Unconditional Love Has Spiritual Advantages

Which sounds better to you, conditional love or unconditional love? Let us explore the concept of unconditional love and see the natural consequences of this concept. We must first acknowledge that the ramifications of what we are talking about here are not just when boy meets girl and they fall in “love.” All too often in our society, when we speak of love it is in the limited description of love between humans. This is an important aspect of love because it is one of our base relationships, but it is still just one aspect of “love.” We can go so far as to say when we are “making love,” we define it strictly as “having sex.” In fact, often in our society, “having sex” would be a very poor description of “making love.” Could we not also be “making love” if we are baking chocolate chip cookies? Or could we not be “making love” if we are walking in the woods observing nature? We are not going to put limits on the love described as unconditional love because everything and every experience is love based and inherent to the paradigm that God and we are one and at our core we are love. Just as we understand that a judging and condemning God can only give us conditional love, so we also understand that a non-judgmental and accepting God can only give us unconditional love. Unconditional love, as a concept, is love-based. That sounds a lot better than conditional love, as a concept, that is fear-based. If we speak of love we don't want it based in fear do we? We want it based in love. This may sound kind of silly but it goes to the heart of the issue of why we, and our societies, do some of the insane things we do. Unconditional love would never tell us to make war and kill people if they didn't believe in God the way we do, because unconditional love would not judge or condemn the way that another person in our society believes. Unconditional love would be accepting of those beliefs. Only fear would cause such insane actions. Fear, and the idea that you are separate from, and superior to, those who don't believe as you do. If you are separate from the people you kill in the name of God, it relieves you from the responsibility of their death. You are not them and it is not your fault that they don't think of God the same way you do. If they had, you wouldn't have had to kill them. They brought on their own death by knowingly not conforming to your standards. This sounds pretty arrogant doesn't it? It sounds like something a bully would say. It is sometimes funny how nations talk to each other just like bullies on a playground. The same mentality is going on because bullies feel separate from and superior to those they wish to bully around. When you come from the perspective that we are all one and the love we have for one another is an unconditional love, then the idea of killing another because he views life from a different perspective, would seem to be pretty abhorrent behavior. Because what you do to another you do to yourself. In effect, in the killing of another, you are killing a part of yourself. This behavior makes no sense when you are coming from the base mentality of oneness. When you are coming from this reality of oneness you cannot relieve yourself from the responsibility of your actions. You are accountable for what you do. Your actions are your creations. Conscious creations or unconscious creations, they are your creations and you need to be accountable for them. When you live with unconditional love you accept and rejoice in all your creations. You don't judge your creations and call them bad or good, or right or wrong. You observe your creations and see if they serve you or not. If they do not serve you, then you choose another thought and create that. The key here is to love your self unconditionally. When you can stop judging yourself and accept who you are as the magnificent and perfect manifestation of one of God's spirit children, then you are on your way to acceptance of all that you create. We all need to start with ourselves. Indeed, remember this: your very first creation on this life journey here on earth was when you created the person that you are now. You chose who you were going to be before you entered this physical plane. If you do not accept and love who you are, you are condemning your original creation and not taking responsibility for the magnificent creature you call yourself. Love yourself first and foremost. See the beauty within and love the essence that you are unconditionally. If you love yourself unconditionally you will love God unconditionally because you and God are one. You will bring a balance to your life because God loves you unconditionally too. That is what we are talking about here. We bring the balance back into our lives that is missing when we think of ourselves as just a body with a mind. It is the spiritual side of the equation that opens the door to unconditional love. Because unconditional love, like the spirit, resides within us. It is our core. Conditional love, like the body, is external and reacts to external stimuli. Unconditional love, like the soul, is internal and doesn't have to react to external stimuli. Unconditional love just is and you can tap into it anytime you like in any exterior expression of yourself that you choose. It is always there when you want it. It is part of your source. All you need do is tap into your source.

article source:http://www.nutsandboltsspirituality.com/ , http://www.articlecity.com/

How To Manage Stress Effectively

Throughout the lifespan of stress management research, experts have argued about the exact definition of the word stress. There are many opposing viewpoints, and like many words in our language, the conflict lies in the way the word is commonly used in popular culture. When most people hear the word stress, their muscles tense and they expound on feelings produced by situations like time restraints, emotional pressures and the responsibilities of the daily grind. To the man on the street, the word stress is associated with negative or, at the very least, uncomfortable feelings. Medically speaking, stress is anything that makes your body work harder. For example, your doctor might administer what is referred to as a “stress test” to gauge how your heart is working. The usually form of this procedure is gradually increase the amount of strenuous physical activity you’re performing until you’ve reached your limit. Theoretically, that limit will reveal a lot about the condition your body is in. So technically, stress doesn’t have to be the monster we make it out to be. There are good kinds of stress too. It can be a creative energy, like an adrenaline rush for artists, or even writers in a hurry to make their deadline. Basically, stress is responsible for the internal flight-or-flight mechanism that alerts you to danger and could even save your life. However, researchers say not having to hunt our own food or fight for survival anymore has dulled our more feral instincts and we typically aren’t in enough control to use fight-or-flight as nature intended. A lot of people just panic. The situation doesn’t have to be life threatening to initiate a flight-or-flight response. Studies say we tend to get a small does of it anytime we are startled or interrupted. When we are so stimulated, that it becomes an everyday part of our routine, we develop what is called General Adaptation Syndrome. Think of the syndrome like a callous. It’s your body’s way of coping with constant stress and allowing you to function in spite of it. No matter how adept you become at handling whatever stresses you, your body will eventually rebel. Sighs of exposure to prolonged stressors can creep up in unexpected ways such a chronic headaches, muscle pain, insomnia, weight loss and a variety of digestive issues. You can only take so much. Sometimes what you think you can deal with and what you can actually handle are not the same. Pay attention to your body because it will let you know, even when your brain isn’t listening. There are all kinds of ways to manage stress, and different methods work for different people. Some like to soak in a hot bath at the end of the day while others would rather sweat it off at the gym. Studies have shown that certain scents such as lavender trigger a calming effect for most people. It is commonly used in infant-care products for that reason. As wide and varied as the things that stress us are the things that sooth us and perhaps even more so, the ways in which we perceive stress. The circumstances which trigger feelings of anxiety in one person may seem pleasant or at least benign to another. The key is to take a minute to evaluate the way you respond to the stimuli and adjust the way you thing and feel about it. Maybe if seeing a spider usually causes you to jump up and down, next time you see one try taking slow, deep breaths. Rather than perceiving the spider as something that might bite you, practice thinking of it as something you can simply step on.
article source: http://www.stress-management-help.org