5 Top Tips to Upgrading Your Beliefs
A personal mission statemnt can be a really helpful exercise for uncovering what we really do value and for getting us to be serious about our sense of vocation. It could actually take quite a while and is the kind of exercise that could very usefully be undertaken with the 'supervision' of a spiritual coach or mentor. Or it could be doen in the way suggested here, perhaps this is how to start: simply give yourself two minutes to write down the first things that come to you.
It is also quite interesting then to do what the referenced page goes on to suggest: whether your beliefs support what you have written, or even what beliefs are actually suggested by what you have written. This may give plenty of grounds for reflection and discussion. There may need ot be some kind of dialogue between the two things and between your 'official' beliefs and what may turn out to be your actual if not 'owned' beliefs.
Some of those beliefs may be negative in the sense that they cut you off from Life, and so the third 'tip' comes into play. How are you going to deal with those beliefs. Indeed, how will you make sure that there are people and means of personal support if and where such things become matters of some anxiety, grieving or anger.
In place of smiling [though it's no bad exercise as set, actually] I would encourage looking to give thanks for at least 50 things each day [see the last blog entry on this blog].
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4 comments:
hi! this is a very useful exercise which i have done variations of before and which really has helped to clarify and reinforce where i am and where i want to be, not to mention where i've been, in terms of what is important in my life. (is that the world's vaguest sentence or WHAT?)
anyway, 50 ANYTHINGS a day makes me want to crawl under the desk and cry. i recommend both the smiling and the giving thanks as huge life changers.
when i was living in haiti for several months i had no one i knew well enough to tell the secrets of my heart to, and i relied on one book in particular to get me through the toughest times. this was Peace is Every Step, by Thich Nhat Hanh. (yesterday when i was doing a meditation on saints and was asked to think of someone alive today who i believe is a saint, Nhat Hanh was the first person who came to mind.) he is a vietnamese buddhist monk who has done the most beautiful work in terms of helping the people around him--from his countrymen on BOTH sides of the battle during the vietnam war to people like you and i.
i'm in danger of getting seriously off track here.
Nhat Hanh's belief is that we can't affect peace in the world if we aren't creating peace in ourselves, and his books are gentle and thoughtful guides toward those aims. he teaches a prayer for meditation that includes smiling at a certain point, and it really weirded me out to try that for a long time. i felt most silly, but also if i was unhappy, i wanted to do anything but smile. however, i persisted with it and over the months the wisdom of this practice made itself very clear to me. it is key in changing the heart over time. another key point, which is linked to your own emphasis on gratitude, is being present in every moment, which is also addressed in that little prayer.
"i breathe in and calm my body.
i breathe out and smile.
dwelling in this present moment
i know it is a wonderful moment."
the amazing thing to me over 9 very tricky months in what was for me a very tricky cultural situation (which i loved and stressed under tremendously, both), was that the last two lines were always true, whether i was easily able to find that truth or not. it is a very deep teaching which i am tremendously grateful for.
i have recently programmed my email calendar to remind me every morning to go to the irish jesuits sacred space site where i will find a very brief prayer. this serves to ground me as i begin my work, creating a bridge between my prayerful activities and my hours at the keyboard. they also have poems and meditations and so on but all i want, in the thick of things, is that sudden taking over of the screen, that transport into, ah, yes! prayer!
example, today's prayer:
_The Presence of God_
As I sit here at my computer, God is present,
breathing life into me and into everything around me.
For a few moments, I sit silently,
and become aware of God's loving presence.
the site, for anyone who doesn't know it, is at:
http://www.sacredspace.ie/
thanks for your thoughtful blog.
P.S.
by your name and profile i see that you are interested in Celtic Christianity. i have a question for you.
do you know of any books, articles, etc. not about the principles of Cc Cy, but of the growing influence of this branch of Christianity in the world today? i am very interested in reading something of that sort.
go raibh maith agat!
Thank you for responding to the posting on the blog. I appreciate your connections with other books etc. I value the SJ site also; using from time to time rather as you do. It is one of the better sites I have found to promote prayer and meditation via the web. I would also recommend http://www.rejesus.co.uk/spirituality/daily_prayer/
As to the 50 things: nice idea to combine them. I always take the view that we should, if we think that there is value in a discipline, aim to do something that is realistic but stretching and then review and adjust accordingly; so that seems like a good idea. My issue is how you count! And beyond that avoiding making it into a 'work' rather than a means of grace... but that's another story for later.
As to something about the growing influence of Celtic Christianity ... that's a little harder. The book by Donald Meek 'The Quest for Celtic Christianity' http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1871828511/nous-21/026-4060091-4910000
is a critical look at what culturally might be driving the growth [with a bit of historical debunking of the myths]. It might go some way to dealing with your question. Offhand I can't think of anything else that is a orientated more towards description than laying out principles.
thank you so much for your response to my comments. i have looked at the site you recommended and you are quite right. it is a very thoughtful and well planned prayer aid. i'll send it on to my sister, who first told me about the jesuit one.
as for your second paragraph, all i can do is nod in utter agreement.
and the book you recommend sounds like what i am looking for, so many thanks on that as well!
in your profile you say you are a priest. do you mean that you are an ordained priest? you mustn't have much time for blogging being a husband, father, and priest! i'll check in now and then and see what you have to say.
blessings,
mael brigde
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