- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Compartmentalization means being able to put angst-producing thoughts aside. I think being able to do this is useful if you have vexing church problems that interfere with your peace during times you are not exposed to angst-producing church experiences….
How do you personally put things out of your mind to preserve your inner peace, if you do?
Sometimes I just try to distract myself with something pleasant, like reading or watching something. I’m also interested in mindfulness. I was actually just reading an article about it before coming on here. It’s a meditation kind of technique, where you focus on something using your senses. You could listen to music, cook something and focus on the smell, or eat something and focus on the texture and taste. Or there is also a technique where you relax your body and think of a calming place like the beach, or imagining a sensation like warmth flowing through your body and focusing on each body area it passes through. It is suppose to help train your mind to focus on one thing rather than having a frantic mind. Kind of a cool idea I think. I try to remember that there is a distinction between church and the people. I might get upset with the SS teacher because she is saying how bads gays are but then I think about one of our posters who expresses himself so well and how he has made my feelings about the whole issue of gayness change. I am not to happy about the institutional church right now but many of the people at church have been great examples of really good people. I remind myself that I would rather understand one thing deeply than a lot of things shallowly – and if I think about a lot of things at the same time, I end up with shallow understanding of all of them. I also end up getting overwhelmed – and that’s just as true at work or in my personal life as it is with regard to religion. I can multi-task, but I can’t “ponder” lots of things at once without losing the ability to really understand any of them well. These are all good suggestions in my mind. I had a Religions of India class back in college and a swami came and did some guided meditation with the class and I know that stuff can work. I still remember him saying “you are a wave (pause) on the ocean of life”. For me, sometimes a couple squares of a good quality dark chocolate melting in my mouth and watching something funny will totally get my mind off of it for a spell.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.