mindfulness Archives

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Spiritual Formation

The Five Best Practices to Restore the Soul

The practices of your week and day may drain your life, but what practices restore your soul? ‘Oh, that’s so good for the soul’ Sometimes I hear people say that. Sometimes I say it myself. It’s that moment when you feel a restoring of something drained out of you. You […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Having an Open Hand

It takes energy to hold a closed hand, but with gentle movement, we find an open hand. In openness, we both give and receive. A few years ago, I noticed that my right hand was often clenched tight into a fist. Not a fighting fist, but more a fist […]

Poetry

17th Century Nun’s Prayer

A 17th Century Nun Prayed ‘Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and someday will be old.’ Recently, I went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a small village here in New Zealand. In 1892, Suzanne Aubert (better known as Mother Mary Joseph) established the congregation […]

Spiritual Formation

Finding that Still Small Voice

It’s a noisy world with lots of stressors wanting our attention, but there is a still small voice longing to be heard, so quiet yourself and listen. I have a pendulum clock on a bookshelf near me. Yesterday, I noticed the pendulum was swinging back and forth freely, but now […]

Uncategorized

A Simple First Place Prayer

Your pain is legitimate, and second-place prayers reveal the need, but first-place prayers must always come first, so we pray a simple prayer. Simple sounds easy. Requiring little effort. First place. It’s where we put the best, second-place things go behind first-place things. There is an order—first place, then […]

Uncategorized

Nine Acronyms for Mental Health

Often you need a little acronym to remind you of a path to follow. Here are nine acronyms to help your mental health. Over the years, I have collected a set of acronyms that have helped my mental health and those I have conversations with. These are acronyms that aid […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

Slowing the Pendulum of your Thoughts

Thoughts can come and go, like a pendulum they reach a point and then swing to another point. We can slow the pendulum down and bring it to a place of stillness. The pendulum on the old clock swung back and forth, left to right and then right to left. […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

Where Do You Find Delight?

Life can go on and on from day to day, but when we stop to notice little moments of delight, something profound can begin to grow—hope, joy, and thankfulness. Bible stories come alive. For me, there is nothing quite like sinking my teeth into a perfectly ripe Black Doris plum […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Formation

Can you Take in the Good and Let it Nourish?

So many good things go unnoticed, but when we learn to take in the good and let it nourish, then our whole direction of a life can change. My neighbors have some small children. Yesterday, while walking in the garden, one of the little boys ran up to me to […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Spiritual Formation

Step Out of The Boat and Find a Stone

There is a comfort zone in the familiar, but there is a calling to step out of the boat and find a little something to stand on. There’s always a call to step out of the boat. The other day I was cleaning some items off a pinboard and came […]