How to Connect With God

Aren’t we all trying to connect with God? Every Christian wants a connection with God, to feel his love and grace and to feel like we matter to Him (which we do!)
Sometimes though we can be stuck on how best to connect with God.

This post contains affiliate links. A purchase through this link gives me a small commission. Thanks.

The following comes from Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell

“You can’t be connected with God until you’re at peace with who you are. If you’re still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You’ll be at odds with your maker.” – pg 46

How to Connect With God

Thinking Negatively About My Life

When I read the above quote I really stopped and thought about all the times I’ve said any of the following:

• I’m no good
• I’m a failure
• I’m overweight
• I wish my life was like _________
• Why does my child have to be like that?
• and many others

Thinking Negatively About God

However I never once thought that by thinking those things, by dwelling on them, I was essentially saying to God:

• You made me wrong
• You failed when you created me
• You don’t know what’s best for me
• I’m not happy with you

Can you imagine saying those things to God? I can’t imagine facing him and saying those things yet that’s basically what I tell him when I complain about my life.

Connecting with God

How can I be connected with God if I’m not at peace about me and my life?
Read that quote again.

“You can’t be connected with God until you’re at peace with who you are. If you’re still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You’ll be at odds with your maker.” – pg 46

What the Bible Says

The bible talks about our connection with God too:

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

God made us right. He made no mistake when he made us, not one. For he made us in his image.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

He has a plan for us so while we have free will, a lot of what happens in our life was planned that way, even the bad things. God didn’t make a mistake with your life.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8 NIV

If you connect with God he will connect with you too. Connecting with God doesn’t mean just sitting there and hoping it happens. You do what you can to get near to God and you should start with loving yourself and your life.

So, does that quote make you think?

This post is linked up at Messy Marriage

eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker is the best tool to keep track of your Bipolar condition so that when you talk to your doctor he or she can tell if you are doing better or worse and if anything needs to be changed in your treatment plan
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I’ve tried multiple ways to track my symptoms but most of them didn’t work for one reason or another.
I’ve tried paper but that requires remembering to print or photocopy it each month and keeping it somewhere where someone doesn’t find it.
I’ve tried just writing it down on paper but it inevitably gets lost and its hard to be clear on what means bad and what means good.
I’ve tried lots of phone apps too but most of them were made for depression, not Bipolar and so I couldn’t track my mania or they weren’t easy to use or weren’t free.
Until now…

eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker Review

I recently found an app called eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker. It must be new because I’ve been looking for a Bipolar tracker for years.

I’ve been using it for over a month now. It tracks your depression, mania, irritability and anxiety. You rank each from None to Severe and you are ranking the worst it was that day. This works best for me since my moods change throughout the day so it’s hard for me to rank my depression at a certain number for the day if it’s been all over the place. But this way I’m ranking the worst it was.

eMoods Log Your Moods

You can also mark if you had psychotic symptoms or had talk therapy that day. Also you can track the hours of sleep you got so you can see any patterns. Those with Bipolar know (or should know) that lack of sleep can be a sign of an Mania. If you are sleeping less and less and your mania is going up, it’s time to talk to your doctor.

In setting you can add a spot to track weight or menstrual cycle. My doctor used to have me track this and I found my depressions were worse during that time of the month. You can also allow it to automatically check that you took your everyday medications.
You can view your results in calendar or graph mode to see how you are doing over time. You can also set a reminder to use the app.

eMoods Sleep Results

eMoods Tracking Points

As you can see below (graph mode) you can see how depressed, elevated (manic), irritable or anxious I was from May 10th when I started using the app until the end of May. The darker, longer lines are worse. The small light blue dot means none. So you can see the 14th and 15th were bad for me with depression and irritability.

eMoods Calendar Mode

I don’t personally like this mode as much but you can see how you did in calendar mode. So here again you can see more dark circles on the 14th and 15th. In this mode you would have to remember that the first circle is depression, second is manic etc.

eMoods 3 Month Overview

The app just recently added this feature. This is another way to see how you’ve been doing. You see one month at a time but you can scroll down to see the last 3 months.
This one is showing June. It drops off on the 20th because that is today, when I wrote the post. You can see two irritability peaks, one of which happened when I was manic (elevated) but not the other. I mostly had mania this month, you can barely see the depression because it mostly was less than the mania was.

The Premium Version

All the above is free but if you upgrade to the paid version (which I have not) you can add custom tracking points so you can say mark down when you exercised.
The premium version also allows you to add time stamped notes, generate printable reports older than 6 months and 10% of the profits goes to mental health charities.
All your app data is saved and you can email yourself as a backup as well.

Get the eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker App

You can find the app on Google Play for Android.
You can find the app on the App Store for Apple.

The Silver Linings Playbook

The Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence with Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher and Julia Stiles.

Summary: After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Rated R
2hr 2min

Silver Linings Playbook Review

When I found out this movie was about someone with Bipolar I knew I wanted to watch it. Since I have Bipolar, I like to see how the media portrays us.
I realized as I watched it that there is always a problem with portraying people with mental illness in movies or TV.

Those with mental illness are all different, even if they have the same diagnosis. So because of this, a movie can only portray one version of that illness. So anyone with that illness that experiences it differently will think they didn’t portray the illness correctly. Anyone without that mental illness will think the illness ONLY looks that one way.

That being said, overall I think the movie was pretty good. I identify with Pat’s anger although I deal with it in a different way. He lets it out, I hold it in or unleash it on myself. I may have enjoyed it more if I was a football person as a lot of the show revolved around watching football on TV and betting on games.

It’s one of those movies you can watch while you do something else, it doesn’t require intense concentration. Which honestly is a good thing for me right now as I can’t concentrate well.
The ending was the best part of the movie (as it should be as far as I’m concerned.) The movie is listed as a Romantic Comedy-Drama but honestly there wasn’t really any comedy in it. But that was okay. A Romantic Drama was refreshing.

Silver Linings Playbook Trailer

NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming

Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP is something I just recently stumbled upon. It can be a bit confusing at first but it sounds like something I’d like to try and I wanted to share a bit about it.

What is NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming?

According to Wikipedia:

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States in the 1970s. […] NLP’s creators claim there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro-), language (linguistic) and behavioral patterns learned through experience (programming), and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life

If that seems very confusing, don’t worry. I find the more I read about NLP the more I understand it.
Basically there are a set of practices you can do to acheive results whether it be freedom from depression and anxiety or just the negative thoughts every person has from time to time.
You should know that not all of these ideas can be proven through science and probably because of that, certain people and groups discredit NLP. However there is nothing harmful about using NLP and besides, sometimes if you believe something helps, it helps.

Anchors

Anchors are used to change the feelings/thoughts surrounding a particular situation. You know how sometimes if a person is wearing something specific and they win a competition they start to think of that item as lucky? Whether or not it has any actual luck in it doesn’t matter. The person associates said item with luck and so when they wear it in the future, they feel more lucky.
Anchors are like that but you can make them intentionally too. So if you create a few anchors like a calming stone you can hold or a joyful necklace, you can train your brain to change how you’re feeling when you have those anchors with you.

Change The Memory

There is another one that involves remembering something negative that happened (and that you think about often) and looking at it again from a third person’s perspective, as if you are a movie director. You can zoom in and out, change the view, focus on certain things and unfocus on others.
Manipulate the memory, take the focus off the main part and focus on smaller, average things such as the flowers in the vase behind you or the dog barking at your feet. Doing this enough makes the memory seem distant and non important, stopping your brain from going back to it again and again.

And More

There is way more to it than that. I am still learning but I think it’s an interesting way to try to change your thinking. I wish I had heard of it sooner! There are some resources below if you wish to know more. The free ebook is pretty good and if after that you want to learn more, you might want the other books. Just remember that it can seem confusing at first but keep reading.

Resources:

NLP Canada FREE ebook on NLP
NLP Depression & Anxiety Kindle Books (affiliate link)
Neuro Linguistic Programming for Dummies (affiliate link)

The Difference Between Angry and Mad

How many times have you heard people use the word angry and mad interchangeably (me included) when there really is a difference between angry and mad.

Difference Between Angry and Mad

While there is technically a difference between being angry and mad, it’s not that big of a deal if you say you are mad when you mean angry, especially if you live in North America.
Although I will be explaining a bit behind the meaning of the words, this post is about dealing with your anger as much as it is about the correct grammar.

Angry and Mad Defined

Angry
1. Having a strong feeling of or showing annoyance, displeasure or hostility; full of anger.
Some synonyms: irate, cross, vexed, incense, infuriated, etc.
He makes me so angry.
I get angry when she does that.
Mad
1. mentally ill, insane
Some synonyms: crazed, psychotic,
She felt as if she was going mad.
He could feel the madness welling up inside of him.
If you live in England you will hear the word mad used to mean mentally ill more than you will in North America but the meaning is still the same.

How Angry and Mad Got Mixed Up

So how did people start using the word mad when they mean angry?
Unfortunately a lot of people have trouble with their anger and instead of expressing it well, as soon as it bothers them, they do a number of different things to not express it from bottling it all up quietly inside of them, to acting passive aggressive (e.g. the person who says nothing is wrong but gives you the cold shoulder) to the person who takes the anger out on the wrong person.
When they do this, anger tends to build inside of them and act like a poison to their body. They are not expressing their anger in a healthy way and so it can feel like they are going mad (insane) because their anger is building inside of them and affecting their mental health.
This seems to be the way that the word became known to be about anger.
“To feel and to express anger healthily is actually the antithesis of madness.” – The Angry Book by Theodore I Rubin, M.D.

Not Letting Anger Turn to Madness

I have no idea what the actual stats are but I do know that many people struggle with anger problems.
The Angry Book by Theodore I Rubin, M.D., although old, is a good resource for recognizing how you deal with anger. It shows the MANY and varied ways that people don’t deal with their anger in the best ways. Some are obvious but many you would not at first think have anything to do with anger.
You might be surprised to see how your behaviours might be betraying a long standing “slush fund” of past anger. Slush fund is the term used in the book to indicate the built up anger inside of you.
Definitely if your anger often seems stronger or more potent than would make sense for that situation, is very frequent, hurts your relationships or makes you act violently than you definitely are having troubles with your anger.
Seek help with your psychiatrist, doctor, counsellor or a trusted family member or friend if you are worried.
NOTE: I have reviewed the book I mentioned above at one of my other blogs if you are interested you can read my review of The Angry Book.

Are you the egg, the carrot or the coffee bean?

Are you the egg, the carrot or the coffee bean?

In life, some people are like the egg, soft in the beginning, malleable, delicate. But when pressure (like boiling water or life's pressures) surrounds the egg, it gets harder and is tough, not malleable. These are the people who have a hardened heart thanks to the pressures of life.

In life, some people are the carrot. They start of hard and strong, but when pressure (or water) surrounds the carrot it gets softer and softer until it turns to mush. It can't hold it self together, it gets crushed under any weight.

In life, some people are the coffee bean. When pressure (water) hits the coffee bean, the coffee bean changes the water/pressure, not the other way around. The beautiful scent of the coffee bean is magnified by the mixture with the water and the scent affects life and sets the atmosphere. If you're the coffee bean, you are the scent that clears the air. You affect the pressures of life and spread your scent to everyone else.

So which one are you?

*I was taught about this at the Christian Women's Conference I attended. I wanted to share the short form of it with you.

Christian Women's Conference Day 2

Day two of the Christian women's conference brought me even more knowledge and hope.

Imagine you have a cup of water with impurities in it. You want to drink from it but it's not clean. How do you make it more clean and less impure? Saturate it with more water. The water will filter the impurities to the top where you can take them out. By the same token, God doesn't want to change us, he just wants to put more of himself in us to saturate us with himself so that our impurities may be filtered out.

About Revelation

Revelation - unknown fact that is made known in a dynamic or dramatic way.

You need a revelation about who you are. A revelation of your true destiny. 

 About Drama

Drama reveals reality. Women are deep and so we have more drama. Men are simple. Drama you have been through becomes your reality unless you let it go.

About Your Past

Satan tries to stop you from advancing. He makes you focus on the past and present instead of the future.

Women replay the past over and over. You must let it go.

Don't own where you've been or who you've been.

Use your past as a stepping stone, as a platform.

AA says that once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic but that is NOT true. You are NOT what you used to be.

About Your Destiny

 Satan tries to assassinate your destiny

"You Must Now Know Who I Am!" - I am important, I am unique, I am me

When I know myself - I walk, talk and act different.

"You're about to have a coming out party" - you are going to come out as you really are

If God put me in the world, the world must need me.

About Others

See your accusers, the haters. They look up at you because they are beneath you.

"Take the stench of your past and make it perfume of your present!"

"If you're gonna go with me, you gotta grow with me" - only surround yourself with people who will help you advance.

"You gotta love everybody but you gotta love some from a distance" - regarding people who bring negativity to the world.

About Your Issues

Circle Your Problems, Don't Let Them Circle You

Your dysfunction has become your normal. If you lead a dysfunctional life for long enough, it becomes your normal and you have to constantly work at keeping it where you want it. You have to keep adjusting yourself. You might feel like it gets worse before it gets better.

Get off Facebook and put your face IN the book.

God doesn't want to bless your mess. He can't bless you until you deal with your issues (just like in John 4 when he is talking to the Samaritan woman.

Your issues are coming between YOU and your DESTINY.