Just Breathe

 Sometimes, I wake at 3 am. with anxious thoughts filling my mind, tumbling around in my brain like clothes in a dryer. I get up, stretch for a bit and sit with my thoughts, letting each one go. as I just observe the flow of my breath. In and out, I watch the breath and imagine waves on a shore, moving in rhythm with the earth's magnetic pull. I find a "mantra" to focus my mind on...a simple word like "one" or "peace" and just keep repeating it until the swirling thoughts have settled and the rhythm of my breath soothes and centers me.

Once in a while, an answer will come, like a lighted up thought bubble bursting on the scene, providing insight and clarity. More often, I will just be relieved of my anxiety and filled with peace, which kind of tells me that this is something I have to "let go and let God". Soon, the thoughts become still, like an ocean that is calm and serene after a storm has passed. 

This of course, is the art of meditation. I like to think of it as the listening part of prayer.  When I have uttered all my busy prayers, offering them up to the invisible Being I know as God, I can do no more, because my greatest problem-solving struggles for a solution are no match for Divine Intelligence.

So this morning's message is simple: when anxious thoughts threaten to destroy our serenity, we can refuse to give them any power. We can:

•  just breathe
•  release our anxiety and prayers to God
•  focus on a mantra to still restless thoughts
• listen
• enter the place of calm after the storm