For the past week, I have vacillated between feeling numb to feeling a prickliness on my skin. I know the cause of these sensations and they are warranted. Last week, my brother was hospitalized and diagnosed with terminal cancer.
It sucks and it hurts and it’s hard to get the pain in my stomach to go away. I have to really work on it, taking deep breaths and meditating. I have been working meditation into my life for over a year now, but I began making it a more deliberate daily practice in January of this year. It has become the fourth piece of my morning routine.
The Power of Meditation
I’m so grateful to have this tool, as I am relying on it to calm my nerves so I can function each day. I find it helpful when I was experiencing hot flashes and anxiety during menopause, so I was already convinced of its power.
During my meditations, I can actually feel the energy balancing in my body. I sense the calmness in my heart and my breath. I feel clear about my intentions and can then release them so that, as I work on my task during the day, I can trust that my subconscious mind has already been working to solve the problem. As a result, solutions flow to me easier.
My Meditation Routine
Each morning, after I journal, I meditate for 10-15 minutes. Sitting down to write this blog, I have just finished my writing and did a 10-minute guided meditation by Dr. Joe Dispenza. This type of guided meditation is my favorite for a quick reset.
I recommend a guided meditation reset every day as part of your morning routine. On the weekends, I love to find time to do a 30–45-minute guided meditation – even a walking meditation practice sometimes. These give me a deeper calming experience and I think they set me up so the shorter practices during the week have a booster effect.
When I can’t listen to a guided meditation and I need to calm my thoughts, I use the St Francis of Assisi Prayer. I have meditated with this prayer for over 30 years now. I find it so comforting. I try to time my breath with the phrasing, and even 30 years later, my thoughts still wonder. I forget the words and gently call myself back to the prayer and begin again.
In the past, I used meditation as a reaction to a concern. Feel anxiety, meditate for 15 minutes. It absolutely does help in that way. Now though, I see it can also be used as a preventative tool to help you go through the day with more grace and ease.
If you’d like to try a Dr. Joe meditation, you can find the links to a few short ones I use below. If you’d like to try out the St. Francis prayer, you can find the version I like below as well. Please reach out to me at hello@cyndithomason.com and let me know what you think if you try these options, or if you have your own favorites to suggest!
St. Francis Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine master, grant that I may not so much wish to be consoled, as to console
To be understood, as to understand
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it’s in pardoning, that we are pardoned,
And it’s in dying to self that we are born to life everlasting. Amen
Dr Joe Meditations
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kFTuQPqEus
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FfC8EPtRIo
Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbbZ-9Jjq90