Monday, November 26, 2018

What is the purpose of Life?

What is the Purpose of Life?

Sadhguru answers a question about the purpose of life and explains why having a "god-given" purpose will only restrict life.
 

Sadhguru: Isn't it fantastic that if there is no purpose, you have nothing to fulfill, you can just live. No, but you want a purpose and not a simple purpose, you want a "God-given" purpose. It's very dangerous. People who think they have a God-given purpose are doing the cruelest things on the planet. Yes or no? They are doing the most horrible things and they’ve always been doing the most horrible things because when you have a God-given purpose, life here becomes less important than your purpose.

No, life is important. Life is important - when I say "life," I am not talking about your family, your work, what you do, what you do not do, your party - I am not talking about that as life. This is life (referring to the self), isn't it? Life is within you or around you? You’re mistaking the ambiance of life for life. Your home, your family, your workspace, your party - this is all ambiance of life. This is not life, isn't it? Yes or no?

Participants: Yes.

Sadhguru: You’re mistaking the ambiance for the real thing. No. Life is important because it's the only thing you know, you don't know anything else. Do you know something else? Rest is all imagined stuff. The only thing is that this is beating and alive and that's all there is.
This is the greatest aspect of life - that it has no meaning to it and there is no need for it to have a meaning.

So, is this important? It is of paramount importance. Not you as a person, that’s not important, but you as a piece of life - it’s very important because that is the basis of everything. When I say that is the basis of everything, the universe exists for you only because you are, isn't it? Yes or no? The world exists for you only because you are, otherwise it won't exist in your experience. So, in every way this is important.

So, what is the purpose for this? See, if you had a purpose and if you’ve fulfilled it, after that what would you do? Bored, isn't it? It is just that life is so intricate and so phenomenally intricate that if you spend a 10,000 years looking at it carefully, you still will not know it entirely. If you spend a million years looking at it with absolute focus, still you will not know it in its entirety. That’s how it is. Is there a meaning to it? The greatest thing about life is that there is no meaning to it. This is the greatest aspect of life - that it has no meaning to it and there is no need for it to have a meaning. It is the pettiness of one’s mind that it’ll seek a meaning because psychologically you will feel kind of unconnected with life if you don’t have a purpose and a meaning.

People are constantly trying to create these false purposes. Now, they were quite fine and happy. Suddenly, they got married. Now the purpose is the other person. Then they have children. Now they become miserable with each other. Now the whole purpose that I go through all this misery is because the children. Like this, it goes on. These are things that you’re causing and holding these as purposes of life and is there a God-given purpose? What if God does not know you exist? No, I am just asking, by chance. I am saying in this huge cosmos, for which God is supposed to be the Creator and the manager of these hundred billion galaxies, in that this tiny little planet and you in Houston, Tch… Suppose he doesn’t know that you exist, what to do? Possible or no? I am sorry, I am saying such sacrilegious things but is it possible or no? What if he doesn’t know that you exist?
The need for purpose has come because you’re trapped in your psychological structure, not in your life process.

What if he doesn’t have a plan for you? Like Obama care. Suppose, he doesn’t have an individual plan for you! Don’t look for such things. The thing is, the creation is made in such a way that Creation and Creator cannot be separated. Here you are a piece of creation. At the same time, the source of creation is throbbing within you. If you pay little attention to this process of life, you would not need any purpose. It’ll keep you engaged for a million years if you want. There is so much happening - so much means so much unbelievable things are happening right here. If you pay enough attention, a million years of existence, it will keep you busy or more.

Right now, the need for purpose has come because you’re trapped in your psychological structure, not in your life process. Your psychological structure functions from the limited data that it has gathered. Within that it rolls and right now, your thought and emotion has become far more important than your life. So, because of this you’re seeking a purpose as an escape from the trap that you have set for yourself. It is a trap set by you. You can easily come out of it. If the trap was set for you by somebody else, difficult to come out because they’ll set the trap in such a way that you cannot come out.

I am talking about life not marriage, that’s what I mean. So this is a trap set by you. This is easy to come out, but that is the whole thing. Why it is so difficult is, now you’re identified with the trap, you like it. You like it because it gives you a certain sense of safety and security and protection and individual identity. If you build a cocoon around yourself, it gives you safety, but it also imprisons you. Walls of self-preservation are also walls of self-imprisonment. When it protects you, you like it. When it restricts you, you do not like it. That is why we have doors. We like the walls because it's protecting us, but we have doors so that we can open it and get out when we want to. It doesn’t matter how nice it is, we still want to go out, isn't it?
Those who find a purpose in their life, they become so conceited. They will live within their own trap forever thinking that they’re doing the most fantastic thing.

So that is how it is with every trap that you set. It doesn’t matter how nice it is, you still want to go out. So, the psychological wall that you’ve built, which gives you some sense of identity, which gives you some sense of being an individual person and which gives you security, beginning to experience it like a trap; somewhere you want to break it. So, one way of not breaking it is to find a purpose. Those who find a purpose in their life, they become so conceited. They will live within their own trap forever thinking that they’re doing the most fantastic thing. And now you said I’ve found a purpose. No, I am just fooling around, really! This is not a mission. People think I am some kind of a missionary because of the energy with which I am going at it. I am not going at it with any zeal, but I am going at it with a certain energy because it's normal for me to involve myself like this in anything for that matter.

You know like last two months have been a blitz of activity; blitz means like without a day’s break, without an hour’s break it's been going on like over twenty hours a day nonstop. So, I was in London, I did a three-day event, then I went straight from there to Kumbh. From there all of us who went there caught a flu, but then I went straight to Hyderabad, that afternoon I flew and in the evening I started a program - three-day event. All of them went down who traveled with me, but with my flu I taught three days’ program. Then I came into the ashram and then samyama started that evening, eight days of samyama which is an intense process. The day samyama closed, we started the Yaksha program and the Inner Way program. The day that closed, we had the Mahashivaratri, then Brahmachari meet and teachers’ meet - going on like this. My busy day means I am sitting twelve to fourteen hours in the same place unmoving. Everybody goes to the bathroom, but I don’t.

So, I thought I need to move a little bit and I said, ‘Let's go golfing.’ So, we went into a mountain place close by and I went with three other people who traveled from somewhere else and came. In two-and-a-half days I did eighty-five holes in the mountains. They all came in turns, but I went all the way. Every round that you do you walk, no buggies and all that stuff, walking. Ten kilometers you walk in the mountains at 6300 feet, eighty-five holes in two-and-a-half days.
It is wonderful to exist here without any purpose. It takes a certain freedom from your psychological structure to be here without any purpose.

So, if I go like this. Is golf a purpose of my life? No. I approach everything with a certain energy. This does not mean I found a purpose in hitting a ball. Similarly, I am teaching Inner Engineering because I find it's useful for the people. If I see a little boredom in anybody’s face, maybe I won't teach after that. Because I still see people are eager and anxious wanting to know something, I am on. If I see people around me are bored, then maybe you’ll never see me teaching again, because I am not seeing teaching Inner Engineering as a purpose. Right now, I see it is needed.

So, it’s difficult for you to understand probably right now, but the things that I throw my life into, are things that don’t mean anything to me, really! You think Isha Foundation means a world to me? No. Right now, I see without a foundation, we cannot function. With great reluctance, I formed the organization. Now it's grown, grown beyond what most people understand - it's grown very big. Is it the apple of my eye? No. I don’t like apple in my eye, I like my eyes clear. I keep it clear of all apples. You know the last time somebody got into the apple trouble, what happened to them.

So, I am saying I am throwing myself at something with great passion. This does not mean that is the purpose of my life. It is wonderful to exist here without any purpose. It takes a certain freedom from your psychological structure to be here without any purpose. If you’re trapped in your psychological structure you need a purpose. Otherwise, your psychological structure will lose its integrity. That’s why the girl who was asking at that time, I said, “First thing you need is balance. If you have balance, then you can climb. If you don’t have balance, it's better you stay on the ground.” It's not safe for somebody who is not balanced to climb high. It's best you stay close to the ground. You should not climb.

So, first thing is to establish a balance, then you loosen your psychological structure, then it's a wonderful thing. If you are loosening your psychological structure without balance, which lot of people are doing today. See, why does somebody want to drink alcohol or take a drug? Because it loosens your psychological structure and makes you feel liberated for a moment but without the necessary balance. You have not worked for the balance, but you got freedom. Freedom without balance is destruction, anarchy, isn't it?
The purpose of life is to live and to live totally. To live totally means - before you fall dead, every aspect of life has been explored, nothing has been left unexplored.

So, first thing is to work for balance, an enormous sense of balance where even if you dismantle your psychological structure, you can simply live here. Dismantling your psychological structure is an important process because that is your trap, that is your security, that is your stability. At the same time, that’s your trap. Because the walls are set, you feel secured, but that’s also your trap. If you dismantle your trap, you also dismantle your security, isn't it? You also dismantle your sense of purpose. You also dismantle everything that matters to you. So, that will need balance. Without balance, if you dismantle you’ll go crazy. But, don’t look for a purpose because if you look for a purpose, you are seeking madness. If you find one, you are sure mad. Yes. If you think you’ve found a purpose in life you’re for sure gone crazy because only the insane people have purpose or people who have a purpose are insane in many ways.

These are things that you create in your mind and believe it's true, isn't it? Right now, ‘fighting for my country is my purpose.’ Right now if it's necessary, I’ll fight knowing fully well it's an unnecessary bloody fight. Yes. Then you’ll fight only to the extent it's necessary. If you think this is your purpose, you would want to destroy the whole world for what nonsense you believe in, isn't it? If something is needed, we will do it with absolute involvement. Tomorrow suppose I find all of you are enlightened, it may happen! Suppose I find all of you are enlightened, will I come here and say “See, what did you have? Maggi noodles? Your body, you accumulated. You are not the body, you are not the mind,” it would be irrelevant, isn't it? Yes or no? So when I see that you are enlightened, I’ll stop Inner Engineering. Right now, it's needed, we’re doing. This doesn’t mean this is the purpose of my life. This is an unfortunate necessity, but I will do it joyfully and with great vigor because I do that with everything, not just with this. Don’t think I only teach the program with intensity and vigor, I live my life like that with everything, I eat like that also. I will do everything with intensity and vigor, that’s how you’re supposed do your life, isn't it?

So, please do it that way. There’s no other purpose. The purpose of life is to live and to live totally. To live totally does not mean party every night. To live totally means - before you fall dead, every aspect of life has been explored, nothing has been left unexplored. Before you fall dead, even if you do not explore the cosmos, at least this piece of life (Referring to oneself) you must know it in its entirety. That much you must do to yourself, isn't it? That’s living totally, that you experience the whole of this, all dimensions of what this is. You did not live anything untouched. You just do that. That will take a long time. That’s good enough purpose for you.

What is the Purpose

of Life?

Sadhguru answers a question on the purpose of life, and explores what it takes to enhance one's life to its maximum potential.
 
Question: Sadhguru, what is the purpose of life?

Sadhguru: If you were very blissful and ecstatic at this moment, would you think, “What is the purpose of life?” – No. Only when in some way, life has become burdensome, these questions arise: “To be or not to be?” “Is there a good enough purpose for me to exist?”

Your experience of life itself has not become grand and worthwhile enough. That is why you are trying to find a meaning. If just sitting here and breathing was ecstatic for you, you wouldn’t ask, “What is the purpose of life?” So, before you ask that question, the most important thing is you need to learn to enhance this life to its maximum potential. When I say “life,” you don’t even know what life is. All you have right now is your body and mind. Make them as pleasant as you can. Only when your physical body and mind are in a state of pleasantness, everything in you works at its best. Your intelligence works at its best only when you are joyful and blissful. If a human being manages to remain in a continual state of blissfulness, let’s say for 24 hours, one’s intelligence will double. There is enough medical evidence to prove this today.
You don’t have to do anything. Just being alive is grand enough.

Have you spent a single day in your life without a moment of agitation, irritation, anger, anxiety, or anything like that? In all these years, have you spent 24 hours just blissfully? Not just you, almost the whole of humanity has to answer this question with a “no.” If you are not blissful one day, that’s understandable. But not having been blissful for a single day – that means something very fundamental is wrong. Without understanding the fundamentals of what this human mechanism is, you are trying to operate it. It is just like you got into a car, you didn’t know what these three pedals were for, and you kicked any one of them whenever you felt like it. You know what a jerky driver you would be?

Right now your wellbeing is that jerky. You know moments of joyfulness, you know moments of love, you know moments of blissfulness, you know moments of ecstasy in your life – but you are not able to sustain this. It is jerky because you are trying to operate your life without understanding the sophistication of the mechanism you are handling.

So, “What is the purpose?” This question arises because you have not experienced the grandeur of existence. You have not experienced the magnificent nature of your being. That is why you are asking, “What is the purpose? What should I do to make this life meaningful?” You don’t have to do anything. If you could sit here for one moment and experience this, you would know you don’t have to do anything. Just being alive is grand enough.



After reaching a certain level of success and security, people often wonder, what’s next? What is the meaning or purpose of life? People who live day-to-day or those who are hungry don’t seem to ask these questions. So somewhere, the understanding is there within every person that there is more to life than the typical rudimentary things.

If you look at every other creature on the planet, the moment their survival is takes care of, their problems are over. Survival is their only problem. However, for humanity, once survival is taken care of, are their problems done? For most people, survival is taken care of, they want something more. More money, more food, more drinks, more pleasures, or whatever it is, people want more. People are looking at many of these things for a sense of fulfillment.

After a while, many people gain an understanding that life is beyond them. When existence is so large, how can we become significant? Nobody wants to feel that he/she is insignificant. Nothing they have done or accumulated has given them a sense of fulfillment. So people wonder, “what is the purpose of my life?” Let’s hear what Sadhguru, a realized yogi, has to say about the purpose of life.

Sadhguru: “The birds are busy gathering their food. Their food is trying to escape and live its life. And the cockroaches are busy, or maybe they were busy in the night and now they are resting. Everyone is conducting their life. You are sitting here and thinking, “what is the purpose of life?” Where did you get this problem?

You got this problem because a certain level of intellect was given to you. Now you have this problem of thinking you are too important on the planet. Human beings are so full of themselves that they think there must be some God-given purpose, a special purpose for them – that too, for each one of them. They are all working at cross purposes and they thing they are doing God-given duties.
All those people who believe they are doing God’s work, I hope God takes them and gives them some work there, not here. I have been telling him, “Please don’t send your soldiers here, keep them there. Why do you send them here? We don’t need protection, we are okay as long as it is on. When it is time to die, we will die. If you are so concerned about your security, keep them there.” But he keeps sending them here! Conquest, you know, same old problem – imperialism. If God has to send his soldiers to Earth, he is trying to colonize the planet Earth. Not successful, but trying. If you are successful in colonizing a place, you can withdraw the soldiers. If you are not able to withdraw the soldiers it means it has not been successful.”

ESSENCE OF LIFE

How to live a

meaningful life?

Sadhguru explains


The Isha Yoga Centre at Coimbatore is a haven for tired souls. The place has a lot to offer for people struggling to stay sane amid the hustle and bustle of modern life.

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha, talks about how to enhance and enrich your life and make it more meaningful.
Excerpts from the interview:

How would you define a meaningful life? How can one make his life more fulfilling?

Everything that we do is in some way contributing to someone’s life. If you see how to make this a conscious process of contributing to everyone’s life through your work, then your life will be very different. Contributing does not mean that you will not make money in your business. If you constantly see how to give your best to everyone around you, then profit will happen—you don’t have to worry about it.

Contributing is not about money or material—it is basic volition of your life. If you make your life into a contribution, then your life will become truly meaningful and worthwhile because you are creating what you care for.
If you are creating what you care for, then it will be a joy to go to work every day. With this, you will never die of stress, believe me. You may die of exhaustion, but you will not die of stress. That is a very good thing.

The moment you are seeing how to contribute, the moment there is a certain pleasantness of experience within you, your body and mind will function at their best. There is substantial scientific and medical evidence to prove this. If your body and mind are not functioning at their best, do you believe you will attain success? Success is a consequence of harnessing all that you have to the best possible result. If this has to happen, you must be in a pleasant state of experience. Then the more you do, the better you should feel. This will only happen to you if you are always looking at how to make a contribution to everything around you.

Why are we here? What do you think is our purpose in life?

If you were feeling really ecstatic, would you ask about the purpose of life? You are asking this question because in some way, the experience of life is not good enough. Most human beings have become a bundle of thoughts, emotions, ideas, opinions and prejudices. That means your psychological drama is hijacking your life. Most of the time, you are only thinking about life, not living it. You have come here to live life, not to think about it.

Don’t try to invent all kinds of purposes for life. If you explore the nature of this life that you are, you will know that life does not need any purpose—life is too phenomenal by itself. If you experience this life in its fullness, life is a purpose unto itself.

We often hear stories of people who committed suicide soon after they reached the pinnacle of success. Why is modern life so stressful?

We usually think of “success” in terms of what we could do and where we will stand in the world. What I see is, generally successful people are far more stressed and suffering a lot more than the not-so-successful people. Success means essentially, you are sitting on a good perch. So if someone sits on a perch which they are not equipped to sit on, success kills you. If one is successful because of social trends, educational qualifications or family backgrounds which carry him to certain places, then he suffers constantly. If you want to enjoy your perch, it’s very important that before you engineer situations for success, you first engineer yourself.

Essentially, people’s stress and suffering have nothing to do with success or failure. Stress is happening to you not because of the work that you are doing. All that is happening because you have not learned how to handle the basic faculties of your body and mind. Every human experience has a chemical basis to it. You may call it stress, anxiety, bliss, or ecstasy, but everything has a chemical basis to it. As there is a science for external well being, there is a whole science as to how to create your inner chemistry. Yoga has many methods through which you can create the right kind of chemistry where being peaceful and joyous comes naturally to you.

Why do human beings sometimes experience an existential crisis? How can one overcome it?

Everything has become a crisis in people’s lives. Adolescence was a crisis, finding a career was a crisis, midlife is a crisis, old age will be a crisis. So when are they not in a crisis? If they sense a little bit of a crisis, that is when most people freak out. Especially for a crisis, it is all the more important that you function at your best at that moment, but that is when most people give in.

This dimension can be easily transcended if a person is willing to invest a certain amount of time upon themselves. If you think what you are doing is important, then the first thing that you need to do is work upon yourself. Various types of methods are available through which every human being can do this. There are ways to improve the very way the fundamental life force within you functions—there is a whole science and technology for this.


Want a high? No

drinks, no hangover

– just you!

It’s that time again when people get sloshed at parties and wind up with massive hangovers to start off their new year. If you know someone like that, be a good friend and let him know about this post.

It’s that time again when people get sloshed at parties and wind up with massive hangovers to start off their new year. If you know someone like that, be a good friend and let him know about this post.

Sadhguru: Every human experience is backed by a chemical basis. People try to put in chemicals either in the form of drugs or drink or whichever way, to manipulate their chemistry into a pleasant experience. If all you are seeking is a little bit of pleasure, I am not against it. But if you are a pleasure seeker, wouldn’t you be interested if you were given an opportunity to have a much bigger pleasure? If you could learn to be drunk all the time and fully alert, wouldn’t you be interested?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with alcohol, I am ignoring it because it doesn’t have enough kick in it. I am constantly drunk on something else – simply drunk on life. I can get intoxicated on just my inhalation and exhalation. People have fallen for alcohol because that is the biggest thing that they have seen. I am offering them a different drink, a drink which is much more intoxicating than alcohol. Most people who have tasted this with me have given up alcohol, not because they think it is bad, but because they think it is kindergarten stuff. They have grown beyond it.

The question is not about wrong or right. This is not a moral standpoint. It is just that it is very limited. You drink a little bit tonight and tomorrow morning you get a big hangover. But I can be drunk twenty-four hours of the day – no hangover, it doesn’t cost anything, and it’s good for health! Isn’t this a better way to drink? We look at alcohol, drugs and all these things as kindergarten stuff because we can get intoxicated a thousand times over just with our aliveness. Why simply wine? You can get drunk with the di-vine.

When I say “Inner Engineering”, I am talking about a technology where you can create a chemistry of ecstasy all the time, consciously. Right now it is happening accidentally, triggered by somebody. Whatever you can do unconsciously – by looking at the sunset, or by looking at your loved one – you can also do consciously. That is the basis of Inner Engineering.

Within you, you have experienced peace and turmoil, joy and misery, ecstasy and agony. So you are capable of all these things. But right now you are conducting this whole experience and chemistry unconsciously. You can also conduct it consciously. That is the whole effort of all spiritual processes – to see that you create your life consciously instead of blundering through it by creating it unconsciously.

Hello! Interviews

Sadhguru: Fulfilling

Human Potential

We have been bringing you a series of excerpts from a recent interview Sadhguru gave to Hello! magazine. This final part deals with our duty as human beings and reaching our potential.
 
Q: Who is a good human being? What are his primary duties towards himself/herself and society?

Sadhguru: As a human being, your only duty is that you grow to your full potential. If you grow to your full potential, your very way of being is absolutely useful. The best things will happen around you; there is no need for you to do any duty.

If you do not know how to make yourself happy, is there any possibility of you making the world a happy place to live in? If you do not know how to manage your body, mind and emotions, can you manage the world? It is not going to happen. If you do not know how to keep yourself, you will definitely not know how to keep the world. So, don’t worry about your duty, see how to nurture yourself to the highest possible level. Then you will do what you should do.

Q: How can one align the mind, body and soul in a way that holds the three together in a fine balance?

Sadhguru: In yoga, we look at the human body as five sheaths. The first sheath is called annamaya kosha or the “food body,” because what you call as the physical body is just a heap of food. The second sheath is called manomaya kosha or the mental body. These two layers can only function in connection with the third dimension, the energy body or pranamaya kosha. You can compare this to computers today – there is hardware and software, but by themselves they cannot do anything unless you plug the computer into quality power.

Pranamaya kosha is the dimension in which most of the yogic practices function. If you keep your pranamaya kosha in perfect balance and fully activated, there can be no such thing as disease either in your physical or mental body. Keeping the energy body in full flow is not about doing healing or things like that. This is about going to the foundations of your energy system and activating it in a proper way by building a foundational yogic practice that establishes your energy in such a way that your body and mind are naturally fine.

Q: How does one evoke happiness from within?

Sadhguru: As there is a science and technology for external wellbeing, there is a science and technology for inner wellbeing. Yoga is an inner technology. When I say yoga, don’t think in terms of impossible physical postures or twisting yourself like rubber bands. This is a deeper understanding of your own body, mind and energy, and about creating an inner situation where you are joyful and peaceful by your own nature. Being peaceful and joyful is not the ultimate goal in life; it is the most fundamental thing in a human being’s life. If you cannot be peaceful and joyful, you are incapable of exploring any other dimension within yourself.

So, to be peaceful and joyful, we have simple methods. If you just make your life energies function in a certain way, you are naturally peaceful and joyful by your own nature.

Q: How does one get rid of fear, especially fear of disease, death and material loss?

Sadhguru: The physical in the existence is constantly under threat because the physical is always within limited boundaries – it is always demarcated. With anything which is demarcated, there is always a fear of losing it. For instance, this physical “you” is constantly under threat. No matter how healthy, strong or young you are right now, tomorrow morning you may be dead. I am not wishing it upon you, but you may be dead, isn’t it? Because the physical is under constant threat. Nobody can avoid it.

Fear has become so fundamental simply because your experience of life has not gone beyond the physical. If we had explored and established ourselves in other dimensions of experience, the body would not be such a big issue. But now, no matter what kind of teachings other people give you, whether someone tells you that you are atman, paramatman or whatever else, your whole experience is limited to the physical body. So the fear of losing it is natural. But if you establish yourself in other dimensions of experience, the body becomes an easy thing to handle. Life or death won't make such a big difference.

Q: Do you think we control our destinies or does destiny control us?

Sadhguru: What you refer to as “destiny” are those situations which are going on without your permission; they seem to be unfolding themselves without your intent. I know you have been told that God is making your destiny and plotting your life for you, but I think you are adult enough these days. There is no such thing as destiny. Whatever you call destiny is something you have created unconsciously.

You are doing more things unconsciously than consciously. I would say, for most average, educated, intelligent human beings, only about two percent of their life is conscious. They create an enormous amount of their life unconsciously, which leads them in so many directions.

The whole effort of all spiritual processes is to see that you create your life consciously instead of blundering through it. Once you make that effort, you will see more and more of your life becomes self-determined, not pre-determined. If you have mastery over your physical body, 15 to 20% of your life and destiny will be in your hands. If you have mastery over your mind, 50 to 60% of your life and destiny will be in your hands. If you have mastery over your very life energy, 100% of your life and destiny will be in your hands – every moment of your life can become self-determined.
(3 parts series )

Sunday, November 11, 2018

The Cure for a Weak Heart

A Sermon Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
On Thursday Evening, March 4th, 1886.


"Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD."—Psalm 31:24.
HERE IS NO PREACHING like that which grows out of our own experience. You perceive, dear friends, that David had trusted in the Lord; in very sore and singular trouble God had delivered him; and at the close of that deliverance he wrote this Psalm, to be sung by the faithful of all time and every clime, and then he gave this exhortation which grew out of his own experience. O my brethren, we shall never speak to the heart of our hearers, unless what we say has been first engraver on our own hearts. The best noses of a sermon are those that are written on our own inner consciousness. If we speak of the things which we have tasted, and handled, and made our own, we speak with a certainty and with an authority which God is pleased to use for the comfort of his people. Think, then, that you can hear David, who has long since fallen asleep, speaking out of his royal tomb, and saying, as the result of his own happy experience, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord."

    I. In considering this text, I would first of all bid you notice AN APPROVED COMPANY, to whom the psalmist is speaking: "all ye that hope in the Lord."

    We must not regard all parts of the Bible as alike addressed to every individual. It has many messages to all the sons of Adam, but there are certain portions of it which are enclosed, and belong only to that seed according to promise which is distinguished by faith, whereby it is known to be in covenant with God. Holy Scripture discriminates; it makes some general promises, but its choicer words are given to persons of a special character. Judge for yourselves how far you come under the description of the text, "all ye that hope in the Lord."

    You perceive, first, that they are men of hope. They have not yet all they expect to have; they have not yet entered into possession of their full inheritance; they have a hope which is looking out for something better on before; they have a living hope which peers into the future beyond even the dark river of death, a hope with eyes so bright that it seeth things invisible to others, and gazes upon glories which the unaided human eye has never beheld. Have you this good hope? Do all your measures lie about you, or behind you? If so, the text speaks not to thee; this arrow flies beyond thee. If thou art indeed a child of God, thy hope lieth where, as yet, thine eye does not see, nor thy hand grasp. God's people are a hoping people, and therefore hoping for the fulfillment of the promises God has made to them.

    Next, they hope for good things, for this is implied when the psalmist speaks of those that hope in the Lord, for no man hopes for evil things whose hope is in the Lord. We are not led, by hoping in the Lord, to hope even for temporal things beyond a certain limit. We hope not for riches; we hope not for a long continuance here, for we have heard a voice saying unto us, "This is not your rest, for it is polluted." Our hope could not, even if it would, content itself with the things which are seen and temporal; we are hoping for a city whose Builder and Maker is God! We are hoping for joys which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man. We are hoping for things so good that they can only come from God himself; our hope about them, therefore, is entirely in him. Are you a man with this good hope? Are you a man with a hope that you would not exchange for ten thousand worlds? Perhaps, out of your box, like Pandora's, everything that seemed solid has gone; but at the bottom there lies a hope, which does not fly away. This is the bird which sitteth and singeth both day and night within your soul, even though you are shut up from going into the common haunts of men. You have a hope, a good hope, a hope of good things to come, in the hereafter, in the islands of the blessed, where you shall be for ever at home with your God.

    If you are the persons spoken of in the text, this hope of yours is rooted, and grounded, and established in the Lord: "all ye that hope in the Lord." You have not a hope apart from the ever-blessed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To the Father, you look with the expectation of a child who is an heir. To the Son of God you look, waiting for that wedding feast which shall be kept with him to whom you are affianced by a betrothal that never can be contravened. To the Holy Ghost you look, for he is with you even now as the earnest of your inheritance, and you expect your inheritance to be of the same nature as the earnest which you already enjoy, and that you will be filled with his light, and love, and purity, and blessedness. For this you are looking, "My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him." Can you say that? We are men of great expectations; but our expectations are not in men that die, or men that live, our expectations are in him who never dies, and never fails, and never disappoints those who put their trust in him. Say, dear hearer,—I cannot come round, and put the question to all of you individually,—but say, Dost thou belong to this approved company of men that hope in the Lord?

    I may further say that some of them do not get much beyond hope. I would not condemn them because of this; I must not judge those whom God hath not condemned. I like to hear a child of God speak of the full assurance of faith, for full assurance is the proper tone of an educated faith. He that believeth ought to be assured of the thing which he believeth; else, why doth he believe it? And it is good when the milk of faith has stood quiet so long that you can see the cream of full assurance floating upon the surface of it. Yet I do know that, if you have not full assurance, and if the most you say is, "I hope," you are included in the blessed company to whom the psalmist speaks: "all ye that hope in the Lord." O Little-faith, and Miss Much-afraid, and Mr. Feeble-mind, and Mr. Fearing,—all of you who belong to that very numerous family, all of you who are like Pharaoh's lean kine,—God loves you! These feeble ones are carried in the Savior's bosom, or gently led by his loving hand. Do not exclude yourself, I pray you, from any sweetness which lies in the text, "all ye that hope in the Lord." Indeed, my text seems to me to have an arm like that of the Good Shepherd. "He shall gather the lambs with his arm," as if he would put his arm around them to draw them close up to his heart.

    "All ye that hope in the Lord,"-you who are so little, you who are so useless, you who are so trembling, you who are not what you want to be, you who can see rather your own imperfections than anything else, you who groan rather than sing because you cannot as yet overcome your besetting sins,—do you hope in the Lord? My text speaks to all that hope in the Lord, and I should like so to preach from it that, if I should omit any of you who are strong, I should at any rate apply the text to those who are very weak and trembling. "All ye that hope in the Lord." This passage picks up the undermost, it seems to come, like the men with the ambulance, to look after the wounded, and carry them on at the same pace as those who march in the fullness of their strength.
    This, then, is the approved company: "all ye that hope in the Lord." Not, "you that hope in yourselves;" not, "you that hope in your priests;" not, "you that have any confidences anywhere else;" but you who hope in God alone.

    II. Well now, secondly, my text seems to intimate that there is AN OCCASIONAL WEAKNESS,—I might say, A FREQUENT WEAKNESS which is apparent in many of those that hope in the Lord.

    It is a dangerous weakness, for it is a weakness of the heart. The text says, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart;" wherein it is implied that, sometimes, the heart of them that hope in the Lord grows weak. As you well know, heart disease is a very dangerous disease; even if a very little is wrong with the heart, it is a serious matter, for every other part of the body will be affected. Some of God's own people are occasionally, and many of them very often, subject to a weakness of the heart. They lose their courage, their joy departs from them, and they become timorous and fearful.

    This weakness occurs on many occasions. Sometimes we have seen those who hope in the Lord very weak in heart under great suffering. Pain follows pain; it seems as if every cut of the knife went deeper than the last, and that the knife was sharper every time. Oh, let me tell you, who are in vigorous health, and have no bodily pain, and do not always sympathize as you might with those who are the subjects of acute suffering,—it is not so easy as you think to bear such pain as some of us have to endure. Let a man have an intolerable headache by the week together, or it may be a sharp attack of rheumatism; let sciatica come upon him, or some of those terrible nerve pains that touch us to the very quick; and you will see whether he who boasted of his strength finds that he has any strength to spare. At such times, the spirits sink, and the heart's action grows feebler and feebler.

    So is it also in the battle of life. A man is struggling hard to gain a livelihood; perhaps he has not any means of earning even bread for his wife and children, and it is very trying for a man when the cupboard is bare, and the children's clothes scarcely cover them from the cold. In such circumstances, his heart sometimes fails him, and then it is that God bids him be of good courage, and strengthens his heart.

    This weakness of heart is particularly felt in times of temptation. I have known Christian men who have had to work among ungodly companions, and their spirits have been vexed every day with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and their taunts, and jeers, and blasphemies; and in such cases the heart has oftentimes grown very heavy, and sick, and faint. Those of us who love the old-fashioned gospel cannot look abroad to-day, and see many pulpits turned against our God, and many so-called "thinkers" deserting the old faith, without feeling that this is a burden which presses upon us very sorely, and our heart grows heavy, and perhaps becomes weak.

    I have also seen some Christians troubled with this complaint in the midst of great labor for the Lord. They are doing all they can do, and yet they do not see the success they expected. They are not weary of the work, but they are weary in it. They see very clearly the imperfections in their service, and they are further troubled, because some who should help them, do not help them. They meet with cold hearts where they reckoned on enthusiasm; instead of generosity, it may be that there is niggardliness; and, instead of prayerfulness burning like coals of juniper, there is lukewarmness or spiritual death. At such times, the man of God puts his hand into his bosom, and he says, "My heart, my heart faileth me." Then the message of the text comes in, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Host men are subject to fainting fits at times. Even David became weak and faint; and Samson, after he had cried exultingly, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass, have I slain a thousand men," yet, for want of a draught of water, was ready to lie down, and faint and die. The best of men are but men at the best; and, therefore, who wonders if their heart sometimes faileth them in the day of suffering, in the hour of battle, or under the broiling sun, when they are laboring for their Lord?

    If this weakness of the heart should continue, it will be very injurious. At the present time, I believe that it restricts enterprise. That young man would go as a missionary to China, but his heart fails him. There is another who would be found on the Congo, seeking to preach Christ, but he has not the needed courage. There is a sister who would be taking a Bible-class, or visiting in the district where she lives, but she cannot summon the resolution to begin. Oh, how many good resolves, and holy projects, never come to anything! We see the bud and blossom, but they do not knit into fruit as they ought to do. I hardly dare to think of the vast quantity of talent in the Redeemer's kingdom that lies unused, often for want of moral courage and confidence in God. I do not think that we are at all lacking in confidence in ourselves,—at any rate, some of us are not; but it is confidence in God which is wanted, and that is quite another thing. This confidence makes the feeble strong, and the timid brave; may we all have a large share of it! God deliver us from faintness of heart, lest we injure the kingdom of our Lord by withholding our service!

    And, dear friends, this weakness of heart endangers the success of the best worker. He who fights most valiantly may be on the verge of victory, and yet be defeated, if his heart should then fail him. I have no doubt, in reading the records of many campaigns, you must have noticed that men have gone on from victory to victory, and suddenly there has been a pause because their hearts failed them, just when, had they followed up their previous successes, they must have swept all before them. Beware, you who have served God with courage, lest fear should take hold upon you, and you should flinch in the day of battle, and miss that which you might have won for your Lord.

    This feeble heart pleads many excuses. I do not marvel that it does so; how can I, when I know myself? O brothers, sisters, if you look within, well may your hearts fail you; and if you look without, upon the temptations that waylay you, upon the powers of darkness so strongly entrenched within their fortresses, well may you faint! What a task we undertake in trying to win a single soul, much more in seeking to win a city or the world for Christ! Well may our hearts fail if we begin to look off from God. The fable is told of Hercules, that he fought with a famous giant, whom he could not for a while overcome because he was born of the earth, and every time he was hurled to his mother-earth, he rose renewed in strength. Hercules tugged and strove with his gigantic foe, and felt that the struggle was hopeless, till he discovered his adversary's secret; then he took him in his arms, and hugged the monster to death. You and I are invincible, though a thousand stronger than Hercules should be against us, as long as we can fall back on our God; and the only hope of the enemy's victory is if he can keep us away from God. But even if he should throw us down, and seem to break us in pieces, yet in that fall we fall upon our God, and rest on him alone. We may lie prone upon the earth, and cry, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise." Come into contact with your God, fall upon divine power, and you will rise with new force and new strength; but, if you should once be separated from him, then would it be all over with you. Yet, blessed be his name, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


    III. Now, thirdly, I call your most earnest heed to the trumpet voice of the exhortation in the text, A SEASONABLE EXHORTATION: "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart."

    I like the way this is put. It is not alone, "Be of good courage;" there is an "and" with it: "and he shall strengthen your heart." At the same time, the exhortation is not omitted. It does not say, "He shall comfort your heart, therefore you need do nothing." They err from the Scriptures who make the grace of God a reason for doing nothing; it is the reason for doing everything. They who say that predestination and the working of a living God put man out of the field, make a gross mistake; it is these facts that bring man into the field. The sternest predestination is not the least in conflict with the most perfect freedom of the human will. I may not be able to explain to you how it is so, but I know that it is so as a matter of fact; and that God requires us to be of good courage at the same moment that he says that he will strengthen our heart.

    Dear friends, if you want to get out of diffidence, and timidity, and despondency, you must rouse yourselves up. This is incumbent upon you, for the text puts it so: "Be of good courage." Do not sit still, and rub your eyes, and say, "I cannot help it, I must always be dull like this." You must not be so; in the name of God, you are commanded in the text to "be of good courage." If you are indolent, like that, you must not expect the grace of God to operate upon you as though you were a block of wood, and could be made into something against your will. Oh, no! you must determine to be of good courage. Wherefore, arise, and shake yourself from the dust. Believe thou, dear friend, put thy trust in God. "Give to the winds thy fears." Take down thy harp from the willows. "I cannot play it," say you. Get it down, all the same for that; even if you cannot play it, lay your fingers upon the strings; it is wonderful how, when once those accustomed fingers touch the well-beloved strings, it seems as if they were charmed into music. Do thou what thou canst, and God will do for thee what thou canst by no means do for thyself.

    I know that a great many, who are very sad and low in spirit, come in here on a Thursday night; and their friends say to them, "We wish that we could cheer you up." I do not say that, but I do say this, "Be of good courage. Be of good courage." It is the Lord's command to you. Do you not think that your God deserves to be trusted? What has he ever done that you should doubt him? Does he not deserve your most confident faith? And what do you expect to get out of your timidity? He that is afraid of the weather,—can he change it? He says that there will be a long frost; can he shorten it by a single day by fretting over it? There is great depression in business, and he will be ruined: will he be less likely to be ruined by worrying? Seest thou not, then, that thy God deserves thy trust, and that common wisdom bids thee be of good courage?
    If thou art not of good courage, what will happen to thee? I will not say that thou wilt be a coward, but I will say that thou wilt look very much like one. I have heard of one who said that he was of a very retiring disposition; he could not take a Sunday school class, or speak to anybody a word for the Master, he was so retiring! I have also heard of a soldier who, in the day of battle, was so very retiring that they shot him as a deserter! I would not have you deserve the coward's doom, and speak of it as "retiring." No, get not into that class; be thou rather like that soldier of Alexander, who was always to the front, and the reason was that he bore about with him what was thought to be an incurable disease, and he suffered so much pain that he did not care whether he lived or died. Alexander took great pains to have him healed, and when he was quite well, he never exposed his precious life to any risk again. Oh, I would rather that you should be stung into courage by excessive pain than that you should be healed into cowardice! Christ ought not to be served by feather-bed soldiers. He deserves that we trust him, and bring ourselves into his service with a courage that cannot be daunted. Though it be upon the pikes of his adversaries, let us find paradise there, for we shall find it if we follow Christ faithfully to the death. God grant us, then, to be of good courage!
    Why art thou afraid? Is God with thee, and yet art thou afraid? What aileth thee? Hath God forsaken thee? Hath he forgotten to be gracious? Has omnipotence grown weak? What canst thou be about? Has he been a wilderness to thee? Has the manna ceased to fall, or the waters to flow? Go, yield thyself up to him; ask him, by his grace, to make thee heroic, instead of being numbered among the fearful and the unbelieving, who turn their backs in the day of battle, and seek their own selfish ease and comfort.
    IV. I finish up with A CHEERING PROMISE: "He shall strengthen your heart."
    God alone can strengthen the heart. I suppose that physicians can do something for weakhearts, though I do not know. As a general rule, when a man dies suddenly, and they do not know what it is that killed him, they say, "It is disease of the heart." The heart is a mysterious portion of our being, and needs great care. Spiritually, the mercy is that God, who made the heart, understands the heart; and he who sees its weakness, knows how to strengthen it.
    How does God strengthen men's hearts? Well, sometimes, by gracious providences. Something very unexpected happens; I have, myself, learnt to expect the unexpected. I have known what it is almost to wish to get into a defile, through which there was no way of escape, on purpose that I might see the Lord cleave the hills asunder, or divide even the sea, to make a way for his people. It is a grand thing to get into such deep water that you cannot touch the bottom, and must swim, and then to feel the eternal buoyancy of Gods providence bearing you up. It is grand swimming when there are ten thousand fathoms of ocean below you, there is no fear of knocking your foot against a rock then; and when you get right out into a simple dependence upon the living God, and feel the waves of his eternal influences round about you, then will you be happy and blest.
    The Lord has also a way of strengthening men's hearts by the kindly fellowship of friends. Paul was often much refreshed by Christian associates. The Lord can send someone who, "as iron sharpeneth iron," may sharpen you, and make you ready for service. "A word fitly spoken"—"a word upon wheels"—as the Hebrew has it,—how good it is when it comes in just at the right time! It "is like apples of gold in baskets of silver." Such are goodly words brought to us by men of faith and experience, whom God sends to us.
    So, too, have I known a man's heart to be mightily strengthened by a precious promise. Who knows the wonderful power of a text of Scripture? We used to have, thirty years ago,—I do not know whether you have them now,—"poor men's plasters" which we used when we felt weak in the back; but a promise out of the Scripture is a poor man's plaster indeed. What strength it gives to the loins! How we seem to be braced up when we truly lay hold of a promise of God, and it really gets a grip upon our spirit!

    Beside all that, God the Holy Spirit has a secret way of strengthening the courage of God's people, which none of us can explain. Have you never felt it? You may have gone to your bed, sick at heart, "weary, and worn, and sad," and you wake in the morning ready for anything. Perhaps, in the middle of the night, you awake, and the visitations of God are manifested to you, and you feel as happy as if everything went the way you would like it to go. Nay, you shall be more happy that everything should cross you than that everything should please you, if it be God's sweet will. You feel a sudden strengthening of your spirit, so that you are perfectly resigned, satisfied, prepared, and ready. I have known a man of God on 'Change. Everything has seemed to be going wrong, and he has got worried and troubled, till he has stepped aside, and retired for a little prayer to his God. He has not been absent five minutes, yet he has come back feeling, "Now I am ready for you." All the flurry has gone, all the worry has gone, God has revived his spirit, and strengthened his heart. I have seen a good woman, when her husband has just died, and all her hope has seemed withered. The first burst of grief has passed, and she has bowed by the side of that bed, and lifted up her heart to God, and then has brushed her tears away, and given herself up to fight the battle of life for her children, and God has strengthened her heart, as in a moment. Oh, do not give way! You need not be cowards; do not give way. Do not say, "I must be beaten, I must always be despondent, my life is crushed." You need not be so. "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart." Get you to your chamber, fall upon your knees, pour out your heart before God, tell your trouble to the Most High, and, as the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, he must and will help those who put their trust in him. Has he ever failed any who trusted in him? Who has ever stayed his hand, or withdrawn him from his designs? Who has ever made him deny his promise, or retract his word? If thou wilt trust him, he will be better to thee than thy fears; nay, better to thee than thy beliefs, or thy largest hopes. Stay yourselves upon him; lean upon the bosom of eternal love; lean hard, lean all your weight there, and leave that weight there, and the Lord be with you, and bless you! Blessed are all they that trust in the Lord.

    How I wish that all here had trusted in the Lord, or that they would seek him even now if they have never yet found him! The Lord be gracious to every one of you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

Your heart is weak?

The most common form, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), occurs when your heart muscle is too weak to pump blood efficiently. The muscles stretch and become thinner. This allows the chambers of your heart to expand. This is also known as enlarged heart.

How do you know if you have a weak heart?
The most common symptom of coronary artery disease is angina, or chest pain. ... Palpitations (irregular heart beats, or a "flip-flop" feeling in your chest) A faster heartbeat. Weakness or dizziness.


What does a weak heart mean?
The definition of heart failure is when the heart cannot pump efficiently enough for blood to circulate oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. When the heart becomes weak or when it becomes thickened and stiff, the heart muscle cannot keep up with its workload.
 
How long can you live with a weak heart?
While advancements have been made, 50% of patients will have an average life expectancy of five years. For those with advanced heart failure, up to 90% will pass away within one year. When asking how long can you live with congestive heart failure, those at a moderate stage will average ten years.


How do you strengthen a weak heart?
Just Making Exercise A Regular Part Of Your Lifestyle Can Result In:
  1. Strengthened heart and cardiovascular system.
  2. Improved circulation/oxygen use.
  3. Increased energy levels.
  4. Increased endurance.
  5. Lower blood pressure.
  6. Reduced stress.
  7. Improved muscle tone and strength.
  8. Improved balance and joint flexibility.

What is the first sign of heart failure?
Heart failure signs and symptoms may include: Shortness of breath (dyspnea) when you exert yourself or when you lie down. Fatigue and weakness. Swelling (edema) in your legs, ankles and feet.




           

Exercise Helps Repair Muscle Damage In Heart Failure Patients

Date: November 8, 2007

Exercise increased the growth of new muscle cells and blood vessels in the weakened muscles of people with heart failure, according to two new studies.       

"If you have heart failure, exercise training can improve your health status, increase your ability to exercise and reverse patterns of muscle damage that are common in heart failure," said Axel Linke, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and a co-author on both studies.

In chronic heart failure, the heart can't pump enough blood to other organs in the body.

"In addition to getting out of condition because it becomes difficult to exercise, people with heart failure have cellular-level changes in their muscles that make them weaker, more prone to fatigue, and in later stages results in actual muscle shrinkage," he said.

In one study (abstract 3797), researchers investigated whether exercise training could activate progenitor cells, a pool of immature cells in skeletal muscle that can divide into various mature cells as needed for muscle repair.

Compared with healthy people, those with heart failure have about a 50 percent reduction in the number of progenitor cells in their muscles, Linke said.

Researchers examined biopsies of the vastus lateralis, the largest quadricep muscle in the outer thigh, in 50 men, average age 56, with moderate to severe heart failure -- a level at which any exercise is uncomfortable. Researchers took the biopsies before and after a six-month period in which 25 men remained inactive and the other 25 participated in an individualized, physician-supervised endurance exercise program.

Study participants rode a stationary bicycle at least 30 minutes a day (usually divided into two sessions) at about half their peak exercise capacity.

At the end of the six-month study, levels of progenitor cells stayed the same in the inactive group but changed significantly in the exercisers:
  • Total number of progenitor cells (identified by c-kit+ protein marker on the cell surface) increased by 109 percent.
  • Progenitor cells differentiating into muscle cells (identified by c-kit/MEF2+ marker) increased by 166 percent.
  • Progenitor cells actively dividing to form new cells and repair muscle damage (identified by c-kit/Ki67+ protein marker) significantly increased six-fold.
"With exercise, the number of progenitor cells became almost normal, the cells started to divide again, and they began to differentiate into myocytes (muscle cells). And that's exactly what patients with heart failure need -- replacement of muscle cells," Linke said.

Participants in the exercise program also felt better and increased their exercise capacity 20 percent during the six-month study, Linke said.

Whether exercise can induce similar changes in heart muscle is not known, researchers said.

"We also have c-kit+ cells in the heart but we don't know whether they are similar to those in skeletal muscle," Linke said.

In the second study (abstract 3796), researchers tracked endothelial progenitor cells that are created in bone marrow and circulate through the bloodstream. The cells help repair damaged blood vessel linings and spur new vessels to form in a process called vasculogenesis.

In heart failure, the linings of blood vessels are damaged, blood vessels in muscle do not dilate normally, and the number of small blood vessels (capillaries) in muscle tissue is reduced.

Researchers randomly assigned 37 men, average age 65, with severe heart failure to receive either 12 weeks of exercise training or to remain inactive. They took blood tests and biopsies of the quadricep muscle before and after the program. After 12 weeks, researchers found no changes in men assigned to the control group. In contrast, exercisers changed significantly:
  • Circulating progenitor cells (identified by CD34+ marker) increased 47 percent.
  • Circulating progenitor cells beginning to mature into endothelial cells (identified by CD34/KDR+ marker) significantly increased 199 percent.
  • Functional activity of the circulating progenitor cells (measured by migratory capacity) significantly increased 149 percent.
  • The density of capillaries in skeletal tissue significantly increased 17 percent.
"Whether you have moderate or severe heart failure, you can benefit from exercise therapy," Linke said. "These studies show that the benefits come from both the regeneration of muscle cells and the formation of blood vessels."
More than 5 million people in the United States have heart failure. About 1 percent of people over age 65 start having heart failure annually.

Co-authors of both studies are Volker Adams, Ph.D., presenter; Sandra Erbs, M.D.; Robert Höllriegel, M.D.; Ephraim B. Beck, M.D.; Stephan Gielen, M.D.; Sven Möbius-Winkler, M.D.; Rainer Hambrecht, M.D.; and Gerhard Schuler, M.D.

In chronic heart failure, the heart can't pump enough blood to other organs in the body.

These studies were reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2007. The German Heart Foundation funded the studies.

Story Source:
Materials provided by American Heart Association.

 

Thursday, November 8, 2018

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Purchase a copy of The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Allen Carr's book is still widely available both online and in bookstores. You can also likely find a copy at the library. Before you can begin using the Allen Carr method, you need to obtain a copy of the book (assuming you'd rather do that than attend a live seminar - use the online course).  Millions have succeeded at stopping smoking the Easyway. Become an ex-smoker now.

Click Here and discover


Top 10 Tips on How to Stop Smoking – Allen Carr’s Easyway

Many people think Allen Carr’s Easyway is simply a series of tips on how to stop smoking to help smokers quit. It isn’t. It’s as if smokers are lost in a maze. They want to escape smoking but they don’t know the correct directions.

Allen Carr’s Easyway method provides a map of the maze and simple instructions to help any smoker get free. However, if you try to follow the instructions without first understanding the map, or you fail to follow all the instructions, you may never find the exit.
 
Once you’ve got it clearly into your mind that there are no advantages to smoking, then the instructions below will help you get free but if you are serious about stopping, we strongly recommend you from the comfort of your own home:

Watch our free “SUPER-TIPS” video.

Don’t just get cigarettes out of your mouth – get them out of your head. No sign up needed.
 

 

1. Set your date and time to stop; you’re going to quit smoking naturally so carry on smoking as usual until then

Set your date and time to stop and carry on smoking as usual right up to that time – don’t try to cut down beforehand, that just makes cigarettes seem more precious rather than less so.

2. Look forward

Remember – you’re not giving up anything because cigarettes do absolutely nothing for you at all. They provide you with no genuine pleasure or crutch, they simply keep you addicted – a slave to nicotine. Get it clearly into your mind: you are losing nothing and you are making marvellous positive gains not only in health, energy and money but also in confidence, self-respect, freedom and, most important of all, in the length and quality of your future life. You’re going to enjoy being a non-smoker right from the moment you put out your last cigarette.

3. Have a final cigarette; you’re going to give up smoking easily so make a solemn vow

Actually, there’s nothing to give up – you’re getting rid of something. Light your final cigarette and make a solemn vow that regardless of what highs or lows may befall you in future, you will never puff on another cigarette or take nicotine in any form again. This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make because the length and quality of your future life critically depend on it. What’s more, you know it’s the correct decision even as you make it. Having made what you know to be the correct decision never even begin to question or to doubt that decision.

4. Be cool about withdrawal; the physical withdrawal is very slight and passes quickly

Your body will continue to withdraw from nicotine for a few days but that doesn’t mean you have to be miserable or crave cigarettes. The physical withdrawal is very slight – there is no pain – and it passes quickly. What’s more, it’s what smokers suffer all their smoking lives. Non-smokers do not suffer it. You are a non-smoker and so you’ll soon be free of it forever.

If you associate a cigarette with a coffee, tea, drink or break, have your coffee, tea, drink or break and at that moment, instead of thinking: “I can’t have a cigarette now”, simply think: “Isn’t it great: I can enjoy this moment without having to choke myself to death”.

5. Socialise as normal; you won’t be craving a cigarette so there’s no need to avoid smokers

Do not try to avoid smoking situations or opt out of life. Go out and enjoy social occasions right from the start and do not envy smokers, pity them. Realize that they will be envying you because every single one of them will be wishing they could be like you: free from the whole filthy nightmare. No smoker wants to see their children start smoking which means they wish they hadn’t started themselves. Remember it’s not you who are being deprived but those poor smokers. They’re being deprived of their health, energy, money, peace of mind, confidence, courage, self-respect and freedom. If you’re offered a cigarette, just say: “No thanks – I don’t smoke”, rather than start a long conversation about how long it has been since you stopped.

6. Think about it; don’t try to “not to think” about smoking – it doesn’t work

Don’t try to “not to think about” smoking – it doesn’t work. If I say: “Don’t think about a brick wall, what are you thinking about? Just make sure that whenever you are thinking about it, you’re not thinking: “I want a cigarette but I can’t have one” but instead: “Isn’t is marvelous: I don’t need to smoke anymore and I don’t want to smoke anymore. Yippee, I’m a non-smoker!” Then you can think about it all you like and you’ll still be happy.

7. There’s no such thing as “just one” cigarette after you quit smoking

Never be fooled into thinking you can have the odd cigarette just to be sociable or just to get over a difficult moment. If you do, you’ll find yourself back in the trap in no time at all. Never think in terms of one cigarette, always think of the whole filthy lifetime’s chain. Remember: there is no such thing as just one cigarette.

8. Avoid Substitutes; patches, gums, nasal sprays and e-cigs just keep the addiction alive

Do not use any substitutes. They all make it more difficult to stop because they perpetuate the illusion that you’re making a sacrifice. Substitutes that contain nicotine such as e-cigarettes or so-called Nicotine Replacement Therapy; patches, gums, nasal sprays and inhalators – are particularly unhelpful as they simply keep the addiction to nicotine alive. It’s like advising a heroin addict who’s smoking the drug off foil, to start injecting it instead.

9. Ditch your cigarettes; you are already a non-smoker the moment you put out your final cigarette

Do not keep cigarettes on you or anywhere else in case of an emergency. If you do, it means you’re doubting your decision. Non-smokers do not need cigarettes. You are already a non-smoker the moment you put out your final cigarette. In fact one of the many joys of being free is not having to worry about having cigarettes and a light on you, of ending that slavery.

10. Enjoy your freedom; live a smoke-free life and be on your guard not to fall back into the trap

Life will soon go back to normal as a non-smoker but be on your guard not to fall back into the trap. If your brain ever starts playing tricks on you by thinking “Just one cigarette”, remember there is no such thing, so the question you need to ask yourself is not: “Shall I have a cigarette now” but “Do I want to become a smoker again, all day, every day sticking those things into my mouth, setting light to them, never being allowed to stop?” The answer “No”. Why not? “Because I didn’t like being a smoker – that’s why I decided to become a non-smoker”. That way those moments can become pleasurable as you congratulate yourself that you’re free and that way you can enjoy remaining a non-smoker for the rest of your life.



 Ellen announces that she quit smoking using Allen Carr's Easyway

The Allen Carr's Easyway program
....was nothing short of a miracle

Angelica Huston



Ashton Kutcher talks to Jay Leno about Allen Carr's Easyway

Every year Allen received tens of thousands of letters of thanks from readers. Read a small selection of testimonials that continue to flow in from former smokers who successfully quit with the book.

I read the original version of the book many years ago. I sincerely believe reading it was the single most important decision I have made in my life.
I can’t tell you how many friends I have recommended the book too. Allen is sorely missed.
Paul

Easyway Book Testimonials

Today is my first anniversary of quitting smoking and it has been the best year of my life. I didn't like to admit it but smoking controlled my life. For me, the best thing about quitting is not the health or the money, although both of those things have improved big time. It's the freedom, taking control of my life back.
Thomas Garfield
Hi Allen,
It's amazing. I am a non smoker. I am happy with my descision. I can't believe it took me 3 attempts at your method to realise I really did not like smoking at all. Thank you very much.
Smoking – never again!
Easyweigh – here I come!
Julie Steel
I’m 35 years old,and after 22 years of being a smoker,and never being able to quit,not even when i was pregnant,for my three babies(i was able to cut down from 1 pack to three cigarettes a day ,but i will have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life..!!)Today i’m on my 3rd day has non-smoker,and I know that i will never smoke again,and since I finish the book i feel amazing,happy and most of all FREEEEEE!!!!
Thank you so much Mr Allen,you were a Angel who come to earth to save our lives!!
Teresa 
I did it!!! Stopped smoking and I couldn’t even think about wanting to start again. What a liberating feeling! Thank you so much!
Josee 
I’ve been smoking for 22 years, today begins day two of choosing to not smoke. I say that I’m excited and at peace instead of afraid and feeling deprived.
Thank you, Allen.
Beck 
Buy the book
I quit on 07/08/08. smoked anything & everything for 30 years. tried to quit before but started to realise i was losing the battle. read allens book and within a week i had won the war. allen carr saved my life. terribly sad that i cant thank him personally. however i am trying to pass his message on.
Robert Peak
It’s been a year now since I stopped smoking and life has been so enjoyable.
I used to suffer from depression and anxiety attacks. My life was all about cigarettes. Since stopping smoking I have a new higher paying job, more responsibilities, I know how to swim, I’m learning to drive and doing a degree in business studies – I’m paying attention to my life now, and it’s just keeps getting better and better. The depression and anxiety stopped with the cigarettes.
I really believe that smoking causes mental health issues – and it’s not the act of self medicating, but the cigarettes that are causing the problem.
I hope all of you who are reading the book, please trust me and learn everything from it! :)
Jennifer Fletcher
Hello, dear Allen!
Thank you for this wounderful book!!
I smoke at 8 years, and now have thrown!
Thank you very mach!
Nikita from Moscow (Russia)
I am into my 19 month of being a non smoker and cannot believe I ever smoked. I do not miss it or crave it. What a trully wonderful way to stop being a smoker. I don’t feel at all deprived. What a wonderful man to share his secret.
Helen
THANK you very much for this wonderful book. My husband and i have quit smoking. For more than 1 year the Easy way is our gift to all our friends
Diana
Just finished the book a second time and threw away my last pack. I am elated to hear that Easy way clinic is planning to set up in my area (Singapore). I sure would love to help my fellow Singaporeans discover the easy way.
Pradeep 
wow 30 plus a day for 35 years and at last i am free.i can not thank you enough and it really has been craving and stress free allen carr is a genius
John Ravenswood
I just wanted to say thank you very much you made it so easy i am telling everyone. It is nice when my young children say that i’m proud of you daddy. THANKS…..
Julian
I read the original version of the book many years ago. I sincerely believe reading it was the single most important decision I have made in my life.
I can’t tell you how many friends I have recommended the book too. Allen is sorely missed.
Paul
Maybe I am due my life to you,thank you good man!!!
Greatings from Croatia!
Denis Krbavcic
Last smoke yesterday. Today I had horrible day and normally that would mean about 40 smoked fags. But I understood that they don’t make my situation better and even when I think to smoke i say NO.I think that the most important thing is that the book tell us not to be afraid of fallness. If you even fall you dont loose anything, but when you try you got so much to win. I start smoking 17, now I am 24. Since about 3 years everyday I tried to stop.Gums, motivation from my girlfriend, my motivation,nothing help. This book is fantastic – that is all I want to say. When smoking last cigarette in my life I was crying from happiness:) Good luck everyone! Good bless You Allen!
Piotrek
I had been a confirmed smoker for fifteen years and smoked about thirty cigarettes a day there toward the end. I stumbled upon the book by accident, and decided to give it a shot since nothing else had worked for me. I began reading the book on a Monday and finished the last chapter and my last cigarette that Friday. I’ve been completely astounded by the fact that not once have I wanted a cigarette, thought about smoking, even while being around my friends and family that still smoke. No one ever believed that I had really quit, thinking that it was just too easy. Now they are all asking me to show them how I did it. I thank you dearly for opening up my eyes.
Eric
Dear Mr. Carr,
I would like to thank you for helping me stop smoking two years ago and stop drinking for the last two months with your wonderful books and your astonishing system.
I myself was amazed at how easy I found quitting something that had me enslaved for the last 20 years or so. I was a HEAVY smoker and a fairly hard challenge for anyone who tried to talk me into quitting. Reading your book once was all it took to stop. After that and under my wife’s insistance I finally read the drinking book too and … even more astonishingly had the same result.
In order to partially repay you for your gift I’m talking all those that ask for help into buying and reading your books or attending the easyway seminars.
Thank you for your help
Yours sincerely
Edoardo A. Arese (Milano) Italy