ASI Scandinavia 2013: Transforming Grace

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ASI Scandinavia

Mental Health and Emotional Intelligence

Jan-Harry Cabungcal

Part 1: Pre-Requisites To A Good Mental Health and Stable Emotions

Our Father in heaven, Lord, once again, we thank you for your goodness, your mercy, and your grace.

We thank you that this evening or this afternoon we can learn more about your creation, the wonderful mind that you have given mankind.

And Lord as we learn more about this topic, help us dear Lord, not only to understand it, but to apply them, to live them.

That we will be fully transformed by your grace.

Until thou comest in the clouds of heaven, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, I have been given the topic mental health and emotional intelligence, And this is quite a challenge, even for a neuroscientist.

I work as a research associate at the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience.

It's a department of psychiatry of the University of Lausanne.

And the second appointment that I have is at the Fundamental of Neuroscience at the same university, where we do more fundamental things.

But I work at the psychiatric clinic, And we do a lot of research dealing with mental health, and also, of course, the product of it is the emotions.

And so, like I said, this is a very challenging topic.

Because mental health encompasses neurology, psychiatry, and even psychology.

And to pick even 2 hours is going to be hard.

I have a class starting in January called developmental neuroscience in which I will be teaching fourth-year students and in that developmental neuroscience, just to give you a foretaste, it's 6 hours, and it's talking about just the developmental part.

And so, I think you can grasp with me the complexity, but what I'm going to try and do for this session is to set the fundamental.

The next, the part 2, will be deal on how to maintain a good mental health and stable emotions.

And the third part will deal with living a positive life and using our mental health and stable emotions to win souls for Christ.

So that's the line that we're going to thread in these 3 sessions.

And at the same time, of course, there will be questions and answers.

So what I'd like, if there's something you don't understand, something you want to be clear about, please don't hesitate to interrupt.

I want it to be interactive, it's a workshop, okay?

More than a lecture, I have enough of that.

Okay, so having said that, Okay, let's move on.

Notice I'm going to start with a few quotes and then we're going to go to some of the scientific findings, some data from the laboratory, some data from the clinics and to bring you to the line of thoughts that I have for today.

But notice what it says in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 3, page 269.

To deal with the mind is the nicest work in which men ever engage.

The nicest work that you could ever engage is to deal with the mind.

Why is this so important that to deal and study the mind is of great import and even the nicest based on the spirit of prophecy.

I'm still learning this pointer because it's not mine.

So, okay, notice what it says in the Ministry of Healing.

They should study the influence of the mind upon the what?

Notice the structure where your mind or your brain is.

Notice that when God created the brain, he didn't put it anywhere else but where?

Now there must be a reason as to why it's on the top.

You could survive if your brain is in your stomach.

You could survive if your brain is between your ribs.

Well, I think it's pretty obvious, but then again, the presentations of this workshop would lead to that.

They should study the influence of the mind upon the body and the body upon the mind and the laws by which they are governed.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23, verse 7, for as he, that's a man or woman, thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Now we're trying to build the picture here.

What goes on in your mind, there's a saying, first, what you eat is what you are.

So following the same mindset, following the same thinking, what you think is what you are, what makes who you are.

Notice what some of the people in the field says about things.

John Sanders, he said 1 of his quote, not mine, the mind of a man is what?

The battleground in which every moral and spiritual battle is fought.

I mean, when you think of the message that we have specifically given, and when you think of the great controversy, for example, where is it settled?

Not in your stomach, not between your ribcage, between the ear.

Ah, this is going to be, notice what it says.

Vance Havner, quote, "'Our defeat or victory begins with what we think.

And if we guard our thoughts, we shall not have much trouble anywhere else along the line.

The Bible also says, by beholding, what happens?

As you're saying, You show me your friends, I'll show you what you're like.

You show me your teacher, tell you what's going on between the 2 ears of yours.

It says here in Education 401, he who created the mind and ordains his law provided its development in accordance with them.

Now, notice what it says, he who created the mind and ordained its laws provided for its development in accordance with them.

Chop my finger, not holding, just slice it a little bit.

The process of healing takes effect right away.

Okay, you will have blood that comes out.

Okay, the coagulating process takes place.

Part 2: How To Maintain A Good Mental Health and Stable Emotional Intelligence

This is part 2 of the mental health and emotional intelligence.

I invite you just to bow your head where you are as we seek the Lord in prayer.

Most loving, kind, and gracious Father in heaven, once again we are thankful dear Lord for the opportunity to learn more about the organ that you have placed on between our ears.

An organ that is used dear Lord and should be used for your honor, glory, and praise.

And Lord, as we learn more, we ask not only for understanding, but we ask for the will and the desire to live according, dear Lord, to your word, that we may follow your guidelines, your precepts, to live a life that you call us to live.

Once again, only for the purpose of giving glory and honor to Your name.

So yesterday, what we have learned, I hope, is the neurodevelopmental process that takes place between your 2 ears.

We have showed you that brain development takes place from fertilization.

And development continues, at least in this aspect that we're looking at, until late adolescent, early adulthood.

And all these processes are very specific, very timely, and cause in delay or early expression could lead to a particular psychiatric mental disability or disorder.

So we underlined yesterday the importance of the time window during childhood in which the brain is very plastic, able to absorb information, not only absorb information, but it is a time when the highest susceptibility to stress damage takes place.

So not only they're the most plastic, but at the same time, they're the most vulnerable to insults, physical, chemical, or whatever you want to call it, but insult that takes place at the cellular level.

We have also underlined yesterday, showed you some data from 1 of the best published paper that city living and urban upbringing, That means children that are born into the city, raised into the city, have a more susceptible to psychiatric disorder in later life.

Now you say, what, there must be something in the city that causes this developmental process to be disturbed.

And we know that What that is, is the stressful lifestyle that comes with the city and many other factors that a child should not be exposed to.

Now what we're going to go through today is how to maintain.

You might say, we're all being born, we're all adult, but the question now is that for us that are born, for us that are adult, How do we maintain a stable emotion or a healthy mind?

So just a few quotes again, we're gonna start with a few quotes and then we're gonna go build it up on what the spirit of prophecy in the scripture says.

And then we're going to discuss some of the scientific data that exists to support some of these quotes or some of the recommendations and the counsels that the spirit of prophecy gives us.

Notice what it says in Fundamentals of Christian Education, page 426.

All our action, good or bad, have their source in the mind.

It is the mind that worships God and allies us to heavenly beings.

We already read yesterday 2 quotes from Nanda Advantis that tells you, experts in the field, that says that our mind is the what?

Because it's the seat of decision for moral and spiritual what?

And these are not part of people who read the spirit of prophecy.

These are people who simply study the mind.

I'd like to underline what Education 41 says.

He Who created the mind and ordained its laws, provided for its development in accordance with them?

We at least pointed out some basic things.

That everything that takes place in the brain is designed.

So even when you look at the evolution theory and you put that evolution theory and see whether the brain development fits within that box, it doesn't.

Because every signaling process, every receptors, every neurotransmitters are timed, sequenced.

And that's how meticulously the process is.

Now we've also underlined yesterday that prenatal life is controlled by God.

We show that prenatal life is very important in the development of the brain.

The moment the sperm meets the egg and they say hi to each other and decide that, okay, the Lord said, you're going to be somebody.

The parent's work must begin with the child in its infancy, that it may receive the right impresses of character, ere the world shall place its stamp on the mind and heart.

What he's saying is that if parents don't do it, who will do it?

Now there's been a suggestion earlier, somebody said, asked me, a young person asked me regarding going into secular university.

What would you tell a young person who wants to study and go to secular university?

And it's a challenge to answer that question.

But I told this young person that the problem is not necessarily under secular university.

Because if the upbringing is done correctly, by the time they go to the university, things are fixed.

But if it's absent, if they have been formed by the world, Of course when they go to the world, they are in the world.

But if the early education has been molded, stamped, then you have nothing to worry in a sense.

You just remain faithful to God, follow His precepts, you'll be fine by the grace of God.

I'm not saying that's a stamp to go and seek and go to a secular university right away.

I think God has given you the brain to think for yourself on this 1.

The first 3 years is the time in which to bend the tiny twig.

Mother should understand the importance attaching to this period.

And if we go back to our graphs, where is it?

Okay, the first 3 years, you look at the development, the trajectory, it's before the 5 when the excitatory synapses in the prefrontal cortex is being developed.

It is a time when children receive so much information without much inhibition.

Which means everything that is loaded on me, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, there's nothing to filter it out to clean it up.

So when all these things are absorbed, of course in adulthood it's there.

Everything that's in your brain from the beginning is there, it's just a question of accessing it.

Part 3: Question and Answer

Welcome to Mental Health and Emotional Intelligence Part 3.

Okay, before we start let's have a word of prayer.

Our Father in heaven, Lord we have we thank you for bringing us this far.

We thank you that as we begin to enter into a new year, we can end with a workshop knowing dear Lord how to best serve you with the mental health that you have given us and also balance emotions in exercising such emotions that you have given us.

So we pray that it will be subdued by you, given to you, and Lord, also for thy service, honor, and glory, it will be used by me.

Thank you once again for giving us this opportunity.

We give you our brain, our mind, our heart.

Okay, so what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna go through the practical application.

That's what I call how to daily form a mindset and emotion ready for heaven.

Okay, So we have learned the neurobiological basis, at least we tried to cover it, to the best of our ability in a short time given, but also in a very layman term that even a child would be able to understand.

Please forgive me if some were too academic, but what I tried to do is link it in such a way that the spirit of prophecy is highlighted and that the scientific facts or findings are given in such a way that both science and spirit prophecy harmonizes and do not disappear.

Because what we do know is God is the 1 that created us.

He knows how to maintain our body and mind.

So what I have been asked by Brother Terry Ernst is to briefly somehow mention to you a few points about emotional intelligence.

This is more in the branch of psychology and so that's why I was going to ignore it, but let's tackle it just a little bit.

And so it is indeed important that you have seen the plots in the previous presentation, in which during development there is a different peak time of plasticity.

Second is the motor and the language, and the third part that develops is the cognitive.

And so, in terms of emotion, the first thing that develops also is awareness and feeling.

You know, Already you do know that a fetus is begins to develop sense of feelings already in the prenatal stage.

And also during childhood they need to understand what the feelings that they're feeling.

In fact, to a point that a child must be able to understand when I'm smiling.

A child must be able to understand when my face, when I go, right?

They have to learn looking at the face and being able to associate that this is a feeling of happiness, anger, and those things.

And once they have learned that, they must also learn to subdue them.

I don't know if many of you have children, but those of you who have the blessed experience of raising a child that cries all night, right?

You know, Sometimes when the child starts crying, they don't know how to stop, to subdue themselves.

They must be aware of feelings, but at the same time able to control them.

And then they're also maybe able to use the feeling for motivation.

That's why I'm saying that it has to be subdued.

Because if feeling is always used to motivate, we're in trouble.

I don't feel like studying today, so I'm not studying.

Or, if you're like me, I feel like eating.

And feeling should not be the motivation to do something.

There's a reason as to why the brain is on top of all our organs because it's to subdue everything else.

It's to executively execute and I would say steer the whole being.

So the fourth is of course empathy, which is being able to deal with, show compassion.

A child or during this development must be able to, for example, there's a child that is crying, you would often see another child, 2 response, a child, 1 child crying, 1 child going like this, and there's another child that is almost about to cry too, or another child that approaches the child and holds their hand.

Being able to exercise and recognize what they're seeing and respond to that.

Okay, the fifth element is of course being able to what what the others would call being able to use those things for social interactions.

But the idea is we are to be what social the Bible tells us that when God created Adam Adam looked at the into the into into the animal kingdom?

And so, God, when he created Adam this way, it was a purpose.

Because God wanted Adam to have a desire for a partner.

He didn't automatically put a woman back here, live with her.

No, there was a desire that had to be created in Adam.

He saw that the animal kingdom only had man, female, male, no female.

And so God wanted to add to his life, but the desire had to be created in Adam.

Now with all that encompassed for emotional intention and being able to use that, knowing how to subdue them, knowing how that 1 should not be the 1 to overrule the other.

Again, it is the mind, it's the brain that sits on top of the head.

We are to subdue feelings within reasons and it all has to be what?

Now, what we're going to try and do now is use the basics of what we have learned and use what we have just mentioned in how to form a daily form of mindset and emotions ready for heaven.

First point that I'd like to share with you is the spirit of integration.

What is this spirit of integration all about?

Tosca, 1 of the greatest hindrances to the Christian's internal peace is common habit of dividing lives into 2 areas, the sacred and the secular.

But this state of affair is wholly unnecessary.

We have gotten ourselves on the horn of the dilemma, but the dilemma is not real.

The sacred secular antithesis has no foundation in the New Testament.

Okay, let's bring it into more practical terms.

Remember, he said, the greatest hindrance to Christian experience is when we separate religious life and daily life.

It means you cannot be 2 person because you're living a double life.

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Mental Health and Emotional Intelligence

Part 3: Question and Answer

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Parts

Part 1: Pre-Requisites To A Good Mental Health and Stable Emotions

1h 11m

Part 2: How To Maintain A Good Mental Health and Stable Emotional Intelligence

1h 34m

Part 3: Question and Answer

1h 14m

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