Nevada Families for Freedom
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45th Anniversary
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186 Ryndon Unit 12, Elko, Nevada 89801, 775-397-6859, Sparks 775-356-0105
Editor: Janine Hansen
December 2019, In the Year of Our Lord
Volume 45, Number 11, Email Version
Merry Christmas!
I was so impressed with this article that I wanted to share it with you.
Gratitude can change our lives.
Practicing Gratitude is a Powerful Action for Health and Happiness
Food Revolution Network. Written by Ocean Robbins, who lives this principle all year long.
Giving thanks.
Gratitude, it turns out, makes you happier and healthier. If you invest in a way of seeing the world that is mean and frustrated, you’re going to get a world that is more mean and frustrating. But if you can find any authentic reason to give thanks… anything at all that you’re grateful for in your life or in the world and put your attention there, an overwhelming body of research indicates you’re going to experience more joy, vitality, and inner peace.
Gratitude doesn’t just make things feel better – it also makes them get better. According to recent research, gratitude is good for your physical, emotional, and mental health. People who express more gratitude have fewer aches and pains, better sleep, and stronger mental clarity.
If Thankfulness Were A Drug… “If [thankfulness] were a drug,” Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the division of biologic psychology at Duke University Medical Center, tells us: “it would be the world’s best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system.”
As Dr. Doraiswamy explains, studies have shown how the expression of gratitude leads to measurable effects on multiple body and brain systems.
These include: Mood neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine), Reproductive hormones (testosterone).Social bonding hormones (oxytocin), Cognitive and pleasure related neurotransmitters (dopamine), Inflammatory and immune systems (cytokines), Stress hormones (cortisol), Cardiac and EEG rhythms, Blood pressure, and Blood sugar.
Does Gratitude Really Cause Good Fortune? When I heard all this, I was skeptical. What if people who are fortunate, or who are particularly healthy, just feel more grateful? Does gratitude really cause good fortune, or is it just a byproduct?
The answer surprised me, and it may surprise you, too.
In a study conducted by Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., at the University of California at Davis and his colleague Mike McCullough at the University of Miami, participants were randomly assigned and given one of three tasks. Each week, participants kept a short journal. One group briefly described five things they were grateful for that had occurred in the past week, another five recorded daily hassles from the previous week that displeased them, and the neutral group was asked to list five events or circumstances that affected them, but they were not told whether to focus on the positive or on the negative.
Keep in mind that these groups were randomly assigned and that nothing about their lives was inherently different, other than the journaling they were doing.
The types of things people listed in the grateful group included: “Sunset through the clouds;” “the chance to be alive;” and “the generosity of friends.”
And in the hassles group, people listed familiar things like: “Taxes;” “hard to find parking;” and “burned my dinner.”
After ten weeks, participants in the gratitude group reported feeling better about their lives as a whole and were a full 25 percent happier than the hassled group. They reported fewer health complaints, and they were now exercising an average of 1.5 hours more per week.
In a later study by Emmons, people were asked to write every day about things for which they were grateful. Not surprisingly, this daily practice led to greater increases in gratitude than did the weekly journaling in the first study. But the results showed another benefit: Participants in the gratitude group also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem, indicating that the gratitude exercise increased their goodwill towards others, or more technically, their “pro-social” motivation.
What’s The Brain Science Behind All This? Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson puts it this way: “The neurons that fire together, wire together… The longer the neurons [brain cells] fire, the more of them that fire, and the more intensely they fire, the more they’re going to wire that inner strength –- that happiness, gratitude, feeling confident, feeling successful, feeling loved and lovable.”
And what’s going on in the brain leads to changes in behavior. Grateful people tend to take better care of themselves and to engage in more protective health behaviors, like regular exercise and a healthy diet. They’re also found to have lower levels of stress. And lowered levels of stress are linked to increased immune function and to decreased rates of cancer and heart disease.
So it seems, you take better care of what you appreciate. And that extends to your body, and also to the people around you.
Good For Your Relationships Not only does saying “thank you” constitute good manners, but showing appreciation can also help you win new friends, according to a 2014 study published in Emotion.
The study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing relationship. So whether you thank a stranger for holding the door or you send a quick thank-you note to that co-worker who helped you with a project, acknowledging other people’s contributions can lead to new opportunities.
In a 2012 study conducted by the University of Kentucky, study participants who ranked higher on gratitude scales were found to have more sensitivity and empathy toward other people and a decreased desire to seek revenge.
But What About Tough Times? As I was learning about this research, I was still a bit skeptical. Life can at times be brutal. Sometimes just surviving can feel like an accomplishment. Can you really feel grateful in times of loss?
Yes, you can.
In fact, findings show that adversity can actually boost gratitude. In a Web-based survey tracking the personal strengths of more than 3,000 American respondents, researchers noted an immediate surge in feelings of gratitude after Sept. 11, 2001. Tough times can actually deepen gratefulness if we allow them to show us not to take things for granted. Dr. Emmons reminds us that the first Thanksgiving took place after nearly half the pilgrims died from a rough winter and year. It became a national holiday in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War and was moved to its current date in the 1930s following the Depression. Why would a tragic event provoke gratitude? When times are good, we tend to take for granted the very things that deserve our gratitude. In times of uncertainty, though, we often realize that the people and circumstances we’ve come to take for granted are actually of immense value to our lives. Robert Emmons, Ph.D., writes: “In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize. In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope. In other words, gratitude can help us cope with hard times.”
In good times, and in tough times, gratitude turns out to be one of the most powerful choices you can make.
Putting Gratitude To Work For You If you want to put all this into practice, here are some simple things you can do to build positive momentum:
1) Say Grace: Anytime you sit down to a meal with loved ones, take a moment to go around and invite everyone to say one thing they are grateful for. Even if you eat a meal alone, you can take a moment to give thanks. 2) Keep A Daily Gratitude Journal: This really does work. And yes, there’s an app for that.
3) Share The Love: Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them every day.
4) Remember Mortality: You never know how long you, or anyone you love, will be alive. How would you treat your loved ones if you kept in mind that this could be the last time you’d ever see them? Thank you for reading this. Thank you for being grateful for the blessings and even for the challenges that come your way. When you express gratitude, you make your world, and our whole world, better and brighter. Thank you. https://foodrevolution.org/blog/thanksgiving-healthy-gratitude/
The CPI is another Government Lie
The CPI (Consumer Price Index) measures inflation according to the Federal Government. CPI is often used to figure raises for working people and increases in Social Security benefits. It’s easy to understand why the government suppresses the CPI in order to pay fewer increases in Social Security benefits. The CPI excludes goods with high price volatility such as food and energy (two things we can’t live without). Inflation is often referred to as the worst tax because its effects go unnoticed by most people. Earning 4% in a savings account while real inflation grows at 7% makes you feel 4% richer but in fact you are really 3% poorer. The article below explains some of the finagling the government uses to suppress the CPI.
Excerpts from an Article by Wolf Richter
“What’s Behind the Subprime Consumer Loan Implosion?”
“Inflation measures the loss of purchasing power of the dollar: what the same thing costs over time. But when quality improves, such as in a car, it’s no longer the same thing, and the costs of those quality improvements are removed from the inflation index.
So the CPI for new cars has been essentially flat since 1995, meaning no inflation for 20+ years, when in reality, the actual prices have jumped. For example, the price of a new Toyota Camry jumped by 25% between 1995 and 2019.
With used cars, it’s even worse. The CPI for used cars has declined by 11% since 1995. But actual used car prices have soared since then.
This goes for many other products and services across the spectrum. And then consumers, even when their income rises faster than inflation as measured by CPI, run into this problem where their income no longer suffices to buy these goods and services, including used cars and health care or housing, because actual prices of these goods and services have far outpaced both inflation as measured by CPI and wage increases.
This goes increment by increment. What might have worked last year, suddenly doesn’t work anymore this year. These consumers with jobs, that have been living from paycheck to paycheck, suddenly find themselves confronted with a 20% increase in health insurance premium or a 10% increase in rent, or both.” Read the whole article: http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4011-whats-behind-the-subprime-consumer-loan-implosion
What can help us cope with government caused inflation? Recognize that it is a reality. Pray for guidance. Do what you can to get out of debt, downsize your expenses, and be frugal. Stock up on food and other necessities when they are on sale.
Start a Movement: Please pray every day for our country, our leaders, and the families of our nation. “The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.” KJV Psalms 15:29
Real Inflation Rate for Household goods is 10% going to 25% in 2020
Investment advisor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts makes some very eye-opening observations about the real inflation rate.
“The dollar is holding, and yet, if you look at the price of household goods in America, where I live, it’s approximately 8% to 10% (inflation) a year in prices of household goods (going up), and you can tell the money printing (by the private Federal Reserve Bank) has been significant. If you look at what the Fed is doing in the repo market, we are really on the next Quantitative Easing. (The introduction of billions of new printing press dollars into the money supply by the Federal Reserve.)
So, we’ve got a problem with currency debasement (lose of purchasing power and value), ( It’s going) a lot faster in 2020, and that is an issue I am looking at. . . . One of the scenarios I am looking at is the dollar declines (in purchasing power) significantly in 2020. . . . When you have real household inflation at 10% every year for the past five years, the dollar has really already taken a hit as are many fiat currencies around the world. . . . What has really supported the dollar is its huge market share both in trade and traditionally in reserves. . . . You need to withstand a scenario where in 2020, instead of getting 10% inflation you need to withstand 20% or 25% inflation in real household goods. . . . I have been saying for many, many years the dollar is strong. This is the first time I started to see the potential for a crack in the armor. I think we have to be prepared for the potential for a more serious decline than we’ve been dealing with for the last five years.”
The Freedom Calendars make wonderful Christmas gifts and are available for $5 each plus $2 shipping. If you are ordering 5 or more, they are $4.00 each and $1 shipping. You can pick up calendars in the Reno/Sparks and Elko areas with no shipping. Order now!
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