Journal of Sacred Work

Attitudes are more important than facts.
  – Karl Menninger

   So many of us live so much of our lives reacting the stunning array of stimuli that come from without. Yet it is what’s going on within that shapes our truth. As Wayne Dyer writes at the beginning of his book, Your Sacred Self, "You have been facing the wrong way."  According to Dyer, "the door to higher awareness…opens inward."
   If this is true, why aren’t all of us spending more of our lives exploring the mountains and valleys of our inner landscape…

   It is arguably more difficult to conduct this exploration today than has ever been the case in western civilization. Our world is conducting a broad-ranging attack on our sensibilities, shouting every moment and from every angle for our attention. The range of multi-tasking required to survive in the modern job world is particularly challenging. A typical office employee needs to master a wide array of computer software to function. This software performs endless tasks with remarkable capability. and each performance, instead of being complete in and of itself, requires some kind of encore.
   When I summon groups to engage the practice of meditation, I am met with polite nods that rarely lead to actual practice. Very few imagine they have time to "just sit there and do nothing." Accordingly, if they accept my invitation to close their eyes for even five minutes, many find this limited practice stressful. "All I could do was think about all my lists," many people tell me after we try this five minute break.

  If there is one single practice that is guaranteed to change the life attitudes of each one of us, it is the practice of twenty minutes of meditation twice a day. Our attitudes determine not only our point of view but the quality of our time on this earth. Regular meditation virtually guarantees a reduction in one of the biggest problems we face – stress. Meditation is the single best stress reduction technique I’ve ever encountered. 
   But I appreciate that none of this is enough to convince anyone to change their life by adopting meditation. Isn’t it remarkable that something so simple and so powerful would be so widely ignored in America? Meditation, in theory, makes so little sense to the western mind. There are no drugs involved and, to repeat, it is mainly a practice that appears to be "doing nothing."
   Meditation practice calms mind and body. After the twenty minute rest, the body is refreshed and the mind starts finding its way to solutions that seemed impossible just twenty minutes before.
   Some of the folks at Alive Hospice in Nashville have been smart enough to practice the wisdom of meditation. Vice President Karen York offers sessions to employees on a regular basis. As a result, every participating employee lives a better quality life and becomes a more effective caregiver as well as a better team member for all those around them.
   Our attitudes shape our sense of well-being. Meditation and prayer improve this sense. Are you interested? Are you willing? Is it time to change your life for the better?

-Erie Chapman