Healing Memory Echoes and Anxiety Through Lectio Divina Tool

It was an echo.

A wave of emotion hit them, just like as if it was yesterday.

Boom.

They were right back there, experiencing the same thoughts and feelings.

Sitting on that beach. Warm summer sun. Joyful sounds of children playing in the surf. Wafts of barbequed sausages coming from Dad’s BBQ.

All of this came flooding back to them when their sister said ‘Remember those times at the beach when Mum and Dad would take us for a picnic’

Echoes of memories

Echoes of memories can bounce back through the brain and we are transported back to the sounds, smells, tastes and visions of being in that place at that time.

We can also have not so pleasant echoes.

Echoes of traumas.

A place, a time, a word, and off we go, and we feel like we are reliving it all over again.

Triggers pulled, and a memory explodes on the landscape.

We don’t want to go there. That cave has too many ghosts. Too many shouting echoes.

But this time the invite is not to go there alone.

It’s not to feel isolated and abandoned.

Lectio Divina

As I write this, I have just listened to my Daily Lectio.

Lectio Divina is the reading of a passage from the Bible four times.

Each of the readings has an invitation.

Before you listen to this first reading of the text, ask God to remove and preconceived notions about what the scripture means or how you might apply it to your life and instead receive it as God’s fresh word spoken to you. There is no need to analyse or use it right now. Just listen.
As you listen a second time, is there a word or phrase that catches your attention? Something that stirs your thoughts or feelings and invites deeper pondering? Don’t overthink it. Just listen for something that seems to address you personally.
If a word or phrase has caught your attention, begin to chew on it. How does this word or phrase connect with your life or longings? What does the word or phrase stir in you as you ponder it?
Offer to God whatever your noticing as you are pondering a word or phrase from the text. How has the Spirit brought this to life for you? How are you being called to respond?
In the quiet, simply rest in the presence of God. No words are necessary. Simply enjoy this place of communion with a God who loves you.

Listen to the reading of Psalm 23

Often after engaging with the text, I write a simple poem.

Here is one I wrote today.

You and I

You and I
We walk together
You and I
Sheep and shepherd

Through the dark places
Through the light
You know the path
Even in darkest night

Restoring dry places
Feeding the soul
Going ahead
Making me whole

I want to give back
To someone who has all
A song and a poem
Flowing sweet oil

I pass this on
To other tired souls
Come to the shepherd
To be made whole

Psalm 23

This is what I would call a grounding exercise.

I am currently preparing material for a course on anxiety.

For the course, I am using the example of a child’s swing to illustrate what happens in our mind.

The swing swings out into the future, where anxiety and worry live, and then it will often swing back into the past, where depression lives.

The swing can swing out a long way, and we can hold it there. But we grow tired while holding it there. It always wants to come back to rest.

To centre itself near the ground.

The little daily exercise of Lectio Divina is a centering exercise for my brain. It grounds my thinking and feeling back into the here and now.

For every intrusive wave of echoes, there needs to be an equal and opposite wave of truth to dampen out the energy.

What helps you with the echoes?

Quotes to consider

I don’t want to remember that incident because it’s too painful” means that it must be recalled in order that you may ‘think again’ and reassess old conclusions. D. Riddell

When you next over-react in anxiety, rejection or anger, try to distinguish between present reality and the echoes of past experiences. D. Riddell

We cannot attain the presence of God. We’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness Richard Rohr

We do not pray so that we can get God’s attention. We pray so that God will get our attention. We pray so that, as our attentiveness to God increases, our souls may be shaped by the reality of God’s constant, loving, self-revealing presence. David G. Benner

My feelings may in fact only be leftovers of another time, another place, another person; but have those feelings ever been told that it’s over? (That was then, this is now.) D. Riddell