Prayer Chain to Bless the USA!

 The Center for Spiritual Evolution is joining with others to pray for the highest good for our country and divine guidance for all leaders and candidates in a campaign to Bless the US Leadership. The idea emerged from the New Thought Ministers yahoo group to hold this country and our leaders in prayer in what appears to be a very challenging time for our country.

All faith communities and individuals are invited to participate in the "Bless the U.S. Leadership" Prayer Chain every Sunday evening at 8 PM in every time zone from now until Nov. 4. Join us wherever you are each Sunday night at 8pm, treating for the highest and best good for our country. Pray for divine guidance for our leaders and candidates. We know the power of consciously directed thought and of prayer and have already begun the wave of intention across the nation. You may use your own prayer or choose from one of the following:

Study Shows Counting One's Blessings Yields Benefits

The studies "suggest the benefits of an attitude of gratitude extend beyond the domain of mood and well-being to encompass more specific indicators of successful life functioning - the attainment of concrete goals in life," says UC Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons.

Participants were divided into three groups: one group recorded the most significant events in their day-to-day lives, another recorded minor stressors, and one group recorded those things in their lives for which they were thankful.  Participants logged their emotions, physical symptoms, health and coping behaviors for 10 weeks. Those participants asked to focus on what they appreciated in their lives reported better well-being. Interestingly, that same group reported having spent significantly more time exercising than the other two groups in the study.

Higher well-being was evident in the mood states, global life appraisals and physical symptom reports by the participants who focused on the positive. This group experienced higher personal well-being than did those people who were asked to write about hassles or neutral events.

The same three groups of study participants concurrently participated in a longer-term study of goal attainment in daily life. Emmons found that those who had been in the "gratitude condition" made more progress toward their goals, on average, than participants in the other two groups.

The studies, Emmons says, "provide empirical confirmation of the ... benefits of 'counting one's blessings, one by one.'"