Truth Tools

Saturday we talked about the basics of Living in Truth. That brings us to the Truth Tools.
The Truth Tools are just that—Tools that help us get out of the Pit of Illusion
and into the Realm of Truth.
They are what helps us move into neutral.

We’ve talked about many of the Truth Tools before
so if you click on the words Truth Tools it will take you to past blog entries about the Tools.
 (Or there are several links on the left of this blog that take you to places that discuss the various facets of Living in Truth.)

Sometimes we pick up from those around us a Truth Tool that helps
us to go into neutral in a certain situation, but we find it doesn’t work in other situations.
That is why it is important to have many tools ready to be used.
Just as a carpenter building a house needs more than just a hammer,
you and I need more than one Tool to help us Live in Truth.
 If one tool doesn't work in a situation,
 you try another until you find one that works.

Some of the Truth Tools I’ve identified and use are:

Anchoring

Humor

Music

Rewriting

Questioning

Distraction

Good Courage

Affirming
Curiosity

Whenever you feel negative emotions such as

 fear, worry, stress, anger, self-pity, sorrow, or envy pushing you into the Pit of Illusion,

 pick one of the Truth Tools and use it to get rid of the negative emotion.

Once the negative feelings are gone you can move into the positive from there.
 It is a lot easier than trying to go from negative directly to positive.
Once in the Realm of Truth you can experience
 happiness, joy, love, and peace
which are always available when Living in Truth.

Watch Out For Un-Truth Tools

When exploring how to Live in Truth we’ve talked a lot about the Truth Tools which are tools that help us alleviate negative mental chatter and negative emotions so that we can enjoy the peace that Living in Truth gives us. But there are counterfeits to the Truth Tools that many people seek after and recommend that we need to beware of. This Un-Truth Tools may for a moment seem to relieve the negative mental chatter and the negative emotions, but with the Un-Truth Tools as soon as the activity stops the negative emotion returns and usually with more intensity.

So what are some of these tools? Drugs, exercise, sex, food, career attainment, sleeping, travel, shopping, entertainment, sports, and pleasurable activities such as massage or spa treatments. Notice that none of these things is bad when used properly. They all have very valuable places in our lives. But the problem occurs when they are used as the source of happiness instead of as an aid to well-being. Then they are like a band aid; they temporarily mask the problem but they don’t solve the problem. As a matter of fact, they can be harmful in that they divert us from the time and thought necessary to analyze, recognize, and solve the problem.

While a slight diversion to help us get our head on straight is often necessary, and is one of the purposes of the Truth Tools, diversion that purports to be the solution, to be the happiness, will never work and will often create more problems.

The adversary has a counterfeit to every true principle, so watching out for and avoiding Un-Truth Tools can save us a lot of pain.

More Truth Tools

The Good News today is that there are more

Truth Tools than what we talked about yesterday. In the Doctrine and Covenants 59:4 we are told that the reward for those who are seeking Zion, in other words seeking to be pure in heart, is that they will be ”crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few.” Most of us don’t think of commandments as blessings, but the commandments are Truth Tools—amazing Truth Tools that "crown" our lives if we let them.

One of the most powerful of the Truth Tools is prayer. When the negative feelings begin to swell within us calling upon God can dispel them. Another Truth Tool, Forgiveness, works not only on the negative emotion being generated by the offense we are holding a grudge against, but when we forgive and let go of the bad thoughts, we find that other negative feelings melt away also. Forgiving others works in the soul like taking a warm shower works on the body. You may get in the shower because your feet and hands are dirty, but your whole body gets cleaned and it feels so good.

Repentance, fasting, and the Sacrament are also powerful Truth Tools. When we take the time to analyze our lives and identify what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong and then go to the Sacrament Altar ready to sacrifice the things we are doing wrong and commit to do better the coming week,

we are empowered. Sin generates negative emotion and feelings

and when we give up the sin the negative feelings go with it.

In short, these and other commandments are really an enormous blessing in our lives.

They are Truth Tools that allow us to rid our lives of the negative feelings that push us into the Pit of Illusion and allow us to live in Truth where peace, joy, happiness and love abound. As D&C 59 goes on to say, “He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (23).

Tools of the Trade

I hope you've been paying attention to the stories you are telling yourself. I also hope you are determining whether what you are saying is the Truth and nothing but the Truth, or an Illusion, what you think should be instead of what is? If your story is not the Truth then you need to drop it and how to do that brings us to the subject of Truth Tools.

Truth Tools are strategies that help us get rid of the vexing thoughts that plague us when we are in the Pit of Illusion

Truth Tools are meant to help us move out of Illusion and into a neutral position where the Spirit can then help us Live in Truth. But one of the first things we learn as we begin to use the Tools is that one tool can't do it all.

Just as a carpenter building a house needs more than just a hammer, you and I need more than one Tool to help us Live in Truth.  If one tool doesn't work in a situation,  you try another until you find one that works.

Some of the Truth Tools I’ve identified and use are:

Anchoring

Humor

Music

Rewriting

Questioning

Distraction

Good Courage

Affirmation

Whenever you feel negative emotions such as fear, worry, stress, anger, self-pity, sorrow, or envy pushing you into the Pit of Illusion, pick one of the Truth Tools and use it to get rid of the negative emotion. Once the negative feelings are gone you can move into the positive.  It is a lot easier than trying to go from negative directly to positive. Once in the Realm of Truth you can experience  happiness, joy, love, and peace which are always available when Living in Truth.

Leaving Illusion

Illusion: Old Woman or Young? Which Do You See?

As you remember, the opposite of Living in Truth is Living in Illusion. For those new to these pages, let me remind you of the definition of Truth. Truth is “Knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24). Things as they as means verity or reality. So once something has occurred, it is truth. The truth is that yesterday there was a car crash, but if instead of dealing with that truth we begin to think, “It shouldn’t have happened. Why did God let this happen? The driver should have been more careful.” You suddenly shift from dealing with what is, the verity of the situation, to the realm of Illusion.

Once in the realm of Illusion we always experience anger and fear. In addition, the realm of Illusion constantly needs to be defended because it is not real. Truth stands on its own, but Illusion needs to be reaffirmed and reexamined and rejuvenated. It takes a lot of work to maintain Illusion. There is no work in maintaining truth. Truth maintains itself.

There is great peace in letting go of Illusion and living in peace. I’ve talked about a lot of Truth Tools in these pages. These Tools are strategies to help us let go of Illusion and Live in Truth. I don’t I don’t have a monopoly on Truth Tools. What are some of the ways you move from the realm of Illusion back into Truth? I love to hear how you do it. Tell me how the Truth Tools have worked for you or tell me other Tools you have found useful.

The Truth About Truth Tools

There is something powerful about the Truth Tools. It is difficult to use them at first. Bad habits are always hard to overcome and you sometimes feel like it is never going to work. But as you persist in attempting to eliminate negative feelings, you discover that when you begin to apply a Tool in times of vexation, you experience “something” helping you.

If crows can use tools, so can you!

If you pay close attention, and don’t add more unnecessary pain to the situation by thinking thoughts like, “This is too hard!” or “This is never going to work!” you can actually feel the “something” empowering and urging you on.
The word sustain fits well here. Sustain means “to buoy up” or “to bear up under.” And that is what happens when you persist in using the Truth Tools. Eventually you actually feel someone sustaining you or bearing you up.

So don’t try the Truth Tools once or twice and give up. For some reason, we need to let the Lord know we are serious about changing and getting rid of negative vexation. When we have thus proved ourselves, the Truth Tools begin to work miracles in our lives to bring us peace, joy, love, and happiness.

And then the next miracle! When you consistently live in Truth others around you begin to change. They can’t push your buttons anymore because that doesn’t work. They don’t “catch” your bad mood because there is no bad mood to catch. They have to react to you differently because the old ways no longer work. They often discover that good moods are as contagious as bad moods.

It is amazing! And it really works if you keep at it until old habits are done away and new habits take over.

Truth Tools at the Dentist's Office

Yesterday I had a tooth pulled. It is the second tooth since Grizelda that has shattered so that it needs to come out. It was causing a lot of pain so I’m glad it’s gone. But the good thing is how much the Truth Tools helped me yesterday. The oral surgeon offered to put me out, but I opted for a local and then used the Truth Tools to stay calm and actually found the whole process very interesting. After extracting the tooth, he put cadaver bone in the hole. After the bone heals and the bone transplant takes, there will be enough bone foundation to put in an implanted tooth. It is a strange feeling to think I have someone else’s bone in my mouth, but at the same time I’m very thankful for the scientific advances that allow for such a procedure.


I’m also grateful for the Truth Tools. Instead of coming out of the procedure groggy and in a mental fog, that takes me a good two days to shake off, I walked out feeling just fine. As he drilled and pulled and cut and scraped, I Anchored. The drills make a fascinating music and he kept explaining what he was doing so that, like I said, it was actually very interesting. The way he deftly put the stitches in was also amazing. It was obvious he'd done it thousands of times. That’s where the Storytelling Tool came in. Instead of filling myself with stories about how things could go wrong or it might hurt or any other negative story, I told myself a story about learning new things and how fascinating it was to watch someone who is so skilled at what he is doing.

Truth Tools work! Now I just need to use them to keep myself from being too self-conscious about the hole in the back of my mouth when I smile. They can’t do the tooth implant until the bone heals which will take about three months. Until then I have a missing tooth. My insurance won’t cover a temporary tooth, so I’ll be toothless. I can let it make me very uncomfortable or I can live with it. I’m opting to live with it. I’ve got Tools to help me do it!

Our Focus--Jesus Christ

Over the past couple weeks we’ve reviewed the different Truth Tools. I hoped they’ve helped you as much as they’ve helped me. I also hope you’ll share your stories about using the Truth Tools with me. Just email me at smillsjohnson@gmail.com.

But before we move on to other things one last reminder about the Truth Tools. They are not, in and of themselves, the saving factor. They are simply tools that can help us move out of the Pit of Illusion and into the Realm of Truth where we can better receive the divine help we need to grow and change. When we use the Truth Tools to rid ourselves of vexation, we put ourselves in a position to better hear the whisperings of the Spirit and to be guided by our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. They are the ones who save us. They are the ones who work the mighty change upon us that is called sanctification. They are the ones we should look to and worship in our quest for Eternal Life.

Recognizing that the Tools are merely a help and that real salvation comes through Jesus Christ helps us keep our focus on what really matters. Jesus Christ is our Savior. The Tools are simply a way to bring ourselves to Him.

Thank Goodness for Truth Tools!

I got along fine during the MRI and MRA that were done on Tuesday, but now I am using every Truth Tool I know to keep from worrying while I wait for the results. Once again I am so grateful that I learned these things before Grizelda was discovered. I never would have made it through this experience without those Tools.

When Grizelda was first discovered I was blessed with an incredible calm. I didn’t experience fear or worry. There was some stress and I was upset that I wouldn’t be able to teach, but as to myself and my health, I was very unconcerned. I realize now that it was a beautiful gift from my Father in Heaven. I also know from the blessings I’ve been given that eventually everything is going to be fine. I will not lose my eyesight and I will regain my full health, but as I await the results of this MRI I find myself worrying a little and needing to use the Truth Tools and I can tell you—They Work!

Anchoring is my favorite Tool and it works especially well when I start to feel stressed. When I find myself thinking, “What if. . .” I know immediately I’m headed for the Pit and that I need to change my thinking. So I remember the words of the blessings and Revise the negative “What-If” story that is playing in my head to a positive story. I also have found the Questioning Tool very helpful. When my mind begins to horriblize, I stop and ask, “Is that true?” and I usually end up laughing at myself. In short, even though I haven’t had the same overwhelming gift of peace this time, I’ve been able to stay in Truth thanks to the Truth Tools.

I was told in the blessing I received the night before the surgery that I would need to be patient. I’ve never been good at patience, but I’m beginning to realize that the Truth Tools are all about patience. They bring me back to peace and joy when I start to slip into the Pit of Illusion.

Truth Tools

Brigham Young once gave this advice, “When you are tempted, buffeted, and step out of the way inadvertently; when you are overtaken in a fault, or commit an overt act unthinkingly; when you are full of evil passion, and wish to yield to it, then stop and let the spirit, which God has put into your tabernacles, take the lead. If you do that, I will promise that you will overcome all evil, and obtain eternal lives. But many, very many, let the spirit yield to the body, and are overcome and destroyed” (Discourses of Brigham Young, selected and arranged by John A. Widtsoe, p.70).

President Young is talking here about sin, but the beginning of all sin is negative thoughts. So if we can stop the negative thoughts and change them to positive thoughts, our actions will always be positive. The key is to find the strategies that work for us and then learn to use them. And that is what the Truth Tools are all about. They are Tools to use to stop the tempting thoughts, the vexing thoughts, the angry thoughts, the lustful thoughts, any negative thoughts that may pop into our heads, and allow the Spirit to guide us to what we should do.

I like to compare the Truth Tools to the stick shift of the car I learned to drive in. When in reverse I always needed to go into neutral before I could go forward. Negative emotions are like that. It is very difficult to go from anger to love, but if instead I just concentrate using the Truth Tools to get me from anger to neutral, the Spirit then helps me get to love.

Living in Truth

Yesterday as I was walking into my Lewis class a woman stopped me to talk to me about the Living in Truth class she had attended earlier in the day. "I love what you taught," she said. "It just makes so much sense and it is so easy! Even I can do that."

I loved that comment and it sums up what Living in Truth is all about. Mr. J said it best when he said, "This Living in Truth stuff isn't just about right and wrong--it's about making life easy!" And that's what it does.

One of the most common complaints I get about Living in Truth is that the person knows the principles are right, they just forget to live them. That transition to thinking differently about what happenes to you  and reacting in new ways is a big adjustment, but it is worth the effort.

Today in class we will be talking about the Truth Tools and if you can just remember one or two Truth Tools and begin using them, life begins to change and then slowly you can add other Truth Tools to your Tool Box and you find life not only getting better, but easier.

So pick out one Tool you are going to use today and make it a Living in Truth day! It's easy.

I Feel Like 'm Coming Out of Hibernation

I’m on a diet to try and get back into my clothes by women’s conference. I figure that no one wants to see me up there speaking in my pajamas or just a slip since that’s about all I fit into since my two California trips and a week of company in the house. Anyway, dieting makes me ornery. I’m hungry as a bear that's just come out of winter hibernation and I'm twice as cross as a bear. I'm using every Truth Tool in my bag to try and keep myself nice enough to be around. I've never tried the Truth Tools on ornery-from-dieting.

I may need a new Tool because I’m not sure I’m succeeding. You’ll have to ask Mr. J about that, but hopefully I’m losing weight. If after all this I get on the scales and haven’t lost weight, I may need three bags of Truth Tools—no make that four. And if you hear a great growling sound, don’t be worried. It isn’t an earthquake—it’s just ornery me growling (between trial and error attempts at using the Truth Tools, of course!).

I do have to thank a kind friend who out of the blue sent me a love-and-appreciation email yesterday. She didn’t even know I was ornery from dieting and her kind words were like ointment to my (hungry) soul! We all really need each other, don’t we!!!!

Filling the Void

One of the first things I learned when trying to overcome negative feelings was that they don’t go away just by telling them to. When the negative feelings overwhelmed me, I knew I didn’t want them and that they were unnecessary pain. I’d tell myself that I shouldn’t be feeling like that and try to make the feelings go away, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t create a vacant empty space or void. Instead I began to realize that the only way to get rid of bad feelings is to replace them with good feelings. That’s when I began to use Truth Tools.

Over time another thing I have learned is that the most powerful of all feelings is love. When I use the Truth Tools to root out negative feelings, the best positive replace the negative feelings is love. For example, if I have negative feelings toward another person it is usually because I am telling a negative story. So I use the Truth Tool Revision or Rewriting and create a new story about the person. I can always tell a story like, “She didn’t realize what she said,” or “She must be having a bad day,” and that can help. It replaces the negative feelings with kindness. But a replacement story that includes love such as, “She is hurting and needs my love,” or “She is my sister and I can love her even when she says or does things I don’t like,” is much more powerful.

The world around us teaches us this same principle. There is no space in which there is absolutely nothing. Even what appears to our eyes to be nothing is full of air. Likewise, trying to create an emotional void only leaves us numb. Instead we can use the Truth Tools to push away negative feelings and then to keep them from coming back, we need to fill in the “space” they vacated with positive feelings.

Saved From the Pit

I’ve had one of those Living in Truth moments this week. Some people are blessed with the gift of Living in Truth all their lives. Their families lived that way and so they just learned it as the way to live. Or, for some reason, they picked up the ability to Live in Truth while young. But as I have said before, I am not one of those people. I struggle to overcome the negative and to not be pessimistic. That’s what led me to study these things and to begin to put them into practice. What that means is that Living in Truth is not my normal first reaction and it is why I need the Truth Tools. I need the Tools because they help me change my first reactions to a given situation from negative to positive.

One of those situations happened this week. In two weeks I am teaching a three hour lecture series on C. S. Lewis at BYU Education Week. I have been preparing for months by re-reading Lewis’ works and making notes. I knew I’d only have two weeks after we got home from our trip so I took three of the books with me to read during travel time. That worked. I read the books, made extensive notes in them, and planned to then organize and put the finishing touches on the lectures after I got home. It would still be tight time wise, but I could do it.

On the trip home, Mr. J asked if he could read one of the books so I gave him my favorite—The Great Divorce which he started to read. I didn’t think much more about it, but the day after we got home he informed me that he had left the book (with all my notes!) on the plane. As he told me what had happened, I could feel the negative emotions swell like great tidal waves within me. Anger, accusations, fear, and many other negative feelings started to push me out of Truth and over the brink and into the Pit of Illusion.

At that moment I sensed the darkness of the Pit and knew from experience it was not a place I wanted to be and began to Rewrite the story I was telling myself. The accusation, “How could he do this to me?” changed to “He feels so bad about the mistake he’s made. He didn’t do anything to me. It was a simple mistake.” And “I don’t have time to re-read and find the quotes I need again!” was rewritten into, “The Lord will help me. Re-reading the book could even prove to be helpful.”

With those thoughts I found myself back in the Light of Truth and the vexing, negative feelings (the unnecessary pain) leave. I’m still not exactly sure how I’m going to do it, but I am at peace in Truth, and in that state of Truth things always work out. I’ll let you know how when I know!

Writing Truth

I learned a lot last week while teaching my two classes, especially the Truth Shall Make You Free class. I’ve been studying these things for several years now and working hard to incorporate them into my life. But when I learn things, it is seldom in words. Feelings come to me that teach me and then I struggle to put the feelings into the right words. Teaching forces me to articulate what I have learned, but it always brings me face to face with the things I’m not articulating well or have failed to articulate at all.

With Education Week behind me, I will be going back through the book and adding what I learned by teaching, and stripping out the extraneous things that don’t need to be there, and then I’ll submit it. If you’ve had experiences with the Truth Tools, Truth Test, storytelling, necessary and/or unnecessary pain, or with moving from the Pit of Illusion to the Realm of Truth or any of the other principles we’ve talked about in the past on this blog or in my classes, now is the time to share them. I’d love more real-life experiences to use in the book. I can change names and circumstances so that no one will recognize you—if you want. But the stories of how the Truth Tools and Living in Truth work are so much more powerful than me just describing it. So if you care to share, and don’t want to go public by leaving your stories here as a comment, then email me your story: smillsjo at gmail dot com.

I hope to hear from you all soon!

Truth Tools To The Rescue

Thanks to all of you who gave me movie suggestions! (See yesterday's post!) I appreciate it, and welcome more ideas. I'd like to make a long list so if you haven't given me your input, do! Once the list becomes more complete I'll share it with all of you.

The Good News! today is that negative emotions don't have to destroy our happiness.

As we've talked about before, the descent into the Pit of Illusion happens when negative emotions assail us and we give in to them. Once in a while these negative emotions serve to warn us that we should do something constructive to correct a problem, but for the most part negative emotions are destructive and not constructive.

When we are feeling sad it is usually because of a loss, but as the emotion begins to overwhelm us, the loss always seems much bigger than it really is. When we feel anger it is usually because we think someone has tresspassed against us, and when we feel fear, it is usually because we feel we are in physical or emotional danger. Again when first feeling these negative emotions the tresspass and/or danger seem greater than they really are.

That's why the Truth Tools are so valuable; they stop us from falling into the Pit and give us time to recognize that we are exaggerating the problem. When we Live in Truth we see things more clearly.

So at the first sign of a negative emotion, instead of dwelling on the feeling, pull outyour Truth Tool Box and put the Tools to work. Stay in the realm of peace and joy!

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.

Trust in the Lord

One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in Prov 3:2-6. It reads, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

This passage is packed with information about Living in Truth. First we are told to bind mercy and truth around our necks and write them in our hearts. The connection between mercy and truth is interesting. It is impossible to live in Truth without having mercy. When living in Truth, or living with the verity of what is, we constantly need to be merciful to others. We need to excuse their mistakes and overlook the things they say or do that could hurt us. Living in Truth is impossible if we aren’t merciful. In addition, mercy and truth needs to be so much a part of us that that they emanate from our hearts. Helping us to do that is what the Truth Tools are all about. Mercy and truth aren’t something we do. They are something we are. The promise for becoming mercy and truth, then, is that we will find favor and understanding not only from God but from our fellow man.

All this is a big order. It may even seem absolutely overwhelming. But the writer goes on to tell us how we can do it. By trusting in the Lord, not half-heartedly, but with all of our heart we can live in Truth. We turn ourselves over to God’s divine understanding and don’t try to outguess or think we know better than He does what we should do. We simply trust Him. In conjunction with this, we acknowledge Him as the author of our lives. We acknowledge that He is wiser than we are and even if for the moment our situation seems dire, we acknowledge that He must have some purpose in it. Our job is to discover the purpose and do what needs to be done. If we do that He will direct our path and that path always ends in happiness.

A Little More Affirmation

It is obvious how the Truth Tools help us drop the Unnecessary Pain in our lives. The Tools change how we think, and thus we let go of the thought that is causing us Pain and move on. But the Truth Tools are also very effective for helping us deal with Necessary Pain.

For example, yesterday we talked about the Truth Tool Affirmation and how it helps us both avoid and rid ourselves of Unnecessary Pain. But Affirmation also strengthens and encourages us so that we can pass through the Necessary Pain of life valiantly.

When dealing with Necessary Pain the power comes not from Affirming your own strength, but from Affirming the strength of God. Paul said it best, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). Other Affirmations that help us endure the Necessary Pain of life are: "I have a Savior who strengthens me," "Yoked with the Savior I can endure anything." Again, just saying these words with conviction strengthens and empowers.

There are many ways to word Affirmations, but the important thing is to acknowledge that there is a strength beyond our own supporting and helping us. That is the most powerful Affirmation there is.

Truth and Health

We’ve talked a lot about Living in Truth and the help  Truth Tools can be in your quest to live in Truth, but I haven’t talked much about the advantages of living in Truth. Just today I found this report from Johns Hopkins, “Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness, and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.”

The advice to “learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit” is what Living in Truth is all about. Many studies now show that when we get trapped into the negative feelings found in the Pit of Illusion, it not only makes us miserable but it affects our health. When we live in Truth we are at peace and we are healthier.

It is worth every ounce of effort it takes to live in truth because of the benefits living in Truth brings to our lives. So walk in the Light of Truth today!