to me.

(8) Top of Head (H), I am grateful for all I have learned in my life.

You can have as many statements as you want, and you don’t really have to end on the head, but I always feel better when I complete the “round.” If you have questions about EFT, the Joy Technique, or anything else I have mentioned here, contact me at help@ldseft.com or see my website, www.ldseft.com

Blessings,

Dawn

Emotional Freedom Techniques

Welcome to LDS EFT. My name is Dawn. I am LDS and I was introduced to EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques in the Fall of 2005. What an interesting journey I have been on since then. And the journey continues. If you are not familiar with EFT, the best source for information is

Gary Craig's EFT web site

The purpose of this blog is not to teach basic EFT, but to discuss uplifting and motivational concepts through an LDS perspective, using EFT. If you want to learn EFT in depth, download the free manual here:

EFT manual

And if you want to really help yourself and others by becoming an EFT Practitioner, then you can do that quite easily and inexpensively by going here:

EFT DVDs

Each week you can return to the LDS EFT blog and read about ways to implement EFT into your life. I hope you will enjoy my thoughts and that they will be a blessing to you. I hope you will find hope for health and healing. Blessings, Dawn