The rabbit effect

In the 1970s, researchers set up an experiment to examine the effects of diet on heart health. Over several months, they fed a control group of rabbits a high-fat diet and monitored their blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol.

As expected, many of the rabbits showed a buildup of fatty deposits on the inside of their arteries. Yet this was not all! Researchers had discovered something that made little sense. Although all of the rabbits had a buildup, one group surprisingly had as much as 60 percent less than the others. It appeared as though they were looking at two different groups of rabbits.

To scientists, results like this can cause lost sleep. How could this be? The rabbits were all the same breed from New Zealand, from a virtually identical gene pool. They each received equal amounts of the same food.

What could this mean? Did the results invalidate the study? Were there flaws in the experiment design? The scientists struggled to understand this unexpected outcome!

Eventually, they turned their attention to the research staff. Was it possible that researchers had done something to influence the results? As they pursued this, they discovered that every rabbit with fewer fatty deposits had been under the care of one researcher. She fed the rabbits the same food as everyone else. But, as one scientist reported, “she was an unusually kind and caring individual.” When she fed the rabbits, “she talked to them, cuddled and petted them. … ‘She couldn’t help it. It’s just how she was.’”

She did more than simply give the rabbits food. She gave them love!

At first glance, it seemed unlikely that this could be the reason for the dramatic difference, but the research team could see no other possibility.

So they repeated the experiment—this time tightly controlling for every other variable. When they analyzed the results, the same thing happened! The rabbits under the care of the loving researcher had significantly higher health outcomes.

Years later the findings of this experiment still seem influential in the medical community. In recent years, Dr. Kelli Harding published a book titled The Rabbit Effect that takes its name from the experiment. Her conclusion: “Take a rabbit with an unhealthy lifestyle. Talk to it. Hold it. Give it affection. … The relationship made a difference. … Ultimately,” she concludes, “what affects our health in the most meaningful ways has as much to do with how we treat one another, how we live, and how we think about what it means to be human.”

In a secular world, bridges connecting science with gospel truths sometimes seem few and far between. Yet as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints, the results of this scientific study may seem more intuitive than astonishing. For me, this lays another brick in the foundation of kindness as a fundamental, healing gospel principle—one that can heal hearts emotionally, spiritually, and, as demonstrated here, even physically.

Source: Hearts Knit Together

Challenges can produce growth instead of anxiety

In the pursuit of extraordinary performance, it’s easy to succumb to anxiety and pressure, because so much is out of your control. When you learn to live a life that is fully engaged, however, then you can perform your best and love the challenge. Every performance, presentation, or problem you face is an opportunity to learn and grow and vividly experience each moment.
- Jim Murphy

Source: Inner Excellence, by athletic performance coach Jim Murphy

Sacrifice is making something holy

In the ancient world, sacrifice wasn't giving something up. It was making something holy. - Dr. Dan Belnap

This can really change our perspective on sacrifice. Instead of asking ourselves a question like, "Am I going to sacrifice this time to go to the temple?" or "Am I going to sacrifice this money to pay tithing? we should ask ourselves "Do I want to make this time holy? Do I want to make this money holy?" Really it is just a shift in perspective.

Source: Follow Him podcast

God wants help from imperfect servants

We have a God who holds worlds without number in his hands. He's more than capable of doing His own work. He tells us that on two occasions in 2 Nephi 27, "I am able to do my own work". And yet the fascinating thing is that he relies on servants to assist in the work when he could just miraculously perform all the work way better, quite frankly, than Joseph Smith or any prophet or any teacher.

Jesus could give every talk this coming Sunday in sacrament meeting and it would be the best most perfect sacrament meeting ever. But a perfect sacrament meeting isn't the point. Helping us grow line upon line to become more like the Savior, that's the point. And you can't do that by going and having a lesson and having somebody teach you facts and figures and dates and places. You do it by walking with the Savior, by keeping His commandments to the best of our ability and then pleading for forgiveness when we don't, extending mercy to others who are struggling in their part of the vineyard as well.

We work together, we grow together. We with the Lord help produce fruit together and it's just this long process of becoming who we have the capacity to become. And I just marvel at God's goodness. Instead of just taking over my life and doing everything perfectly, He lets me wrestle, He lets me struggle. He lets me teach those lessons. Because there's an opportunity for learning and growth and development and becoming. It's amazing to me how patient and kind he is with us as children of God through this growing process.
- Dr. Tyler Griffin

Source: Follow Him podcast

Personal agency is the core of God's Plan

Heavenly Father's goal in parenting is not to have his children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him.
- Elder Dale G. Renlund

We might think that the Lord wanted obedience to a set of rules, whereas he really wants people of a particular sort.
- C. S. Lewis

Sources:
Follow Him podcast
Elder Dale G. Renlund
C. S. Lewis

What the rising generation needs

When President Meredith was called to be the President of BYU-Idaho, his wife had a distinct impression from the Spirit about what they needed to give the rising generation.

1. We need to point our rising generation to the Savior in all things
2. We need to point them to living prophets and apostles
3. We need to model that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is joyful

Source: Follow Him podcast

Growth comes through opposition

Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me Lord, all those experiences which made thee what thou art. Then let me come and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy.'
- Elder Neal A. Maxwell

A God who is asking nothing of us is making nothing of us.
- Brad Wilcox

Sources:
Follow Him podcast
Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Attributes of a true disciple of Christ

The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ is the way we treat other people.
- Elder Marvin J. Ashton

One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people.
- President Russell M. Nelson

We may sometimes measure our spirituality by how often we spend in the scriptures or in the temple or in our callings, but the best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ, is the way that we treat others.

Sources:
Follow Him podcast
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
President Russell M. Nelson

Bids and turns

Bids and turns is one of the greatest tools for saving your relationships. The simple idea is a bid is anytime you invite connection, "Hey, how was your day?" And the turn is when the person turns to the bidder.

John Gottman, the leading researcher in marriage and family has found out that the healthiest couples turn 86% of the time to their partner when their partner initiates a conversation or talk. They don't keep doing what they're doing. They turn. What they're trying to do then is get in sync and to create attunement or at-one-ment.

The power in his research is the couples that were most likely to divorce were only turning 33% of the time. 86% for the healthiest marriages and 33% for the least healthy. The simple question for all of us is, "do you turn?"

Sources:
Follow Him podcast
Communication theory by John Gottman

The gifts of the magi

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
- Matthew 2:11

The gifts the wisemen* brought the Christ child symbolized key aspects of the Jerusalem temple and kingship theology. The gold was used to symbolize the glorious nature of God himself and the temple where he dwelt in the heavens. All of the vessels and furnishings in the Jerusalem temple were made of gold to symbolize this. Frankincense was the key ingredient in the special incense blend used in the Holy of Holies, and was also used in the gift meal offerings described in Leviticus. Myrrh was the primary component in the holy anointing oil used in the temple.

*In the original greek, the word used is "magi", which was the name used to refer to Zoroastrian priests, a religion in Persia.

Source: The Ancient Tradition #48