Daily Reprieve

From Courage to Change of January 07;

“Just for today I will have a quiet half hour all by myself and relax.” How simple that sounded until I tried to do it. I found it difficult to spend even a little time alone –  thirty quiet minutes out of my busy schedule were far too many! So I started with five minutes. In time I was able to find ten, and then twenty, and then thirty minutes for myself.

Amazingly, these quiet half hours are restoring me to sanity. It is through these times with myself, much of which is spent in prayer and meditation, that I find the peace and power of God.

As a result, I have learned to tolerate and even enjoy my own company, now, no matter what is going on, I need this half hour every day to get a perspective on my life. By sitting quietly in the midst of turmoil, I find that I an not alone. If I take the time, my Higher Power sends the message.

Today’s Reminder

I care enough about myself to take a quiet half hour to relax. But if a half hour is more that I can manage, I can let that be all right. Whatever time I give to myself will be a step forward. If I can stop the wheels from turning for even a few moments, my Higher Power can take charge and steer me in the right direction.

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” ~ Ovid

END OF QUOTE

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I have experienced many ways of approaching quiet time for myself. I think this is an individual path and very much part of one’s spiritual development. No one size fits all. If quiet time becomes a place of depression inducing rumination, that is, when it becomes a time that I dwell on repetitive negative thoughts, then I must find some way to brake that rumination with engaging activity. I can think of eight different paths I have taken to still my mind while staying away from rumination. I have quilted pieces of all these disciplines into something that generally works for me.

1. Meditation on Christian scripture, with memorization and paraphrase writing
2. Praying in the Spirit with writing of any inspiration, while I remain disengaged in thought
3. Practical Sufism – difficult for me, but I hope to get better on some of its disciplines
4. Visualized spirit travel to My secret place through study of Witchcraft
5. Trying to mimic the trans state achieved by Edgar Cayce through self hypnosis
6. Yoga and it subsequent resting point
7. Writing practice learned in Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones”
8. Taking a nap in the afterglow of sexual release.

My quiet time has improved, and my time spent doing it is a necessity for a clear head and the ability to retain serenity. I encourage you, fellow human, to explore and find what works to restore you.

This entry was posted on February 7, 2016 at 3:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Addiction, Alcoholism, Courage to Change, Journal, Life, Personal, Recovery, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.