Word Weapons!

I’ve written many times here about Truth Tools and how to use them to keep ourselves in the Realm of Truth and far from the Pit of Illusion. But sometimes I find I need something more than Tools—I need weapons. Being one of the most critical and negative people who has ever been born upon the earth, I have spent years warring against my negative ways. Truth Tools have helped, but the war is far from over, and so I’ve been accumulating an arsenal of Word Weapons that are helping me win the war. 

Weapons are used to defend and to attack. By the same token, words can hurt and harm or comfort and ease and not just other people. The words I say to myself either harm or help me. As I realized this, I also realized that my negative and criticalness is manifest by the way I have used words to attack and it doesn't hurt anyone but me. For example, one of the things I noticed is that after any kind of event, I have performed a postmortem critic of the event. Evaluating an event to learn from it and grow from it is fine if you keep your comments to yourself and keep it constructive. And on occasion if invited to do so it is instructive and helpful to pass on to the right people an evaluation that will help them to grow and learn. But that is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about noticing every little detail that is not absolutely right or to my liking and then voicing that afterward. That’s not evaluating, that’s disparaging, murmuring, or being judgmental. And I am sorry to say I have done that and by so doing drive the Spirit right out of my life. It is a difficult habit to overcome, but I have also realized that just as words can be used destructively (to attack), they can be used constructively (to defend).

So when I am tempted to use critical words like a sword to strike out, I am learning to drop the sword and lift up my shield instead. The shield reflects the critical words and by peering over the shield, I then take note of all the good things about the event and dwell on those. Sometimes the temptation still comes to use my Word Shield to bash someone over the head, but I am learning how to hold my shield high so that it protects me and is never used to attack.

Life is a constant battle, but Words are amazing weapons that can help us or hinder us as we fight to live in the Realm of Truth.Noticing what Word Weapons we use and how we use them is an important step to take in order to fight out way out of the Pit of Illusion.

Truth Tool - Questioning

The Good News! today is that I really am going to get back to the Truth Tools. My second favorite Tool (right behind Anchoring) is Questioning. It is surprising how many bad feelings and vexations you can rid yourself of by simply asking, 

“Is that the truth and nothing but the truth?”

For example, let’s make up a scenario and say that you go to Back to School Night and your child’s teacher spends a lot of time with other parents but when you try to approach her she is distracted and doesn’t seem interested. So you begin to tell yourself a story about how the teacher plays favorites and how unfair it is that your child is not getting the attention the other students get, how rude and uncaring the teacher is, or that the teacher only pays attention to the kids with rich parents, etc. But by simply stepping back emotionally and asking “Is that true?” you often find yourself laughing.

If you aren’t laughing at how absurd your assumptions are then try Rewriting the story. 

Think of other possibilities of why she may be distracted and hurrying you along. 

Maybe she needs to get to the restroom after the long night. 

Maybe it is late and she has someone waiting for her at home. 

Maybe she is just plain worn out after a long day and her energy has quit on her.

And even if the first thoughts are true, what good does it do you to get all vexed about it. All you are doing is inflicting yourself with Unnecessary Pain and dropping yourself into the Pit of Illusion where it is difficult to hear the Spirit. If there really is a problem with the teacher, you want to be in the Realm of Truth where the Spirit can guide you as to how to deal with the problem. You don’t want to be so full of vexing emotions that you can’t hear the promptings of the Spirit.

Questioning works especially well on worry—when we are stressed that some awful things is going to happen. Asking ourselves if it is true that we are going to faint when we give that Sacrament Meeting talk we’ve been assigned to give, causes us to smile and realize that we are being overly dramatic. And the smile drives the vexation away.

Questioning is a powerful Truth Tool.

Oh, What a Day I Had

I know I told you I would get back to the individual Truth Tools today, but I must diverge again and tell you about yesterday. Ever since my surgery and the radiation on Grizelda, I’ve struggled a great deal with regaining my stamina. Since the surgery in December of 2008, I’ve had to rest often and couldn’t work the way I used to. In addition Grizelda herself gave me problems.

Before the surgery I used to walk with a group of friends every morning. They were all younger than I am and they walked at a good, fast clip. After the surgery and radiation the doctor told me not to exercise strenuously, but when I thought I was ready, I met them and walked with them one morning. About a fourth of the way I began to feel a great deal of pressure behind my left eye, the place Grizelda resides, and with every heart beat I could feel the pressure increase. But I kept pushing until suddenly with every heart beat my vision would go blank like when you blink only I wasn’t blinking. That scared me and so I slowed down and cut through the park telling the others I’d meet them on the other side. I was concerned but didn’t want to alarm the others so I just fell behind and walked slowly home, but it took three days for the pressure to go down in my head and when I told the doctor about this he chastised me and told me not to do anything that got my heart pumping like that.

In addition, I couldn’t put my head down because the blood would flow into Grizelda and build up pressure. This meant I couldn’t garden. For the past two summers whenever I tried to bend over and pull weeds I’d feel the pressure and the other problems. At first I thought, “Oh good! I have an excuse not to garden.”

But lately the pressure has been less and with the last MRI being so encouraging, I decided to work in the garden yesterday. And did I ever work! We have a large yard and I spent four solid hours clearing out an area that during the past two years had become overgrown. I cut back bushes and trees and pulled weeds like a mad woman. I did have a young man from the ward help me with the heavy things, but I worked like I haven’t worked in two years and it was WONDERFUL!

The interesting thing is that I found myself several times spontaneously breaking out in prayer and thanking God that I could work. If you had asked me three years ago if I’d someday be thankful to work I’d have laughed at you. I used to think having an excuse not to work would be the greatest blessing! How wrong I was. I loved feeling my muscles stretched to full capacity. I loved feeling the sweat on my body. I loved the feel of my lungs sucking deep and hard for air. I loved watching the insects up close, and even loved the feel of the rose bush thorns pricking my skin. I loved looking at a task and thinking, “Can I do this?” then after it was done basking in the satisfaction of knowing I’d done it.

It short, it was an amazing day filled to the brim and overflowing with pure joy. Hard work is a gift, and I hope I never again take it for granted or try to wish it away. What I realized is that when working hard at something good and with the right attitude, we are smack dab in the middle of the Realm of Truth where joy and peace abound.