Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB Christian Science Practitioner & Teacher
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Recovering multitasker learns single-minded focus accomplishes more

11/26/2014

 
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This Thanksgiving I am not cooking a turkey. I am neither baking pies nor setting a beautiful table. I will be a simple dinner guest. And the hostess asked that I bring not a single thing.  I struggled at first. Then I remembered that my goal this year has been to focus on the task before me, just the one that God is giving me at the moment, without distractions. This Thanksgiving, my work doesn’t involve entertaining, and I don’t feel one whit guilty about it.

You could say this has been a year of anti-multitasking for me. Single-tasking? Unitasking? Even the internet is struggling to come to terms with – and to find a term for – what has become an absolutely essential spiritual concept for me: that a single-minded spiritual focus accomplishes infinitely more than trying to do it all (or be it all) from a material point of view.

Spiritual unitasking - What it is:

  • Get a good spiritual idea and stick with it
  • See how it guides your footsteps and accomplishes much.

Spiritual unitasking - How it's done:

  • Focus, focus, focus.
  • Pause, pray, think, act.
  • Drop the guilt.

Last February I had a lot on my plate. A major article I wrote for a French magazine needed attention; an Association meeting for my pupils was a week away; a heavy travel schedule for lectures required that I have preparatory meetings nearly every night; other church responsibilities called to me; and my telephone and emails signaled the calls for help from those seeking my prayers. If I focused on one task, another cried for attention. If I switched mid-stream or gave only half an effort to two projects at a time, I felt guilty. I eventually said to heck with it all and decided to write a blog post.

As often happens when I blog, I learned as I wrote.  I came up with a humorous take on the Adam and Eve myth, illustrating that when we start from a spiritual rather than a material premise we won’t live lives of perpetual reaction to problems but will be fully functional, progressive and productive.
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Apparently, something in that post clicked with me, because I immediately changed my method of trying to be all and do all the jobs I could as a good little mortal should. I also dropped the guilt and shame that suddenly appeared on my to-do list when I decided to put all the tasks on hold. Instead, I stayed with the thought that a single good idea from Spirit, a spiritual idea, can accomplish all that is needed, simply by reflecting its divine source, God.

I stepped back completely from everything that needed doing and prayed, leaving the list with God, seeking a single spiritual idea to light my path. It came; and that idea became the backbone of the Association meeting. My writing was inspired by it and the French article reflected that inspiration. More blog posts followed effortlessly. Those blogs became articles and the basis of a new lecture. The same idea fueled radio interviews and inspired healing treatments. My practice and teaching work received a big boost from this single-minded focus.

I ate, drank and slept with the idea that came through my prayer until another spiritual idea came. Then I ate, drank and slept with that one – ultimately accomplishing more this year, as human measurements go, than any other previous year.

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In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote, “Now He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness…” (9:10)

To me this means that God gives us seed (the spiritual idea) and brings it to fruition (bread, or meets the need). God also multiplies our seed (the spiritual idea) and assures that our work bears fruit everywhere (everyone eats bread, all needs are met).

Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, points out our relation to our inexhaustible divine Source: “Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.” (p. 250) And she later observed the effortless productivity of God’s creation: “The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.” (p. 516)


"Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God..."
What a divine idea to light the path and accomplish much good.

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My heart is full of gratitude this Thanksgiving for this liberating spiritual idea.

No, I am neither cooking a turkey nor hosting the dinner;  but I deeply appreciate those who are. As a recent unitasker, I value that I can focus on my work while through the efforts of others I may still enjoy celebrating with family, friends, and strangers -uniting at the table to give gratitude to God, the Source and creator of all the good we know. 

Here is a link to a post written earlier in the year  about "doing it all."
And for those of you preparing for family gatherings, if you would like a laugh and something important to consider, check out this blog post turned article that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, titled, Holiday Preparedness.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, and to all.


Sunday School saves lives

11/19/2014

16 Comments

 
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During two years as a sexually abused teen, I went to a Christian Science Sunday School every week. Never missed. That Sunday School saved my life from abuse. I learned I had a divine right and inherent ability to think for myself and break free from evil influences and that such spiritual understanding could guide my feet to liberty.

No one in my Sunday School nor my parents knew about the abuse. I guarded closely the secret. Groomed by the abuser into a resistless, willing victim, I was seduced to hide the relationship. I accepted that it was normal and liked the attention that came along with it, not perceiving it as wrong.

All evidence of the problem hid amongst typical adolescent angst. For example, any teenager might have exhibited a resistance to going to Sunday School. I sure did. But my parents left me no wiggle room. They insisted on my regular attendance.

I have no doubt that teaching me was a trial that stretched my teachers' patience. I remember alternating from a vague interest in the subjects to wanting to sleep through the classes. The teachers, however, would have none of it, lovingly, firmly, persistently insisting that I read scriptural texts out loud, if that would help keep me alert and engaged. I gained a familiarity with the vocabulary and flow of scripture that has had enormous value ever since.

Sunday School also engaged me to consider the Science of Christianity that led me out of the abuse. Christian Science, its explanation and practice, teaches that God as divine Mind has endowed everyone with inalienable rights. Under the marginal heading of "Proper self-government" Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures states, "Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 106)

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Sunday School only occupied one hour a week, yet my teachers taught me to think for myself; to be alert to negative thought influences and to defend myself from them; to think differently; and to be open to God's guidance and protection. My spirituality began to have more weight in my day to day life and I became less naive, less susceptible to go along with wrong.

A moment arrived when I couldn't abide any influence less than good. Spirituality and goodness lifted me up and out of the mess. I was fifteen years old when I suddenly awakened from the mental fog that surrounded the abuse, and stopped it cold. I no longer remember the specifics of that awakening, but I can say that one day I felt empowered to end it.

Parents, please note:
While we can't always know, at every moment, what our children and teens are going through, we can provide the tools for proper-self government that will guide them to safety. Your local Christian Science Sunday School is equipped and ready to help you help your children know God and hence to know themselves spiritually as strong, alert, safe and pure.

Sunday School teachers: You have a sacred role in protecting the children in your care. It isn't only by personal knowledge of what they are going through, but as Paul explains in a letter to the Corinthians,  "by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by  the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left," that your pupils discover their true spirituality, strength and goodness. (See 2 Corinthians, Chapter 6)

Sunday School saves lives. It is a community resource to be cherished and supported. Sunday School ensures the safety and progress of children.

Information and help finding a Christian Science Sunday School near you.

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    Michelle Nanouche, Christian Science teacher, spirituality, healing, prayer

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    I have practiced Christian Science professionally in
    some form since 1979.
    But my journey with
    Christian Science started
    in a Sunday school
    where as a young child
    I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics
    of Jesus' method of
    scientific Christian healing.
    A significant experience
    at the age of twelve
    opened my eyes to
    the great potential
    of this practice. 
    After impaling my foot
    on a nail,
    I prayed the way I had learned
    in Sunday school.
    Within moments
    the pain stopped
    and healing began.
    By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely.
    Having experienced
    the great potential
    ​of Christian Science,
    there would be no
    turning back. 

    Find out more
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