"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Friday, 17 June 2016 from The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States

"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Friday, 17 June 2016 from The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Image from the Prayer Room at General Conference, Portland, OR. From UMNS.
JUNE 17
It’s been a difficult week. Our hearts are broken and our minds are weary from the complexities of the news. At such times, we need more space to gain perspective. Catching our breath means taking a break. We need a time-out. We need to let settle the turmoil within. Author Frank Rodgers offers this advice in his latest book, Practicing Compassion:
Change your location. Go for a walk, spend time in nature, find a quiet place to sit, take a drive, or take refuge in a sacred place.
Engage your body. Do yoga, get some exercise or a massage, take a long bath, go for a run, ride a bike, throw clay, make music, dance, or draw.
Connect with a trusted person. Visit your therapist or spiritual director, talk with a friend, confide with a loved one, have coffee with a mentor or spiritual teacher, seek counsel from your pastor.
Perform a spiritual practice. Pray, meditate, journal, repeat a mantra, say a breath prayer, walk a labyrinth, go on retreat.
Such grounding activities give us space. They bring calm to the agitated currents swirling around us. And with calm comes clarity. We may not be completed restored, but we can at least see what tensions need to be tended. Each act of care – be it simple or radical – bears a gift for us and for others.[From Practicing Compassion by Frank Rogers Jr. Copyright © 2015 by Frank Rogers Jr. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books.]

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