Meditation and mindfulness are vastly becoming popular in everywhere from corporate America to public schools. Researchers have found that it decreases stress and can even lessen the chances of preterm labor. But is mindfulness a New Age or Eastern Medicine practice or is it a mandate for us all that is as ancient as the scriptures?
I woke up this morning with a pounding headache. My Thursdays are usually non-stop with a 10 hour workday and very little time for myself. Yesterday, I added a trip to the Doctors office for a sick daughter and a book release event for my cousin, which meant 16 straight hours on the go! No wonder my head is pounding. Unwilling to just grab medicine off the counter, I asked what this headache was asking me to do. “Be still and know that I am God,” said the ever present still, quiet voice. As I pondered the how of sitting still and being quiet, the mindfulness lessons that I’d learned from Brandy Warne, the Emotional Wellness Coordinator from Moms2B ran through my mind. So did the breathing techniques I’d learned in meditation at Ohm2Ohm.
But what I kept coming back to was the thought that stillness isn’t anything new. It’s what God asks us to do when we pray and don’t get an answer; it’s what Jesus did when He went away to fast for 40 days and 40 nights; It’s what Moses found when he went up in the mountains. In stillness is where the answers lay to get through this moment and the courage to get through to the next.
So don’t be afraid of the stillness. Meditate on the Word day and night. Hide the Word in your heart. Let the Word be a light unto your feet and a lamp unto your path. Find scriptures that speak to your situation and speak them to yourself morning, noon and night. Sit in the stillness of the rain forest using the white noise app or Calm.com app. Let the calmness and silence of the moment nourish you. And if you can afford it, get a pedicure, massage, go to a yoga class or, a reiki session. Join a meditation class at Ohm2Ohm or just lavish in a nice, hot bath. All these ways of being still and sitting in silence will strengthen and replenish you.
ViZion United, LLC 