September Slow Down

 

As we continue to consider the seven ways of rest (physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social, and spiritual), I invite you to draw a stick figure.  The more primitive, the better!  You can use a pencil, crayon, or whatever writing instrument you have handy.  After your amateur Picasso figure is ready, I want you to scan your body from the top of your head to your pinkie toe.  I encourage you to pay attention to where there are aches and pains ~ perhaps in your shoulders or legs.  Is there a muscle in your body that feels particularly strained or stressed?  Gentle touch where there is a knot in your body, and record that space on your paper.  Now, next to your stick figure head, I invite you to list what is racing and running around like a hamster on a wheel.  Note, this should include good, bad, and that you need to pick up milk today from the store.  Get it all out on the paper next to your wonderful, oblong-shaped head you drew.  Now, what are you seeing, hearing, tasting, and sensing?  Look around the room. What brings you joy or frustration in the room?  For example, I get frustrated by the clutter on my desk, can feel the wind from the ceiling fan on my skin, and hear a bird chirping outside my window. 

 

After you’ve done this, take a few deep breaths.  To be sure, this practice won’t solve everything in your life.  But you have started the day by noticing that your body is carrying a lot right now.  My hunch is your paper is full, especially around the mind/head you drew.  Given all the signals that are sent to us, both internally and externally, we need to take the time to write down what is in the backpack we are lugging around, causing us to hunch over.  How might you share with God?  Is there something God is asking you to let go of your tight grasp of certainty on?  May this prayer practice remind you that slowing down, resting, often means first needing to notice all the chaos in and around us.  Remember, God creates with chaos when we let the Sacred stir over the waters of our life. Amen.