Welcome to spirituality in mental health. I'm your host Don Mackintosh and today we're talking about the will, in a previous time, or time together, we talked about the importance of the will how it is that we need to, you know, make a conscious decision to do things that we're learning. And today I want to talk about how we strengthen the sense of freewill in our lives. And to do that I want to look at some spiritual resources now. A lady was attempting to raise money for college to go to one of the universities in Boston and this is a picture of her in the Boston yard she's holding, as you see there, a vase with flowers in it and she would stand completely still, until someone put a donation in a box that was saved. In front of her, and when that donation was put in, she would hand them a flower.

But other than that she would be completely still people would try and do things to get her to act out or move in other ways and she never would. This took an awesome amount of self control and people would come from all over to watch her. People are gripped by willpower and self control. Another example here David Blaine, an illusionist, a person that does amazing feats put himself in a plastic box, surrounded by three tons of water. There was only six inches of clearing on each side and two inches above, he only drank two to three teaspoons of water a day. He was there for seven days.

He stayed in the situation in this box where people could look as you can see, and 75,000 people paid to come look at him in this box. He also did another stunt where he was by the River Thames 44 days three by seven Seven was that little cubicle, you see him in there that plexiglass box, he had no food, had no nutrients, just drank 4.5 liters of water per day, he lost 24.5 kilograms. People were trying to get him to, you know, come down and someone actually had a little helicopter and they tied a hamburger to it and fluid around his cubicle, but he still maintain his self control. Now, these are human feats of self control. But what I want to suggest today is, they can only be maintained for a brief amount of time, it might seem incredible, but we actually need more self control than we saw in these examples.

If we're going to be changing our thoughts, choosing our thoughts and thus changing our lives. Here's a text from the Gospel of john, But as many as received Him, that would be Christ or God into their lives to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his own. Which were born not of blood, nor have the will of the flesh that would be the will humanly speaking of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God, in other words, the will of God. Now, this is why this is so important. Listen to Blaine's testimony, that's the guy who was in that box underground. And the box above the rubber Tim's as soon as I'm done, I go to the opposite extreme where I have no self control, and it seems to spread through everything.

When I stop eating right, then I'm not able to sit down and read for the same amount of time. I can't focus in the same way I waste time I drink I do silly things. I go from 180 pounds to 230 pounds in three months. I have self discipline. He continues at work, but I have none in my life. Besides, for all of David Blaine's amazing willpower, he faced the same problem as the rest of us when dealing with the biggest self control challenge of all maintaining The discipline not just for days or weeks, but for years.

Now this is a statement from a book on willpower, that we'll come back to later and I'll introduce you to that book you may want to read. But just these pictures on the screen remind us that people can do amazing things with self control in certain areas of the life, but then fail in other areas, famous golfer who has multiple affairs but has the self control to win multiple championships, a prominent prosecutor who was bringing prostitutes and those who frequent them to justice, but then it was discovered he was actually using their services. I famous general who was decorated every piece of decoration on his on his uniform, speaks of self control, and yet it was discovered he has a mistress and unfaithful to his wife. So comprehensive self control in every area of life or the will The correct willpower in each Chair of the life is something that that even though you have control in certain areas maybe is lacking in others.

And that's why many are studying this idea of willpower. The quotes I just read about David Blaine were from a book by Rob Roy Baumeister and john Tierney Baumeister is actually the most quoted researcher in the literature today. And his book is called rediscovering the greatest human strength willpower. And then the most requested course at Stanford University by the public is the willpower instinct, by Kelly, but God, God now from Stanford University. So as I read these books, and as I looked up the associated research, I was interested very interest to find that they didn't just have secular approaches, but also spiritual approaches. If you'd like to secular approaches, you can buy their book but I want to focus on the spiritual as this is actually a presentation on spirituality.

Mental Health. So let's look at these areas that they brought up in the spiritual sections or the spiritual section of their book. Now, Baumeister writes this although many scientists are skeptical of institutions that promote spirituality self control, researchers have developed a grudging respect for the practical results. So they didn't want to report this it was kind of grudge grudgingly done. And then he this he explains why this is especially hard to understand for agnostics, a group that that includes us an agnostic, if someone says we don't really know if there is truth to spirituality that we don't know. But the evidence was so compelling that they said we have to cover in our book or we actually would be unfaithful researchers.

So here's what they they said. They said, after looking at the data, we have no trouble believing there's some kind of power working they don't know what it is, but I would just suggest kindly that it's God. It's it's the spiritual impulse. So let's look at their data. Here's what they discovered. They said that there are certain power sources that Christians and believers in spirituality turn to, again, a Judeo Christian approach we're taking with this with this presentation.

And one of them is power that's found by reading the Word of God. A study was referred to by Queen's University 2012. Thinking about religion gives people more self control on later unrelated task. So in this study, participants were given a sentence containing five words on scramble some contain religious themes, and others did not. After unscramble the sentences participants were asked to complete a number of tasks that required self control like enduring discomfort, delaying gratification, exerting patience and refraining from impulsive responses. participants who had unscrambled the sentences contained religious themes had more self control in completing these tasks.

So they really would try to do something called ego depletion, they would try and make sure that they got on their last nerve got rid of all their self control all their willpower by putting these through these situations where they had to exert willpower and thus have it lesson. But those who read spiritually themed things actually saw a boost in their willpower after they read those things. The most interesting finding let's just read from the report was that religious concepts were able to refuel self control after it had been depleted by an other unrelated task. In other words, even when we predict that people would be unable to exert self control. After completing the religiously themed tasks, they defied logic, and were able to muster self control. So maybe claiming a promise or reading a book of stories that are spiritual or religious could be the thing That would help you I know it helps me.

But I didn't realize that science actually documented the fact that it actually is refueling myself control in real time. Now this study religion to the remission of depression and medical impatience, looked at patients who attended religious services and participated in other group related religious activities. And they discovered that they experienced a shorter time to remission from depression. The combination of intrinsic frequent religious attendance in other words, you're really into it. Prayer Bible study, and high religiosity predicted a 53% increase in the speed of remission. Would you like to get better 53% sooner?

Then maybe consider attending a religious service, attending the religious sessions at the IO p or the outpatient blindness clinic or in your area Bible study and look Looking at God's word praying, and it predicts a 53% increase in the speed of remission. Now, in that same study, they found that social support explained only 15% of this effect. Another study that may interest you. And this is a comparison of the Atkins, Ornish Weight Watchers, endzone diets for weight loss and heart disease reduction. So they use Atkins, Ornish Weight Watchers, you may not be familiar with these, but you know, they're their diets that just varying diets that are supposed to lead to weight loss, and we could talk about the merits, but that's not the point of this, but compliance at three months was 50% for all diets. Now, if you got 50% on an exam as cool was your mom be happy?

Probably not. That's an F. At six months. It was 40% or lower, that's like an F minus, but then they added something in the day. Adding in a study of the book of Daniel, in the Daniel fast or the Daniel cure to different programs that dis studied in simply the book of Daniel. And you may remember that the oldest clinical trial ever done ever recorded in human history according to a number of sources, including the New England Journal of Medicine. The oldest clinical trial was done in Daniel chapter one.

So they added in this study of Daniel with diet, notice what happens. And this Daniel fast, which is based on not only the science but also scripture compliance was measured at three weeks, three months and six months. Decreasing gradually over time from close to 95% compliance at three weeks, that's an A to 85% at three months, that's a B or B plus depending what school you go to. And 80% at six months, maybe a BB minus depending on what school you go to now your mom which is going to be more happy with. So you can be happy with this 95 percent, or is he going to be happy with the 40 or 50%? And what was the only difference?

Amazingly, just reading the book of Daniel, but remember our first study, our first study said, if you do that increases willpower increases self control. And it not only worked in the original study with Daniel and his friends, it actually works even today. The power of testimony is the next thing we want to look at. Now. Probably the biggest group that focuses on self control and willpower is Alcoholics Anonymous. And the researchers in their book rediscovering the greatest human strength willpower said, the only thing larger than Alcoholics Anonymous is organized religion and it actually has more impacted even Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous but in a or Alcoholics Anonymous, the act of telling a story or testimony is a big portion of their program.

It forces you to organize your thoughts, monitor your behavior, and discuss goals for the future. And a personal goal can seem more real once you speak it out loud. In fact, there's research that if you write it, speak it, share it with others, it goes up in terms of its effect on you, and this is exactly what happens many times in religious settings. Just I'll give you a text. They overcame him, him being the devil, the bad guy, by the blood of the lamp, Jesus, the good guy, and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives on to the death. Well, there's more we want to continue on and part two of looking at the power sources for for the will and so we'll take a break right now we'll come back and part two.

Thanks for joining us.