Stretching...Mind and Body...

Good Morning,

As I write this post I'm sitting in a room with 9 other people and we are participating in a Mindfulness Writing Retreat this week.  We have been doing yoga and meditation and I'm being stretched in more ways than one.  The yoga movements are stretching my body and there is no doubt that this is something I need to bring into my life every week.  The movements feel good and I'm relaxed, yet energized, after each session.  

I'm also being stretched mentally.  We are doing some LONG meditation sessions.  I have participated in meditation before and have taken a couple of other meditation courses, yet, I have never sat in meditation for as long as we are at this retreat.  I really enjoy it and I am amazed at how quiet my mind can become if I focus on my breathing or another sound.  Since we are on a golf course I have been able to focus on birds chirping and the smack of golf balls being hit.  Believe it or not...smacking golf balls has helped me focus.

Meditation As A Way To Talk To God

When I meditate I am able to quiet my mind enough to talk to God.  So many times when I start to pray (or talk to God) I get sidetracked and the next thing I know I'm making a mental grocery list, thinking about what I'm going to wear for the day or where the kids need to go after school.  

Am I the only one that does this? 

It has gotten harder to find the time to meditate because my boys are getting older and we have so much more going on than we used to but I feel it's really important in my prayer life.  Focusing on quieting my mind helps me reach out to God.  I can put aside all those racing thoughts of everything that has to be done and focus on communicating with God.  Maybe 5 minutes....maybe 15 minutes...maybe an hour (although that is rare). 

One of the courses I took a couple of years ago was based on the book, Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton.  In this course we explored the spiritual disciplines that Barton discusses in the book.  One of which is solitude and includes meditation.  Another of the spiritual disciplines is scripture and encountering God through Lectio Divina, which I believe was originally a Catholic practice of spiritual reading.   I have written about Lectio Divina before and the Solo Devotional Book (The Message/REMIX: Solo Devotional).  This way of reading scripture has helped me immensely in understanding it and applying it to my life.  I encourage you to read this book if you desire a change in your spiritual life.

Although I'm slightly stressed at thinking about the amount of work piling up in my office...I'm glad I'm here. 

Oh, the meditation chimes just went off...back to yoga...

Namaste.

--jackie