be still and know . . . Yourself

If you have a moment, I invite you to take a deep breath.

Breathe in life and release your worries, doubts or concerns. Breathe in joy as you release fear, lack or limitation. Breathe in the truth of all you have to be thankful for, all the gifts you have been given and all those you have to give. Breathe in the love of God, remembering that right now you have everything you need to be happy.

Silence and Mediation. I didn’t fully understand their power either, until I tried them. As we wade through the shifting waters of the physical and material world (finances, relationships, jobs, etc), if ever we expect not to be consumed by them, we must endeavor the silence. God is in the silence. Peace is in the silence. We have five minutes to turn off the TV, put down our cell phones, turn off the radio and just listen. If you take just twenty seconds to breathe before the argument starts, checking your email, going to a business meeting, starting a project, or mowing the lawn, you give yourself an opportunity to be centered in the present. You are reminded of not just what you are doing, but why, and how it is an expression of the good, and the God, within you.

One secret to true silence, prayer, or mediation, is that they have no one form. Just be comfortable and be open. You can be in an office chair; you can be on your knees by your bed; you can stand on your balcony; you can float in the pool. Just be willing. The biggest secret is what to do when your mind won’t sit still- when to-do lists, worry, debt, anxiety and pain fill the space. Embrace them. Jim Rosemergy (author of “A Closer Walk With God“) writes, “let the memories, feelings and thoughts come and do not resist them. They are part of your human consciousness. When you cease warring against them, you will experience the natural state of your soul-peace. And you will know there is nothing so like God as silence.”

I read a New York Times article recently about mindfulness and quieting the mind of children in the classroom. “With the sound of their new school bell, the fifth graders at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, as they tried to imagine “loving kindness” on the playground.” One of the doctors suggests, “if we can help children slow down and think” they will see “they have the answers within themselves.” If it can work for children, it will work for you. You have the answers to all your questions within. You have help, hope and health within. Give it a shot.

Breathe. Breathe instead of slamming into your car horn. Breathe instead of giving him “the look.” Breathe before you send a bigger bomb, more troops, another hungry oil rig. If you breathe, you cannot help but feel. If you feel, you cannot help but grieve. If you grieve, you will melt; and if you melt, the fictional edges between you and me will wash away, and then you cannot help but know that the little girl in the FEMA trailer, the poet shot in Baghdad, the man sleeping on the subway vent, your own mother whether or not she seemed to love you, all of them are you. Breathe. Do it now while we still have enough air to go around. - by Kim Rosen