Quiet--as Challenge and Savior
Today I am grateful for light in the darkness and quiet in the morning.
QUIET is today's word. It is every day's word for me because it is vital to my existence and my energy. It is both a significant challenge for me to have some quiet and a true savior to experience it and move forward with it.
This morning, I am hearing the sound of two different clocks, with alternating tic-tocs, and our refrigerator. They are comforting sounds, not intrusive, as so many sounds in our days can become. Sounds like traffic noise, other people's phones, disheartening news reports. The most intrusive noise for me though is often that in my own head. Thoughts that spin. Ideas that flounder. Fears that grow. They can amount to quite a clamoring.
The quiet I seek, and the quiet within my own personal power, is this mindful quiet. Being at peace with whatever sounds surround me as well as my mental and physical states.
I just started writing in a mindfulness journal that my friend Kate gave me. This is a timely gift. I have been working on meditation practices as I have plodded through layers of healing, grieving, and forgiveness in recent months. With all the writing I have done and do, I have never written in a mindfulness journal.
By recounting the moments and sensations just passed, I can deepen my understanding of what it means to be fully present, and more easily remain in the here and now. Identifying emotions and thoughts simply for what they are, nothing more, nothing less.
"Oh, that is just a thought I am having." "There, that's a feeling I can name." I need this simple training and practice to get unstuck from the thoughts and feelings that do the damage and the magnifying, and latch on to ones that are healthier and serve as better guides.
Practicing quiet is what it takes to trust the intuitions that will help me manifest the grace and gifts that abide within me, the faith and hope.
Several minutes of writing have passed, with the pleasing sound of my computer's keyboard added to the other gentle morning sounds in our house. Quiet is less of a challenge and more of a savior as I have worked on it and practiced finding it.
Finding quiet. I will lose it again. That is the nature of our days and our lives. If I can find it back easier and more quickly, I will be all the healthier for it.
Stepping on my soapbox for a moment: This lack of quiet (in our ears, minds, and hearts) is one of the most significant problems facing the culture so many of us are living in today, and a contributing factor in many mental and physical illnesses The rising din of our technological devices, full schedules, sense of entitlement, waning work ethic, and much more is becoming deafening.
It is worth asking ourselves "When did I last experience a true sense of quiet?" Let the times between those experiences become shorter and shorter and notice the benefits. That which we may feel we don't have the time for is what we might actually most need.
QUIET is today's word. It is every day's word for me because it is vital to my existence and my energy. It is both a significant challenge for me to have some quiet and a true savior to experience it and move forward with it.
This morning, I am hearing the sound of two different clocks, with alternating tic-tocs, and our refrigerator. They are comforting sounds, not intrusive, as so many sounds in our days can become. Sounds like traffic noise, other people's phones, disheartening news reports. The most intrusive noise for me though is often that in my own head. Thoughts that spin. Ideas that flounder. Fears that grow. They can amount to quite a clamoring.
The quiet I seek, and the quiet within my own personal power, is this mindful quiet. Being at peace with whatever sounds surround me as well as my mental and physical states.
I just started writing in a mindfulness journal that my friend Kate gave me. This is a timely gift. I have been working on meditation practices as I have plodded through layers of healing, grieving, and forgiveness in recent months. With all the writing I have done and do, I have never written in a mindfulness journal.
By recounting the moments and sensations just passed, I can deepen my understanding of what it means to be fully present, and more easily remain in the here and now. Identifying emotions and thoughts simply for what they are, nothing more, nothing less.
"Oh, that is just a thought I am having." "There, that's a feeling I can name." I need this simple training and practice to get unstuck from the thoughts and feelings that do the damage and the magnifying, and latch on to ones that are healthier and serve as better guides.
Practicing quiet is what it takes to trust the intuitions that will help me manifest the grace and gifts that abide within me, the faith and hope.
Several minutes of writing have passed, with the pleasing sound of my computer's keyboard added to the other gentle morning sounds in our house. Quiet is less of a challenge and more of a savior as I have worked on it and practiced finding it.
Finding quiet. I will lose it again. That is the nature of our days and our lives. If I can find it back easier and more quickly, I will be all the healthier for it.
Stepping on my soapbox for a moment: This lack of quiet (in our ears, minds, and hearts) is one of the most significant problems facing the culture so many of us are living in today, and a contributing factor in many mental and physical illnesses The rising din of our technological devices, full schedules, sense of entitlement, waning work ethic, and much more is becoming deafening.
It is worth asking ourselves "When did I last experience a true sense of quiet?" Let the times between those experiences become shorter and shorter and notice the benefits. That which we may feel we don't have the time for is what we might actually most need.
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