mindfulness Archives

Give your Mind the Spiritual Gift of Stillness

If we are going to navigate life well, we must nurture the gift of stillness. Distractions will vie for our attention, but only one that is true will be heard if we quiet ourselves and be still. Looking up at the stars through a crisp, clear winters night I wondered […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

If You Put Your Nose to the Grindstone Rough

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If you put your nose to the grindstone rough, And keep it down there long enough, You will soon conclude that there are no such things, As a brook that babbles or a bird that sings. These three things will your world compose: Just you, the stone, And your ground-down […]

Getting Well Staying Well

How to Chew on the Bible with Mindfulness

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It’s not the volume of Bible reading that matters. It is the quality of the chewing. Reading and ruminating with mindfulness builds resilience and strength in the core of your being. I know of an old aunt that used to advise chewing your food 32 times. Not sure if this is the exact […]

7 Steps to Regroove Your Thinking Patterns

Getting Well Staying Well

7 Steps to Change and Regroove Your Thinking Patterns

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Around the hillside of the sheep farm where I was raised were grooves worn into the soil by hundreds of sheep following each other. It was the easiest route. I also have routes in my thinking patterns that have become ruts. Familiar paths that have been worn deep into my thinking. A thought gets […]

Getting Well Staying Well

Do You Need A Permission Slip for Mental Health?

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When going through Mental Health struggles, you have to give yourself permission to receive, especially from God. Every Tuesday morning, I travel to a garden in a small rural area called Clevedon. I leave early to beat rush hour traffic but also to get a few moments on the top […]

"A metal plumb bob hanging steadily from a string, representing a centered and still mind amidst life's storms."

Getting Well Staying Well

How To Still Your Mind With a Plumb Bob

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There are times that my thoughts and feelings seem to swing like monkeys in a tree. My mind just seems to go everywhere. It swings into depression, anxiety and then back into depression. My mind seems to have a mind of its own. Recently I was speaking on a podcast […]

Faith & Mental Health

Becoming Fire-Proof: Protecting Ourselves from Burnout

After years of teaching high school in downtown Los Angeles, my wife accepted a job four hours away. On top of my daily stressors of dealing with students and colleagues and deadlines at the school, I now moved to a tiny studio apartment, commuted to see my wife on weekends, and […]

Uncategorized

The ‘Constant Companion’ of Habit

The Habit Poem I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I […]

Spiritual Formation

7 Steps to Help Those who Ruminate.

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Sometimes I think I am like a cow. I ruminate over things, chewing my thoughts this way and that. Trying to extract something good out of them. Much of my life I have worked on farms, I even have a University Degree in Agriculture. I humorously call this my first […]

8 Steps To Discovering Wellness Through Knowing Your Early Warning Signs

Anxiety & Stress

8 Steps To Wellness Through Knowing Your Early Warning Signs

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Often I travel over some sharp twisty roads. One of these roads has a large hill, and just on the other side, there is a beautiful view with a fence that has been driven through. The driver didn’t take notice of the early warning signs. There are signs to tell drivers […]