Obsession
This week I need to apologize
because my disease has won over the last couple months due to injury. I will
include some pictures of the new monster I have become from falling into things
and requiring stitches. It's a good thing my wife is already sealed to me for
all time and eternity. Ha ha,
I want to talk this week about how
I let this obsession with my injuries destroy my joy, my work, and my
commitment to you. It has also strained my relationships with others as it was
all I could think about or talk about.
Obsession is a dangerous thing. It
is something that occupies your mind constantly and causes you to make
questionable decisions, ignore the basic needs of yourself and others and
ignore other important aspects of your life. Your disease, pain, depression, illness
or struggle is never worthy of obsession.
Let's define obsession first
according to the dictionary it means. "to haunt or excessively preoccupy
the mind of" Other verbs that are suggested are plague, consume, posses
and torment.
I want to be clear here. I am not
talking about an obsessive compulsive disorder that needs psychiatric treatment
or any other disorder that requires medical care. That is for professional
doctors to help people with and are beyond the scope of this Blog.
I recently had a friend say they
would always obsess over something, it was their whole life. This made me
really sad. The people that love this person would not want that. It is too
large a burden and it is REALLY unhealthy. To occupy your mind totally with
problems of others or yourself is a recipe for unhappiness for you and those
around you. To torment yourself is horrible. Yet obsession is a form of torment.
My friend’s
simple statement caused me to reflect upon my own life and I changed my topic
to Obsession this week.
Obsession takes over your mind and
torments your life in all aspects of your life. Your mind or brain does not
like this.
Your mind needs time to rest from
worry. It needs time to play. It needs time to pray. It needs time to rejoice.
So let's talk about each of those before we get to homework and the pictures of
my completed cleaning assignment. It took 2 weeks.
Rest. Your mind needs rest from
worry. Every day you need to take 5 minutes to think about something else
completely. I am not talking about when you are working etc. But when you are
obsessing. Stop yourself for 5 minutes and find a way to rest your thoughts.
They will be racing. This will not be easy. You will need to work hard at this
but you need to find a way to be at peace to rest your mind. I pray, or ask my
wife to talk to me about something silly that makes me laugh. Then I rest my
mind for five minutes thinking of the love I have for her. I try very hard to
find a place that I can think about something not related to my obsession at
all. Something positive in my life. You would think this is easy, if you are
obsessed it is not. Because this is during periods that you are obsessing. You
need to stop and rest. Break the cycle and rest.
Play. Everyone needs time to have
a playful spirit. In the middle of obsessing about something take a few moments
and text a silly joke to a friend. Call a friend and do something that makes
you laugh. Find a way that you can play for a few moments during your day. I am
not talking long periods of time. I am talking moments to break the long cycle
of torment.
Pray. Now I know that not all of
you pray so I have an alternative. In the second half of this part. I am
leading with what I use most of the time. Take time to break the cycle and
pray. The rule here is it cannot have ANY connection to what your
obsession/torment is. You must spend time thanking your Heavenly Father for a
blessing in your life or pray for blessings for someone else is even better. If
you do not pray take time to think of someone in your life you are thankful for
and why. Make note of that and the next day take time to write them a note of
thanks. Break the cycle and pray or give thanks.
Rejoice. You need time to be
happy. If you have done all of these steps each day. Stop your cycle again and
rejoice that you are not tormented remember all those things you did. Reflect
on them and how your heart was less heavy during those moments. Choose to be
joyful for 10 minutes. Most of all take time to Choose Joy. Obsession is always
a negative thing. It robs you of joy and torments you. You defeat it by being
Joyful.
Now your homework is to do this
every day. Try to extend the times of each item as you can. It will be hard to
make the 5 minute mark trust me. Don't berate yourself. This is not an easy
pattern to break. It took me a month to reach 5 minutes on each and I am still
working on expanding the times.
Below are some Quotes about
Obsession and some words of encouragement. After these is my closing paragraph.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said
about this. "The torment of disappointment in the mind of man [or woman]
is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone.” Not so nice but remember you do not have to settle for this.
Psalm 118:24 King James Version (KJV)
24 This is the day which the Lord
hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
2 Nephi 9:3 Book of Mormon
3 Behold, my beloved brethren, I
speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads
forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your
children.
Rejoice my friends this road is
not easy but you are not walking alone. I am walking with you. If you are a
believer you believe God is walking with you. If you are not a believer take
courage that friends and family want to walk with you and I will pray even if
you think it is pointless it helps me to forget my obsession so forgive me and
let me walk with you as well. We will share the burdens.
We will take this journey together
and CHOOSE JOY!
