Friday, March 11, 2016
Week 10 - Zayin, the Illusion of Fear, and Letting Go of Being Cool
I sure love you guys. Your online discussion last week was so beautifully profound, I wish we could get all the youth in the world to take a peak at it and see how great it is to be collaboratively seeking truth and helping each other dig deeper into how to joyfully live. You are incredible. I think you should try to continue commenting on quotes and questions in the future when you can - I believe it helped deepen the class discussion for everyone.
So the class discussion was also wonderful - we talked about how to stop judging ourselves, how to be still and how to practice calmness and joy through gratitude and love. We also listened to music as we made ourselves slashed names (like it talked about in Guidepost 9: writer/cook/philanthropist etc). If you were not in class, I encourage you to try this - use your patriarchal blessing as a guide too - and make your name as long as you want. Most of us had awesomely long names. We talked about how we are all unique and we need to stop pigeon holing ourselves into "one identity" that we are known by.
We also go into teams and made plans for a collaborative project to work present to families. You guys came up with such great ideas in just 10 minutes! Impressive.
Here are this week's inspirements. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Watch: Jim Statley talk about Zayin in the Hebrew alphabet.*
Read: The Illusion of Fear
Read: Guidepost 10 and Final Thoughts
Write: A goal from last week's reading/discussion, and a quote and question from this week's video or readings. Comment on other people's questions and thoughts if you'd like.
Prepare: Take your writing from last week, and prepare a 5ish minute presentation to teach our families what you have learned this semester. You can do it in any creative way of your choosing - speech, skit, game, video, song, poem, art, powerpoint, etc.
Collaborate: on this Google doc to help with the collaborative presentation we will be putting together on Friday.
*Jim Staley is a Hebrew scholar and a preacher. I love his talks on the Hebrew alphabet. The letter Zayin is the letter of perfection. I think you will see connections to what we've been reading and discussing.
Here is another song about stillness:
And here is the song we played on our hike, if any of you were interested:
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quote: When we don't give ourselves permission to be free, we rarely tolerate that freedom in others. -the gifts of imperfection GP10
ReplyDeletequestion: Why do we get so conmsumed in what others think. Rather then what Heavenly Father thinks.
goal: To focus on what GOD thinks. And what he wants me to be. Rather then what the world thinks or wants me to be.
Form Carson
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this quote:
ReplyDelete"The Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It is in the stillness of our own soul that we know Him, that we find the Lord if we are looking for Him. Within our soul is the sacred sanctuary of our own true self, and connected with that, the conscious presence of the Lord Himself"
Question: How do we find the presence of God within ourselves?
Oh, and my goal was to take time to do something still or creative everyday this week (i.e. Sing a song, paint, write poetry :) )
ReplyDeleteGoal: To smile more! I keep zoning out lately, and I've noticed that it's kind of in a grumpy expression - which is no good at all! ;p
ReplyDeleteQuote: "The truth is that meaningful change is a process. It can be uncomfortable and often risky, especially when we're talking about embracing our imperfections, cultivating authenticity, and looking the world in the eye and saying 'I am enough.'"
Question: How do we remember Christ ALWAYS?
Goal: To write a poem a day!
ReplyDeleteQuote (sorry it's kinda long): We are by primordial creation, beings of light, life, love, goodness, and joy. For the most part, we spend time disconnected from who we really are because we have forgotten. One of the reasons for that is that when we were born here, into a world that is lower on the developmental ladder, we found ourselves in a world where fear was the reigning dynamic. We learned fear and weakness from our experiences in what seemed like a chaotic, dangerous world, and we filled with fear about our personal selves, about those around us, about events, about God Himself. This is all an illusion. It’s all based on misinformation, but we tie up a great deal of energy trying to manage fear. Though this fearful state was all according to divine plan, we were not designed to remain in fear—simply to experience it for a while.
Question: How can we resist temptation and listen to God always?
I'm not sure if this correct, but I think right now on this earth, I don't think we can ALWAYS listen to God and resist temptation, because Christ is the only one without sin.
DeleteI just found this talk that might help with that question. It's from a speech at BYU: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/john-s-robertson_complete-look-perfect/
DeleteWhat a beautiful talk! I loved how it described "completeness" or having perfection because of and through a covenant. Really insightful.
DeleteGoal:To not let my practice of talents interfere with other responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteQuote: Some sources of fear are not so obvious because they are considered “normal” in our society. One thing we spend a lot of energy on is the quest for love, approval, attention, appreciation—these “fearful child” goals that can accompany us into adulthood. We’re seeking things outside ourself, apart from our divinity, things we feel we need as though we had some sort of inner vacuum that we have to fill.
Question: How do we avoid these "fearful child goals"?
I was watching the Clone Wars the other day and Ahsoka Tano said something cool about fear: Ahsoka: "Look, I know your scared. But you can't let your fear control you."
ReplyDeletePrince Li-Char: "Aren't you scared?"
Ahsoka: I used to be, all the time. Until I realized that if you make decisions out of fear your more likely to be wrong."
Think about that. :)
I love that quote. I am reading a book called "Blink" right now that discusses the idea of thinking without thinking. It starts off by sharing a few stories of people who knew something wasn't quite right, but didn't know why. The book referred to it as intuition, and people who trusted their instincts were often correct, but I know it was the Holy Ghost prompting them. I believe confusion is a sub-point of fear. Only Satan creates fear. So if I have fear when I am making a decision, then I know I'm probably not in tune with the Spirit.
DeleteFor my quote, I really liked the part in Gifts of Imperfection where she talked about the power of music, especially in movies, and how there was no feeling in the movie without the music.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, how can we cultivate laughter, music and dance (I really love those 3 things) for good and not for bad? Because they can definitely be used for worse.
My goal is to care less about what people think about my music, kind of like what she was talking about with dancing like nobody is watching, and just have fun with it.
In reference to your quote: did you know that most horror movies use an underlying track that we can't hear, but are still affected by to make us scared? The vibrations tell us to be fearful.
DeleteQuote: "Laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration, or healing:
ReplyDeleteWe Are Not Alone."
Question: When was the first time you remember thinking that the way you acted was uncool? What kind of thought process did you have?
Goal: I'm getting to this late so I guess I'll just start on it today. My goal is to do one thing that makes me feel vulnerable everyday.
Question: Doesn't all change in dance and song begin with someone allowing themselves to be vulnerable to judgement?
ReplyDeleteMy Goal for this Week: Roll down my truck windows and sing once a day.