Staying Grounded in Turbulent Times
/During these days of huge uncertainty, the more we can practice ways of centering, grounding and caring for our spirits, the better off we will be and the more use we will be to others. Monica Citty Hix offered a variety of ways to do this in her latest blog for Inner Ground. I’m delighted Monica agreed to let me share these with all of you as a guest post. My apologies for not being able to replicate her beautiful layout exactly.
"We alive at this time are the luckiest people who have ever lived -- and the ones facing the wildest, most terrifying challenges. This is not just a 'deep paradox,' it's an existential invitation to keep waking up, right now."
- Terry Patten
Friends,
In these challenging and uncertain days, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. It's important that we stay informed, but it's vital that we not feast on the news streams. Listen to your body, pay attention to your emotions, and choose wisely each day.
We are living in a time that is ripe with invitations for us to do our inner work. I bump up against them daily! It is hard work to sit in the messiness of life, to listen to all that it stirs within us, to acknowledge and honor those stirrings and to open ourselves to transformation. This is truly a time for us to hear the invitation to wake up. Spiritual practices have the ability to lead us into this inner terrain. Again this week, we offer another collection of soul-care practices and invite you to create a daily rhythm that includes loving care for your body, mind and soul. Claim what is helpful for you and discard the others.
Feel free to share this email with friends and family. If you are a new subscriber and would like to receive the soul-care practices that we sent out last week, please send us an email at 2innerground@gmail.com. We'll be glad to forward it to you.
May you continue to be kind and generous to yourself and to others. And may peace and Light companion you through these days.
Embodied practices are so important for they connect us to who we are as incarnational beings. Below is a link to a simple Chair Yoga practice offered by Anita Grace Brown. Anita is part of the Inner Ground Instagram community and generously offered this practice for you. You may explore more offerings from Anita at her YouTube channel There's Nothing Wrong with My Body and her podcast, It's 5 o'clock Somewhere.
Breathing Meditation is another way to connect with our bodies. Medical studies have shown that blood pressure can be reduced by simply engaging in deep breathing for 30 seconds! Below is a guided breath meditation for you to try. I invite you to practice this breathing meditation daily for the next week.
Honoring our emotions/feelings is an important part of the spiritual journey. It's also vital to our overall health. The Psalms are filled with expressions of every human emotion. They invite us to bring all that we are feeling before the Holy One. You'll find an invitation and prompts to write your own psalm of lament.
There's a music link to Mark Miller's beautiful setting of Dona Nobis Pacem. I invite you to settle into a calm space and to listen and watch with an open heart. You may choose to listen a second time and take a posture with your body that invites you into prayer with this music - maybe cupping your hands as if you are holding the world in them (like the image above). You may even invite your body to move freely to the music as an embodied prayer.
Writing a Psalm of Lament
Lament Psalms follow a pattern that we can duplicate in creating our own. If you'd like to look at some examples, see Psalm 6, 10, 22, 25, 30, 73, 88.
Follow this pattern as you compose your own Psalm of Lament.
Protest: What is wrong? State it to God. Don't hold back.
Petition: Ask what you want from God. Be bold in your asking.
Praise: Express your trust in the Holy One. That may include evidence from the past that reveals God's care. Or it may include a quality of the Divine's character that is comforting to you.
Monica Citty Hix is a minister, retreat leader and spiritual companion. She is the Founding Director of Inner Ground, a local non-profit rooted in Christian wisdom, whose mission is “to nourish the human heart and spirit through contemplative practices and expressive arts.” You may follow Inner Ground on Facebook and Instagram. In addition to her work with Inner Ground, she serves as Minister of Music at First Friends Meeting in Greensboro, NC. She’s married to her college sweetheart, Phil, who shares her love of travel and dark chocolate. They recently welcomed the most exuberant Wheaten Terrier into their empty nest!
