The Science Behind Happiness

For the last few days I've been pretty tired and I've found myself having negative thoughts about my day and about the people around me. I'm in the habit of going to lds.org randomly when I find myself with a free moment or feel like I need some inspiration. Today I clicked on an article named
The Surprising Science Behind “Supremely Happy” People. I clicked on it and immediately realized that the reason I hadn't been happy the last few days was because I hadn't been WORKING AT IT! Happiness doesn't just knock on your door, you have to snatch it and put it into your life! I prayed and kept this in my mind all day and I've felt sooo much better because of it. I found myself smiling at random people and just being positive about everything!



https://www.lds.org/church/news/the-surprising-science-behind-supremely-happy-people?cid=HPFR102414513&lang=eng

The Invasion

The other day my husband and I wanted to watch a scary movie and ended up watching The Invasion. It's like a remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We really liked it!! It wasn't too scary and was more of a thriller which I like. You should check it out! The BYU Bookstore has it for rent.

Pass me the MALK!

Julian Smith

This is one of my favoritest videos on youtube. It makes me laugh so much!! If you've never heard of Julian Smith, you should totally check him out. Something I love about him is that he stays away from profanity and inappropriateness! It's so hard to find funny videos these days without worrying about the content so I really admire him. 

#CuttheCarls

Today I was thinking about sex in the media and what it does to our brains, our self-esteem and our beliefs. I started reading about the Carls Jr. campaigns and what people are doing to combat their effects. There are two sisters who started the campaign to #CuttheCarls because women are #MoreThanMeat. One of the sister's husband added this to their blog post:

 “They [Carl’s Jr.] took what all the other advertisers had done, then they went a little further, and then they deep fried it,” Travis says in the post. “And it makes me sick. And if it doesn’t make you sick, then you should probably turn off your internet machine, think really hard about how numb you are to stuff that is doing a lot of harm, and just have a conversation with a real woman. And just maybe think for one second about what it means for women to turn on the TV and see basically every woman stripped down to sell you things.”

I love that people are out there trying to educate the world on the sad effects of pornography and the sexualization of women. Women deserve to be treated as real humans and not as things to look at. And, like the sisters mention on their site, "Viewing someone as an object is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person." I hope that more people will begin to believe the truth about the evils of pornography and how destructive it is. Thank goodness for social science research, for good people and for the ability of social media to share the truth.

http://www.beautyredefined.net/cut-the-carls/

The Fault in Our Stars

Last night I watched this movie with my husband. It was a pretty good movie and I enjoyed it. But something that I noticed was that there was some crazy cigarette advertising all throughout it. Now, I know this was based on a book, and although I don't know if this was the author's intention, I know that the advertising probably worked on someone...

The main love interest holds a cigarette in his mouth throughout the whole movie. He never lights it, and only uses it as a "metaphor" because he's all cool and deep and wants to be unique blah, blah, blah. But, the whole time, it makes cigarettes look cool! Seeing an attractive male and attractive female being all lovey dovey with sunsets in the background and cool music and a cute love story and hipster clothes and touching moments just makes it look inviting and attractive. I know cigarettes are not cool, that they don't make you attractive, or help you find true love or have an exciting, romantic life. But this is the message that this media sends. And sadly, it will probably work on some poor teenagers. 

Google+ and LDS Temples

A little while ago I heard a story about a bishop who encouraged his ward to go to Google+ and write reviews about their church building. A little while later, a non-member family was in the area and wanted to go to church. The father looked up local churches on Google+ and found this ward's reviews. He took his family to the building and loved the service. He became interested in the church and they became baptized! 

I love this story so much. It's such a simple thing that I would never think to do but it can have such a big impact. I remembered this the other day and googled "church provo utah" and one of the first results was the Provo Utah LDS Temple. I clicked on it and saw that it's rating average was a 5. :) I read all the reviews and as I was reading couldn't help but be touched by the Spirit and think about how wonderful the temple is! It brings so much joy to people's lives and people only have good things to say about it. I love that those people took the time to review the temple and share the joy that it brings them.

I want to review my home temples and church buildings so that other people can see how much joy they bring and how many people love them!

Today I read this awesome article about a young couple who was told that their unborn baby had a very serious disease that would most likely take his life very shortly after birth. They made a bucket list of things to do throughout the baby's life (in the womb!). They took him all over while the mom was pregnant and blogged about it. After the baby was born, they baptized him and surrounded him with family. The baby died just a few short hours after birth.

I love this story! In a world where many mothers will abort a child after hearing of a disease they may have, this gives me so much hope. I love the power that one person can have in the world today because of social media. 

https://gma.yahoo.com/couple-welcomes-terminal-bucket-list-baby-then-says-145603200--abc-news-topstories.html 

#ldsconf

I loved conference this last weekend and I love the opportunity we all have to share it! I think it's the cutest/smartest thing that the church has jumped on all opportunities to share the gospel and help the world find out who we really are. I love the idea that we can all share a little something to spread the truth. How awesome is it that you can go to lds.org and find out what hash-tags to use to reference conference!? I love the gospel and I love the opportunity I have to share it with others!!

Here's something that was shared by Mormon Women on Facebook:

Help the world realize that God loves us and still speaks to us!!

Christ Healing the Sick at the Pool of Bethesda

The other day, I went to the Museum of Art and looked at the painting "Christ Healing the Sick at the Pool of Bethesda" by Carl Bloch. It is such a beautiful painting and it was amazing to see it in person and so big. For a class, I was asked to sit and reflect on the painting and the story behind it. I love the spiritual experiences you can have with art. It is amazing that artists can take paint, put it on paper, and give it so much life!

If you have a free minute, you should go and look at the painting. It is so beautiful and there's even a little bench you can sit on to contemplate.