The Wired Soul by Tricia McCary Rhodes

Author:Tricia McCary Rhodes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 9781631465130
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2016-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Preparing to Meditate

We can actually help our brains and make it easier to engage in the discipline of meditation if we plan ahead. We can write out what we are going to do and for how long, as well as articulate a general goal. This can be a simple statement, such as “I am going to meditate on God’s Word for fifteen minutes a day during my lunch break so that I can be more peaceful and patient” or “I am going to set aside twenty minutes every morning for meditation so that I can know God more and do his will.” By posting our goal where we will see it and affirming it out loud several times in advance, we will find it much easier to battle the bane of busyness in order to meet with God.

Once we’ve made the commitment, we need to treat our investment in meditation as a marathon, not a sprint. Most people either fail to engage consistently, or they give up too quickly on practices such as these. As we’ve seen, the brain is like a muscle that operates on a “use it or lose it” principle, so when we are sporadic or skip several days, it will feel as if we are starting from scratch when we return to the practice. It is better to begin with a short time commitment that we can keep, rather than a longer one we end up abandoning. Because our brains respond well to repetition, if we practice regularly, the necessary neural pathways will grow and be strengthened, and meditation will become easier to master over time.

When we actually sit down to meditate, the mental preparation to overcome distractions can seem extremely difficult. In the previous chapter I explained why this is so, and I offered practices that can counteract our wandering minds and restless souls. I personally engage in God-focused deep breathing for five to ten minutes every day before I begin my biblical meditation. (If you haven’t read that chapter or tried that practice, you might want to do that first.) Here I will just note that breathing is an important component in calming our bodies and minds. When we breathe deeply, noticing how the air flows in through our nostrils and down our chests into our diaphragms, we begin to cultivate awareness, making it easier to tune out external distractions. As we concentrate on slow, deep breathing, we begin to experience a stillness within that is foundational for meditation.

Noise from without, however, is only one issue we have to deal with to prepare for meditation. As we try to calm our minds, a host of internal distractions often come up. Feelings we may not even be aware of—worry over our loved ones, fear about a job interview, frustration with our eating habits, dread from a bad dream, stresses we can’t even pinpoint—suddenly surface. Curt Thompson, medical doctor and author of The Anatomy of the Soul, points out that while we often ignore the emotional

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