Hope For Maiduguri

The most important aspect of warfare is the psychological and anyone who can win the psychological war will definitely win the physical combat. That was how Mao Tse Tsung and his little band of communists beat the Chinese national army back in the past. That was also how King George and Winston Churchill were able to rally Britain and all of Europe and were able to beat Hitler in world war II.
What boko haram is doing now to residents of Maiduguri and its environs is to defeat them psychologically. Else why throw fliers around warning of an impending attack? Did they announce to Gwoza residents before attacking their town? What of Bama? They know Maiduguri would be tough if not impossible so they are rallying their forces and discouraging the populace. Can boko haram muster 5000 men? I doubt it so they are looking for another way to win a battle that is otherwise impossible.
I advice everyone in Maiduguri or in anyway affiliated to it to be strong and courageous. Let’s all unite in prayer, trusting God to deliver the city and all in it. Let’s also make up our minds to fight if a push comes to a shove. If we decide defeat is not an option, Maiduguri will never fall to the insurgents. Vive la Maiduguri.

Elijah Salihu Malgwi

One Hundred Dollars An Hour!!

One Hundred Dollars An Hour!!

There are some times in our everyday lives that we become so busy with things like work or our careers, that we can quite often spend less time with the things that are really important. Today’s story gives us a great illustration of this life principle.

SON: “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
DAD: “Yeah sure, what is it?”
SON: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?”
SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “If you must know, I make $100 an hour.”
SON: “Oh! (With his head down).
SON: “Daddy, may I please borrow $50?”

The father was furious.

DAD: “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard every day for such this childish behavior.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $ 50 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

DAD: “Are you asleep, son?”

SON: “No daddy, I’m awake”.

DAD: “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the $50 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling.

SON: “Oh, thank you daddy!”

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

DAD: “Why do you want more money if you already have some?”

SON: “Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.

“Daddy, I have $100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness. It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $100 worth of your time with someone you love? If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.

Some things in life are more important….

by Coach Muller

3 Good Reasons To Sit Close Your Eyes and Meditate

Meditating isn’t easy. Instead of sitting on the floor cross-legged for half an hour, you probably want to be tweaking your fantasy football team, working through your Netflix cue, crossing things off the to-do list. Yet, new studies show that meditating could be just as good for you as those obviously relaxing and productive activities, plus offer surprising, cool mind, body, and health benefits. Take a few minutes a day to focus on one thing — a mantra, a word, or your own breath; basically, anything but that to-do list — and you’ll benefit in these ways.

Feel Less Pain
Researchers put healthy participants in an MRI to see how their brains light up when they experience pain, and how meditation could change their evaluation of that pain. After only four days, meditation during pain was found to reduce the participants’ rating of unpleasantness by 57 percent, and also decreased the intensity by 40 percent. How? Meditation-induced reductions in pain were associated with increased activity in the areas involved with cognitive processing and reframing the contextual evaluation of sensory events — meaning the pain you feel can be reframed in your brain as less terrible, and more tolerable.

Control Anxiety
Meditate, and you’ll stress less in the moment, and you may be able to also stop yourself from worrying about the future, according to recent research. Nearly a hundred patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (a disorder characterized by chronic worry and physiological hyperarousal symptoms), were trained in a type of meditation called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. After eight weeks, without adding any traditional cognitive therapy, their anxiety and distress levels went down. The study’s takeaway: If you can learn from mediation that thoughts are just thoughts, and physical sensations are just physical sensations, you can more easily shut down the anxiety-causing negative self-talk about those feelings.

Furthermore, participants in the study who had to do public speaking (perhaps the world’s greatest anxiety-inducer) even showed more confidence, saying things more often like “I can handle everything” rather than the self-sabatoging, “I’ll probably bomb anyway.”

Be Happier
This year, a Johns Hopkins professor did an analysis of 47 of the best existing mediation studies on more than 3,500 participants. He found that meditation provided as much relief from depression symptoms as antidepressants. And unlike drugs, which can come with a host of unpleasant side effects — drowsiness, reduced sex drive — meditation has never been shown to have any risk or negative side effects. Well, other than a little flack from your friends.

– Sarah Z. Wexler