Friday, February 12, 2010

Spiritual Breakfast

So, if breakfast is the most important meal of the day (see yesterday's post)... then what is the most important spiritual practice of the day? Is it going to Mass? Is it reading the bible? Is it spending time in quiet? Is it meditating? Is it reading spiritual books? I've tried them all at some point or another. Avoiding some of them for a long time because I had a preconceived notion about them! But... right now, what seems to be grounding me in the day, is spending some time in the morning just being still and watching my breathing and letting the thoughts come and go, but not dwelling on them. It's that time of silence which seems to be rich and fruitful, full of spiritual nutrition! Kind of counter-intuitive actually. You'd think that filling our minds/thoughts with something "uplifiting" and spiritual would be the way to go... And it does have its place, don't get me wrong, but the richness of silence is deeper and more intense than all the other stuff. It's also the first thing to go by the board in the mornings if I'm feeling rushed or stressed.

At this point, I've decided/deduced that a healthy, well-balanced life consists of various things, some of which are:
drinking lots of water (dehydration is a nasty game!)
meditation (10 min?)
exercise (45 min/day 3 to 4 days a week)
healthy eating
balancing work & play
companionship/friends/etc.
For me... and this is just for me... the meditation and exercise go pretty quickly. It takes an awful lot of self-control to keep those in my game plan when things get hectic. The nasty thing is... when I start neglecting them, I get even more frenzied and feel like life is even more out of control! Silly really... and a vicious cycle to be sure...

For me, it is to see the value and the necessity of those things that seem dispensable. For those very things that seem dispensable are the indispensable things...

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