2 Timothy 1:7
"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us fearful, but gives us power, love and self-discipline (sound mind)."
So why so many of us make decisions based on fear? Fear is the opposite of trust. Are we not trusting God and his word? Parents need to parent out of love and freedom, not out of fear and control. The same goes for other relationships-spouses, friends, family. At the same time we live in a dangerous world that gives us plenty of reason to be afraid. Where is the balance? Maybe to do the best we can with what we know and are able to do, and truly trust what we do not have control over? Hoping for a relaxed weekend with deep breathing in the mix...
Please visit our Being in Him Facebook page.
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Rats and Anxiety.
I feel good when I tackle something and get it done. There is a sense of accomplishment when I learn something new and apply it. It gives me a feeling of control; like I am conquering and stretching my horizons.
Rats feel the same way. A study that was done a while ago, had anxiety induced rats housed separately. To make them anxious, they were given a small electric shock at different times, randomly. The poor rats were anxious most of the time because they never knew when and where this pain was coming from.
A few days later, a lever was added to one of the cages, and, in time, accidentally at first, whenever the rat pushed the lever, the shock would stop immediately. As the rodents began to internalize this knowledge, as soon as the first indication of a shock would start, they push the lever and the shock would stop on the spot. Their anxiety diminished tremendously, and happy rats were playing again.
Lastly, they placed the rats in another cage with a lever they could push at will, but it did nothing to stop the electric shock. The shock would stop on its own regardless of the action of pushing the lever or not. The result: the rats were happy and anxiety free.
This is just to say that when we (and rats) feel that we have a certain amount of control over a situation, even thought it is not doing anything to fix it, we feel less stressed. That small amount of control and power helps us reduce some of the cortisol production. Helplessness and hopelessness are one of the big stress producers. We as Christians have a double lever to our disposal, our intellect to apply truth to the stressful situation at hand, and a God that is bigger than any hopelessness we may have.
Rats feel the same way. A study that was done a while ago, had anxiety induced rats housed separately. To make them anxious, they were given a small electric shock at different times, randomly. The poor rats were anxious most of the time because they never knew when and where this pain was coming from.
A few days later, a lever was added to one of the cages, and, in time, accidentally at first, whenever the rat pushed the lever, the shock would stop immediately. As the rodents began to internalize this knowledge, as soon as the first indication of a shock would start, they push the lever and the shock would stop on the spot. Their anxiety diminished tremendously, and happy rats were playing again.
Lastly, they placed the rats in another cage with a lever they could push at will, but it did nothing to stop the electric shock. The shock would stop on its own regardless of the action of pushing the lever or not. The result: the rats were happy and anxiety free.
This is just to say that when we (and rats) feel that we have a certain amount of control over a situation, even thought it is not doing anything to fix it, we feel less stressed. That small amount of control and power helps us reduce some of the cortisol production. Helplessness and hopelessness are one of the big stress producers. We as Christians have a double lever to our disposal, our intellect to apply truth to the stressful situation at hand, and a God that is bigger than any hopelessness we may have.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Meditation Part II (Read Part I first)
There are 2 types of meditation:
Concentrative and non-concentrative. The concentrative brings attention to a mantra or word repetition. I don’t use this kind. The non-concentrative brings attention to the relaxation experience, where whatever thoughts, feelings, desires, physical sensations arise, you don’t judge them, or resist them in any way. It helps you uncloud your perception of yourself and your life.
Meditation training includes:
1. Right Attitude
2. Cultivating Mindfulness
3. Commitment and Self Discipline
1. Right Attitude
• Beginner’s Mind: It is perceiving something with the freshness you would bring to it if you were seeing it for the very first time. It is seeing and accepting things as they actually are in the present moment. It's being child-like.
• Non-Striving: Pretty much everything we do during the day is goal oriented. Meditation is one thing that is not. Meditation takes effort to practice, and its aim is to “just be.” You are not trying to relax or relieve stress. If you are stressed or anxious you don’t strive to get rid of these sensations, instead you simply observe them and be with them as best as you can, not resisting them.
• Acceptance: Acceptance is the opposite of striving. As you learn to simply be with whatever you experience in the moment, you cultivate acceptance. In meditation practice, acceptance develops as you learn to embrace each moment as it comes, without fighting it. In life, acceptance does not mean that you resign yourself to the way things are and cease trying to change and grow. Acceptance can clear a space in your life to reflect and act appropriately. You free up energy to ACT when you are no longer REACTING to or struggling with the difficulty. Sometimes it is necessary to go through different emotional reactions around a problem before you can get to acceptance..
• Letting Go: You probably heard that to catch monkeys a hole is drilled in a coconut just big enough for the monkey to put his hand in. The coconut is tied to a tree by a wire. Then a banana is placed inside the coconut. The monkey comes, puts his hand in the coconut and grubs the banana. The hole is small enough so the monkey can out his hand in but cannot pull his closed fist out. All the monkey needs to do to be free is to let go of the banana, yet most monkeys won’t let go. Our minds are often like the monkey. We grab on to a particular thought or emotional state and we won’t let go. Cultivating the ability to let go is crucial to meditation practice, not to mention a less anxious life. Letting go is a natural consequence of a willingness to accept things as they are.
2. Cultivating Mindfulness:
Mindfulness is being in the present, moment to moment awareness. It is paying attention without judgment to whatever comes up in the present moment of your experience, without trying to change it. Having a compassionate attitude toward yourself is a part of mindfulness. Mindfulness can change the way you deal with fear and pain. As your practice gets better, you can learn to relax and stay present even when fear and pain move through the present moment.
3. Commitment and Self-Discipline: A strong commitment to work on yourself, along with the discipline to persevere and follow through with the process, is essential to meditation. Learning to make time “just for being” and not doing is a challenge sometimes. It is a similar commitment to exercise. A long term commitment to regular meditation will transform your life. It will change the way you relate to everything you experience in life on a deep level. I have been practicing relaxation and meditation regularly for many years now, and I can see the benefits in my own life.
Common Concerns that May Come Up. As you get ready to meditate you may have some questions and concerns. These are some of the most common.
• I don’t have time to meditate. Usually when you say you don’t have time for something, it means it hasn’t become a high priority for you to give it time. As you practice it and you feel less stressed, it would become a habit.
• When I sit to meditate it makes me more anxious. The question is, does it make you more anxious or is it possible that by stopping and sitting still, you become more aware of the anxiety that was already there? By accepting your anxiety and telling yourself: it’s just anxiety and I am going to calm myself by relaxing, the easier it will become to diffuse it. If you feel too anxious and agitated to sit down quietly, you may need to do some form of aerobic exercise first to release all that energy, and then go on with the meditation.
If you want to meditate to Christian music and Scripture check my website http://beinginhim.net/
Read Psalms 144- 150. It will lift your spirit!
Concentrative and non-concentrative. The concentrative brings attention to a mantra or word repetition. I don’t use this kind. The non-concentrative brings attention to the relaxation experience, where whatever thoughts, feelings, desires, physical sensations arise, you don’t judge them, or resist them in any way. It helps you uncloud your perception of yourself and your life.
Meditation training includes:
1. Right Attitude
2. Cultivating Mindfulness
3. Commitment and Self Discipline
1. Right Attitude
• Beginner’s Mind: It is perceiving something with the freshness you would bring to it if you were seeing it for the very first time. It is seeing and accepting things as they actually are in the present moment. It's being child-like.
• Non-Striving: Pretty much everything we do during the day is goal oriented. Meditation is one thing that is not. Meditation takes effort to practice, and its aim is to “just be.” You are not trying to relax or relieve stress. If you are stressed or anxious you don’t strive to get rid of these sensations, instead you simply observe them and be with them as best as you can, not resisting them.
• Acceptance: Acceptance is the opposite of striving. As you learn to simply be with whatever you experience in the moment, you cultivate acceptance. In meditation practice, acceptance develops as you learn to embrace each moment as it comes, without fighting it. In life, acceptance does not mean that you resign yourself to the way things are and cease trying to change and grow. Acceptance can clear a space in your life to reflect and act appropriately. You free up energy to ACT when you are no longer REACTING to or struggling with the difficulty. Sometimes it is necessary to go through different emotional reactions around a problem before you can get to acceptance..
• Letting Go: You probably heard that to catch monkeys a hole is drilled in a coconut just big enough for the monkey to put his hand in. The coconut is tied to a tree by a wire. Then a banana is placed inside the coconut. The monkey comes, puts his hand in the coconut and grubs the banana. The hole is small enough so the monkey can out his hand in but cannot pull his closed fist out. All the monkey needs to do to be free is to let go of the banana, yet most monkeys won’t let go. Our minds are often like the monkey. We grab on to a particular thought or emotional state and we won’t let go. Cultivating the ability to let go is crucial to meditation practice, not to mention a less anxious life. Letting go is a natural consequence of a willingness to accept things as they are.
2. Cultivating Mindfulness:
Mindfulness is being in the present, moment to moment awareness. It is paying attention without judgment to whatever comes up in the present moment of your experience, without trying to change it. Having a compassionate attitude toward yourself is a part of mindfulness. Mindfulness can change the way you deal with fear and pain. As your practice gets better, you can learn to relax and stay present even when fear and pain move through the present moment.
3. Commitment and Self-Discipline: A strong commitment to work on yourself, along with the discipline to persevere and follow through with the process, is essential to meditation. Learning to make time “just for being” and not doing is a challenge sometimes. It is a similar commitment to exercise. A long term commitment to regular meditation will transform your life. It will change the way you relate to everything you experience in life on a deep level. I have been practicing relaxation and meditation regularly for many years now, and I can see the benefits in my own life.
Common Concerns that May Come Up. As you get ready to meditate you may have some questions and concerns. These are some of the most common.
• I don’t have time to meditate. Usually when you say you don’t have time for something, it means it hasn’t become a high priority for you to give it time. As you practice it and you feel less stressed, it would become a habit.
• When I sit to meditate it makes me more anxious. The question is, does it make you more anxious or is it possible that by stopping and sitting still, you become more aware of the anxiety that was already there? By accepting your anxiety and telling yourself: it’s just anxiety and I am going to calm myself by relaxing, the easier it will become to diffuse it. If you feel too anxious and agitated to sit down quietly, you may need to do some form of aerobic exercise first to release all that energy, and then go on with the meditation.
If you want to meditate to Christian music and Scripture check my website http://beinginhim.net/
Read Psalms 144- 150. It will lift your spirit!
Meditation Part I
Meditation involves a process of focusing our attention on only one thing at a time and letting all other thoughts go. Simply put, meditation is “focused thinking.” If you know how to worry, you already learned how to meditate, although your focus is in the wrong thing.
If a thought comes to a meditating person’s mind, she should not resist that thought or judge it, rather she should notice it and let it go.
This is easier said than done because we are not used to it, it goes against our training to "doing" instead of "being". Most people in the industrialized Western cultures have come to enjoy being busy, filling time with activities, people and noise. Many do not understand the art of quiet, solitary meditation.
It is hard to find moments of quiet reflection left that are not filled with:
~Listening to the Ipod, ~Cell phone conversations/texting, ~Checking email or the blackberry, ~Doing a google search, General business, Face book. I am as guilty as the next person on this matter. Whatever happened to appreciating the moment, introspection, free play, doing nothing.
*From ancient times God has instructed His people to meditate on His Word:
“Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8
I continually stress the importance of body, mind and spirit connection, how one affects the other and as all three components work together well they make us whole.
*Harvard medical school tested the benefits of meditation:
~ A decrease in heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption
~ An increase in electrical resistance of the skin and alpha brain wave activity (both associated with relaxation)
*Meditation has repeatedly been found to reduce chronic anxiety and worry. Some long-range benefits may include:
~ Sharpened alertness
~ Increased energy level and productivity
~ Decreased self-criticism
~ Increased objectivity
~ Decreased dependence on alcohol, recreational, and prescription drugs
~ Improved self-esteem and sense of identity
~ Meditation helps to uncloud your perception of yourself and your life.
With all these good stuff happening, why do some of us resist relaxing and meditating, or don’t even like it? Besides what I mentioned before about busyness and noise, there are internal resistances to it.
*Meditation in Scripture not only helps us calm the mind and relax the body, but it also helps us to control our thoughts:
“For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
*The Word of God has the power to reveal our wrong thinking patterns and help us to change them so we can be filled with peace and calm:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
The unnecessary stressors this culture presses upon us can be overcome as we choose to meditate on God’s Word. Jesus said “The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” John 6:63. It is good practice to focus on God’s words and allow them to sink deeply into our hearts.
In our childhood we discovered the art of daydreaming. We used our imaginations perhaps to escape the circumstances we were in or to dream of what we would like to be or do. Unfortunately, as our minds take on more distortional thinking, hurt, pain, and worldly ideas, our imaginations become more corrupt and negative. People imagine catastrophes that will come to them, and many kinds of unclean thoughts.
From the beginning of mankind, after sin entered the world, our imaginations have been bent to evil:
“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis: 6:5
* As Christians who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can fight this negative inclination to evil. Paul said:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think (meditate) about such things.” Philippians 4: 8
Choosing to think about what is noble, just, pure, and lovely things will cleanse our mind of many stressful factors.
In my next post I will explain the types of meditation and what they include.
If a thought comes to a meditating person’s mind, she should not resist that thought or judge it, rather she should notice it and let it go.
This is easier said than done because we are not used to it, it goes against our training to "doing" instead of "being". Most people in the industrialized Western cultures have come to enjoy being busy, filling time with activities, people and noise. Many do not understand the art of quiet, solitary meditation.
It is hard to find moments of quiet reflection left that are not filled with:
~Listening to the Ipod, ~Cell phone conversations/texting, ~Checking email or the blackberry, ~Doing a google search, General business, Face book. I am as guilty as the next person on this matter. Whatever happened to appreciating the moment, introspection, free play, doing nothing.
*From ancient times God has instructed His people to meditate on His Word:
“Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8
I continually stress the importance of body, mind and spirit connection, how one affects the other and as all three components work together well they make us whole.
*Harvard medical school tested the benefits of meditation:
~ A decrease in heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption
~ An increase in electrical resistance of the skin and alpha brain wave activity (both associated with relaxation)
*Meditation has repeatedly been found to reduce chronic anxiety and worry. Some long-range benefits may include:
~ Sharpened alertness
~ Increased energy level and productivity
~ Decreased self-criticism
~ Increased objectivity
~ Decreased dependence on alcohol, recreational, and prescription drugs
~ Improved self-esteem and sense of identity
~ Meditation helps to uncloud your perception of yourself and your life.
With all these good stuff happening, why do some of us resist relaxing and meditating, or don’t even like it? Besides what I mentioned before about busyness and noise, there are internal resistances to it.
*Meditation in Scripture not only helps us calm the mind and relax the body, but it also helps us to control our thoughts:
“For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
*The Word of God has the power to reveal our wrong thinking patterns and help us to change them so we can be filled with peace and calm:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
The unnecessary stressors this culture presses upon us can be overcome as we choose to meditate on God’s Word. Jesus said “The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” John 6:63. It is good practice to focus on God’s words and allow them to sink deeply into our hearts.
In our childhood we discovered the art of daydreaming. We used our imaginations perhaps to escape the circumstances we were in or to dream of what we would like to be or do. Unfortunately, as our minds take on more distortional thinking, hurt, pain, and worldly ideas, our imaginations become more corrupt and negative. People imagine catastrophes that will come to them, and many kinds of unclean thoughts.
From the beginning of mankind, after sin entered the world, our imaginations have been bent to evil:
“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis: 6:5
* As Christians who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can fight this negative inclination to evil. Paul said:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think (meditate) about such things.” Philippians 4: 8
Choosing to think about what is noble, just, pure, and lovely things will cleanse our mind of many stressful factors.
In my next post I will explain the types of meditation and what they include.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
