Six Ways to Enhance your Spiritual Life this Summer!

“It is the unseen and the spiritual in people that determines the outside and the actual.” (Oswald Chambers)

         Even though we are super blessed to have wonderful weather year round in Sonoma County, summertime is a perfect time to slow down and focus on enhancing our spiritual lives. So let's use these next few months to intentionally enhance our relationship to God in creative ways. Here are six ways to enhance your spiritual life and lift up your soul:

1.   Try Tai Chi. We have a free class every Saturday morning at 10:30am in Bowen Hall. Tai Chi is good for your balance, and strengthens your body, mind, and spirit with a slow flowing martial art exercise regime. A study in Portland showed that elderly individuals who practiced Tai Chi showed significant improvement in all measures of functional balance, physical performance, and reduced fear of falling after practicing it twice a week for 6 months. 250 million people around the world (2.5 million in the U.S.) practice Tail Chi. Our instructor, David Chung, teaches a meditative form of Tai Chi to help the mind feel peaceful. Peaceful feelings improve health in body, mind, and spirit.

2.   Get outside. Nature is God's workshop. The sky is God’s resume. You want to know who God is? See what God has created. Nature is healing. Walk through the forest or around the lakes at Spring Lake and Howarth park. Go to Bodega and watch the waves crash onto the shore. Sit outside in the night air and listen to the crickets. Listen for God’s message to your soul through nature.

3.   Feed your soul with uplifting spirit enhancing books. Here are a few suggestions: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth By M. Scott Peck 

“To proceed very far through the desert, you must be willing to meet existential suffering and work it through. In order to do this, the attitude toward pain has to change.….everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.”                                     

The Art of Happiness, A Handbook for Living. Psychiatrist Howard Cutler interviews the Dalai Lama to ask him life’s deepest questions. Learn the answers to timeless questions such as: Why is there so much suffering in the world? “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."
Another recommended book is: Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado. “There’s a lot of wisdom in the phrase: “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” It’s when we try to do everything, that’s when we get overwhelmed. When we do nothing, that’s when we get bitter. But if we can find that one thing we do, that one unique assignment in our hometown or around the world, that’s the way we keep sanity in a difficult culture.” 

4.   Memorize to boost your spiritual brain! Many of us have favorite hymns we sing to ourselves or Psalms memorized that remind us of God’s presence. If you haven’t memorized Psalm 23 and Psalm 100, I recommend starting there. Psalm 139 also reminds us that God’s Holy Spirit will go with you wherever you may go. You can also memorize the words to favorite hymns like: How Great Thou Art!, Precious Lord, Take my Hand, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and Just a Closer Walk with Thee. Memorize these hymns to keep pondering their reassuring words. Your brain and soul will be uplifted!

5.   Take a fast from drama. Watching brain-draining gossipy shows on TV, feeding into the latest gossip at coffee hour, dwelling on the annoying things our family members do, all cause us to feel depressed and stressed. Get yourself away from negative people and negative critical comments. Find people and activities that uplift not drag you down. Marie Curie said, “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” Psalm 34:13 says: “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”

6.   Pray in a new way. The Presbytery of the Redwoods leadership cohorts are planning to pray in our meetings using the ancient form of prayer called Centering Prayer. Father Thomas Keating has promoted this form of prayer for many years. I taught Centering prayer in my resilience project for my Doctorate of Ministry in Science and Theology. Research proves that this contemplative form of prayer, if done on a regular basis, will enhance your resilience status. For training on how to do Centering prayer read: Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault. For a training video see: https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/category/category/centering-prayer

Receive this blessing as you enhance and uplift your soul this summer:

“May God bless you and keep you, May God smile on you and be gracious unto you, May God look you full in the face and help you prosper and be peaceful from this day on and forevermore.” (Numbers 6, 24-26, The Message)

Prayer Builds Resilience

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ---Soren Kierkegaard

  My Doctorate of Ministry in Science and Theology final project paper is entitled:   “A Study of the Impact of Two Forms of  Prayer Practices on Resilience.” I am so grateful for all the people in our church and community who participated in the prayer studies and faithfully supported me during this program! In the process of designing and writing up the results of this study, I learned much more about the importance of prayer for resilience development. Resilience is basically defined as: the ability to overcome stress, adapt to change, and recover from adversity.             

 

The Bible is full of scriptures that prescribe guidance for living a faithful, healthy and abundant life.  “Pray without ceasing” (1Thess. 5:17) is a well-known scripture passage that inspires the inclusion of prayer into daily living. Yet, many people are not aware that this guidance to pray is beneficial for more than one’s spiritual wellbeing. Prayer has many physical and emotional wellbeing benefits including the ability to enhance resilience.

 

The Mayo Clinic’s website page on “Resilience: Building Skills to Endure Hardship,” lists the prescription to pray daily as important for enhancing wellbeing and resilience as other generally accepted health prescriptions such as a balanced diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and exercise.                                                                                        

 

So how do we pray in a way that builds resilience? The answer is: often. How you pray isn’t as important as the fact that you pray often. Prayer as a way of being in touch with God increases your awareness of God’s presence.

My prayer study showed that the contemplative way of prayer called, “Centering prayer.” is a good way to enhance resilience. To pray in this way involves simple silent “resting in God,” for 20 minutes each day. This form of prayer showed the highest impact on enhancing resilience in my two prayer studies.

Mahatma Gandhi would not be surprised by this. He believed that, "prayer is the very soul and essence of religion, and therefore prayer must be the very core of the life of all people.”

Ruth Burrow agrees with Gandhi in her lovely book entitled: Essence of Prayer. She said, “Prayer is essentially God's work. Our part is to give time, do our best to keep attention, surrender ourselves as best we can. Then we can be sure that God works. Faith does not ask for signs, or tokens.” So trust in God that when you pray you are heard; God is present in your joys and in your sorrows and ready to give you “rest” enabling you to become more resilient.

         Jesus was calling us to pray when he said, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11: 28)

(For more information on Building Resilience, see: The Mayo Clinic, “Resilience: Build Skills To Endure Hardship,” www.mayoclinic.com/health/resilience/MH00078/NSECTIONGROUP=2)  

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Learning About Resilience in Haiti

As the tears ran down my cheeks, I watched them drop to the dusty ground. Upon arrival to this village I could no longer contain my sadness in seeing the overwhelmingly impoverished living conditions. Our medical team of nurses and other volunteers stood in a big circle holding hands with the Haitian people and children of the Vilaj Kanes near the Lake Azuei, a salt lake in the center of Haiti.  In an effort to hide my tears I didn’t release my hands from the circle.  I just bowed my head low and watched them hit the dirt until the prayer was finished. Then I jumped up into the back of our tap tap  (open air bus) parked nearby to find a tissue. Soon I would be asked to greet the crowd on behalf of our Presbyterian Church in Morristown and the Foundation for Peace. So I had to pull myself together.

My tears surprised me because I normally do not cry when I am in the presence of the people I came to care for. As a psychiatric nurse therapist and a pastor, I have witnessed many sad situations. But the overtly poor condition of these children, the primitive dirt floor shacks where they lived, and the sparse barren land surrounding them was clear evidence of their desperate poverty.

At 10am, the hot sun mixed with the humidity coming off the lake created a tropical atmosphere. The only sheltered place available for the free medical clinic was under the one large shade tree in the center of the village. Twelve University of Pennsylvania graduate nurse practitioner students and the Foundation for Peace, Haitian and US team members spent some time shaking hands and introducing ourselves to the kids and adults who were waiting for us to arrive. We played with them by blowing bubbles for the kids to jump up and pop. And we let them touch our stethoscopes and gloves as a way of warming them up to the idea of being examined by these strange white nurses.

After singing a few hymns in Creole and saying a prayer of thanks for this opportunity to be with our brothers and sisters in our global family in Haiti, I felt spiritually more at peace.  This was our third medical clinic of the week and we came prepared to care for whatever need came forward to the best of our abilities. I was so proud to be a nurse/pastor among this team of graduate nurses who never complained about the hard work of providing free healthcare in desperately poor communities almost every day of our trip to Haiti. 

As the nurse practitioners set up mini open air exam areas with a few card tables and chairs, the rest of the team opened the suitcases full of medicines and wound care supplies and created a “pharmacy area” with two wooden benches. Then the Haitian pastor-leader of our group, Pastor Valentin, began to call people up to the designated intake area.

The people of Kanes watched all of this activity patiently and understood that they would all depart with vitamins, anti-parasitics, or other medicines as needed. Each family unit also would receive a bag containing beans, rice and cooking oil.

Each community we were sent to by the Foundation for Peace had little to no access to healthcare prior to our arrival. But this Village Kanes was suffering the most of all. Many of the children were covered with bug bites probably acquired from sleeping on the dirt floors in their little huts.  Some of the children were extremely weak due to a lack of water and food. Three infants with high temperatures needed rehydration immediately upon arrival to our clinic.

A few months prior to this clinic the Foundation for Peace (FFP) staff had discovered this fishing village was unable to fish due to broken fishing boats. Now with help from the FFP, they are starting to fish again; but the time of desperation when they had lost their ability to fish took a toll on their spirits and on their bodies. Many seemed depressed and ill with parasites, body aches, and other signs of malnutrition.

So where does one start working in partnership with a group when confronted by a place with such overwhelming need? You look for signs of hope and start there. The goal is to empower them to build upon the strengths they already have.

At the end of the day I found a group of the healthy looking kids swimming in the lake near the fishing boats. One little girl in a blue dress grabbed my hand as I walked toward the water. She had a huge smile on her face and spoke a few words of English.  When she beckoned me to go for a swim with her and some of the other kids already in the water, I quickly caught her attractive smile on camera.

Her name is Adrienne. And she gave me hope for the Vilaj Kanes. Adrienne’s resilience shines out through her smile, and her clever engaging personality.

Although these children have many challenges, they have advantages our children lack as US families become more isolated inside large high tech homes. Their village is a cohesive community that cooperates, plays and works together. Their care for each other was demonstrated by the way it was nearly impossible to distinguish blood relative from neighbor as they came forward in the medical clinic as “families” with each other’s children. We discovered mothers were breastfeeding one another’s babies. They cared for all the children as their own. No one family had a shack much larger than the other. And as we handed out the food, it became clear that this attitude of sharing all their resources was the key to this village’s survival. All of the food would be shared among the village rather than kept by just one family.

In contrast to the overwhelmingly sad feelings I experienced upon arrival at this beautiful lakeside Haitian village, I departed with a sense of hope that by working together in partnership they can be empowered by building upon their strengths: community cohesiveness, deep abiding faith in God’s love and care for them, compassion for one another; and their strength of resilience that is clearly within those who have endured many years of hardships.

I came away with a blessed realization that Americans have much to learn from the Haitian people about mutual care, cooperation, and faith for the development of resilience within our own communities. I look forward to returning to Village Kanes in the Fall to learn more from these resilient Haitian people.

Building Resilience - 10 Ways

Some of my parishioners have asked for the list of suggestions about developing resilience that I gave in my sermon entitled: "Risk Getting Wet" on August 7th. 
Here they are: 

Studies show that those who survive failures and stressful times often become stronger as a result. Stress and failures can actually be good for us as they humble us while teaching us lessons that we can use to be stronger in the future.

Here are 10 ways to build resilience: 

(1) Create and maintain good relationships with family members, friends and co-workers.

(2) Avoid seeing stressful events as unbearable problems.

(3) Accept circumstances that cannot be changed.

(4) Develop realistic goals and move towards them.

(5) Be a forgiving person and ask for forgiveness.

(6) After a loss - take time for self-reflection.

(7) Practice your faith and get actively involved in a supportive network.

(8) Have a long-term perspective with an attitude such as: “this too will pass."

(9) Maintain a hopeful outlook, expecting good things in the future.

(10) Take care of one's mind and body, and spirit.
All of these ways can be found in guidance from the Bible. Our scriptures link to the development of resilience. Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly. The ways of Christ are ways that build resilience. 

(To hear the whole sermon - go to the audio recordings of my sermons at: www.pcmorristown.org and listen to the sermon given on 8/7/11.)