In the moment

It is easy for me to think in distorted ways, or over-think, and often I need to slow and center my thinking. Meditative prayer helps me to do that.

Be still (cease striving, let go, relax) and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10

Though attempting meditation for some years now, it is not yet easy for me to let go - of my to-do list, of my agenda, of my frenzied thoughts. But I will continue my practice, aiming for increasing "relaxed openness" and attention to the present moment. I am instructed by these words:

"A number of studies indicate that certain forms of meditation help... to remain more continually attentive to all that is happening in the present moment. The meditations that work in this way encourage an attitude of relaxed openness, not tense concentration." - Gerald May, Addiction & Grace

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a Ph.D. working the last 20 plus years at University of Massachusetts Medical Center’s Stress Reduction Clinic, says that what meditation is really about is “the capacity to cultivate the innate ability to pay attention” (Meili, T., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2004). The Power of the Human Heart: A Story of Trauma and Recovery and Its Implications for Rehabilitation and Healing. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 20, 5-11). Giving attention to the moment is a component of mindfulness. Mindfulness is a moment-to-moment nonjudgmental awareness. Combining the relaxation response with meditative mindfulness, Kabat-Zinn suggests, “…sense the breath so that you are not thinking about it so much as feeling the breath at the nostrils…or the movement of the belly in conjunction with the breath…and allowing yourself to just drop into the rising and falling of your own breath…so that there is a sense of giving yourself over completely to this moment just the way it is without any struggle…without any need for it to be different…A sense of yourself as whole…as complete in this moment…” (Meili & Kabat-Zinn, 2004).

In those who went through the Kabat-Zinn clinic’s eight-week outpatient mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, a randomized trial revealed that “the people who learned meditation showed a dramatic shift from a right-sided activation (usually associated with anxiety and depression) to a left-sided activation (usually associated with a sense of well-being, happiness, and enthusiasm). They were able to deal with complex emotions under stress much more effectively than the people who were in the control group” (Meili & Kabat-Zinn, 2004).

I am encouraged by research results, and by occasional good outcomes personally. Maybe you'll want to join with me in giving attention to these 'mantras'?

Breathe deeply, enjoy this moment, be still, be present, be here, just be.