Healing a Fast Mind

A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound.
A mind that is still is divine.

 Meher Baba, Indian Mystic

Psychological stress is a fact of life. Our lives are fast paced and busy. Some of us have jobs that literally deal with life and death. There are always competing demands on our time. There is never enough time. 

The problem is that our bodies were not designed for the kind of never-ending stress that is so common in American life. We were designed for short bursts of stress, like that caused by the presence of predator. When the threat to life is gone, our body returns to homeostasis. We become calm, again. We stay calm until the next encounter with the predator. But what happens when a "threat" is always present. The body responds to the stressful thoughts- shallow breathing, tenseness in muscles, slowed digestion and the release of  hormones that aid in escape and which also hold on to fat!

There is no escape from internal predators....  Until we create one.

Jesus the Christ had stress reducing habits, early morning prayer and meditation, time away from people, walks in Nature. Then he would return to his stress-filled ministry that never seemed to be stressful to him. This is a model for Balance.

This week is the introduction to Lectio Divina (Lex see oh Da vee na). This is a practice for slowing down the mind and giving it a single activity to dwell upon. Stress is multi-tasking gone amuck! We are never really present for the one thing we are doing because there is always the next thing or the thing we should be doing, or the thing we wish we were doing or even the thing we wish we hadn't done.

Lectio Divina is practice for doing one thing at a time.  Slowing down enough to be present to the Beatitude before eating your meal or snack. Learning how to bring full awareness to the Beatitude so that you will bring full awareness to the food. No more mindless, thoughtless, knee-jerk, put anything-in-my-mouth-because-I-want-to-chew kind of eating.

Slow and mindful thinking.

Slow and mindful eating.

Slow and mindful living

Sacred and Fit^© -Every life is sacred. Each body a temple.