you are what you eat - you are what you listen to!

Not sure how is it around the world, but in the UK the fall is coming - that is, autumn is here! It's getting colder outside, the wind is blowing, the windows are not being left open during the night, the heat is on inside, the lights are turned on earlier, and we just switched to the Winter Time! Thicker clothes, a hat on the head, jacket on, an umbrella with you all the time, solid shoes, thicker socks, a scarf maybe, some even wearing gloves... Praise the Lord, the sun is still shining some days - so this brings a smile on many faces.... :)

1 Picture in London - Manor House, close to Baker Street

This is one of the many Manor Houses in London, this time in Central London. As you walk from Edgeware Rd (where district 4 of the church in London meets) towards Baker Street (where you can see Sherlock Holmes' museum, you can visit Madam Tassauds, etc) you pass by some impressive buildings like this one, Manor House. Yes, there's a tube station and several bus stops in London called by this name, but this particular building is Manor House on Marylbone Road (see it online). As I was looking on google maps - google street view, I realized that - wow, everything can be seen on google street view now, all we have to do is "add pictures" to the existing data there!

You Are what You Eat, You Are What You Listen To!

Everyone knows this saying, You are what you eat, and it is true. We eat healthy food - we have a healthy body. We eat junk food, our body will have some problems. We drink healthy drinks - mostly water - and our body has a normal and proper digestion.... But it is the same in the psychological realm - you train your mind by going to school and gaining proper knowledge in a field you're inclined towards - your mind will work as trained. You don't train your mind and you don't put it to work but let it "chill" and cram lots of knowledge into it when exams come - your mind will not work in a proper way, but will tend to prefer the relaxing...

Recently I realized also that You are What You Eat also implies that You Are What You Listen To. More and more wherever you go you see that people are "plugged in" - they listen to stuff! I personally don't want to know what they are listening to, but many people are calmer and nicer to you only after they "take their dose" / after they have been listening to something... When we're on the PC / MAC, when browsing the internet or doing our homeworks, when working or playing, etc, we like to listen to something. .... we passively listen to something and are influenced / infused by what we listen, even without knowing it!

So my thought and my consideration is like this - why not listen to some healthy things, something that gives me more encouragement and even more life? Believe me, I tried to listen to positive thinking speaches, motivational stuff, the TWIT shows(since I like internet and tech), or even the TED conference amazing discoveries and analysis... - these don't give you life, but they burden you and rather load you with all kinds of stuff... It comes down to each one of us making a choice AGAIN and AGAIN - what do stuff myself with? Do I stuff myself with "fried chicken and chips" (the favorite meal of the UK young people, very toxic when consumed in high quantities) or do I choose to have healthy food?

What comes out of us towards others and towards life in general is determined many times by what we put into us. When we listen to something, we passively allow that music / speaking / thing we listen to to get into us and infuse us with a certain "state of mind", a certain feeling... I distinctly remember some walks I took while listening to a specific thing, either a message, a speech, or some music.. And I also distinctly remember when I tried to listen to certain music and certain things - and something within me just didn't agree with that! Oh... I tried to fight with it, and I kind of won... - but eventually I love LIFE and PEACE much more than the feeling of death...

How I wish that we all would really be careful about what we listen to! We tend to become and to be influenced by what we listen to! We actually "eat" that thing we're listening, and we get an appetite for it... We need to learn to change our appetite - yes, there may have been a time we ate "fish and chips" all the time, and we drank mostly fizzy drinks - but as we grow in the human life and in the divine life, we learn to eat healthy and drink healthy, so that we may live a long life and a healthy life! I want to EAT good stuff - healthy stuff!

Examples of good stuff to listen to:

• the NYC YP CD (the New York Young People CD's) - now even on iTunes and on facebook;
• Hymns and Spiritual Songs - download MP3's and listen to them online;
• HymnsRadio - listen ALL the day long to free hymns online...
• Hymnal.net - listen to the melody of all the hymns and many new songs;
• LSM Radio - listen to the whole life study of the Bible radio broadcast, everything is online as MP3's. I went through Luke, Mark, 1 Peter, etc.. - 30 mins portions, DELICIOUS and HEALTHY food!

[what do YOU think? Leave me a comment if you have a similar experience of "being bothered within when listening to stuff... DO YOU know any other websites / places where you can find good spiritual things to listen to?]