“Putting disciplined quiet time into your life’s routine”
January I, 2010
Dear friends,
Here are some suggestions for putting disciplined quiet time into your life’s routine. I wish I had these when I started.
1. Commit yourself to a goal you think you can fairly easily meet. Too many times we set the bar too high and fail to achieve it and then feel guilty, saying “I will never be able to be disciplined,” or “This just doesn’t fit who I am.” And then we give up trying.
2. Choose something that is meaningful to you - read the psalms, a prayer book, another book, some type of meditation, or a combination of things. To begin with, it is best for this to be fairly simple.
3. Be creative. I have heard of people having a regular, disciplined quiet time as they drive or travel on public transportation. I know of one woman who scheduled three hours once a week, sending her small children off on a “date night” with Daddy. Ask God to lead you.
4. Try to keep the same routine for your quiet time – the same amount of time (10, 20 or 30 minutes or whatever you choose), the same time period, the same place. These can all help you to establish this discipline.
5. Commit yourself to do this for two weeks to a month despite the call of sleep, laziness, urgent matters or whether you feel like it or not.
6. Commit yourself to do this discipline for the allotted time period before you evaluate or change your routine. Do not evaluate or change it till the time period is up. This can be hard, as there is a real tendency to evaluate and change it during this time. A voice will tell you, “Oh, that part is no longer meaningful. I will just change this small part.” But try to avoid this till the committed time is up. This is because evaluating or changing it will make it unclear to you as to whether it was worth your effort to discipline yourself in this way.
7. If you “fall off the wagon,” it does not mean you should stay off! You should just get back on the wagon again!
These ideas come from the book It’s a Meaningful Life - it just takes Practice by Bo Lozoff. Bo teaches prayer and mediation to prisoners as a way reducing violence in prisons.
My quiet time is a time of the day I really look forward too. It is worth your every effort.
Peace, Jim Fitz OVER
PS: Here are some quotes from Bo’s book (pages 18-21) that further describe the significance of spiritual practices.
“We are always beginners on the spiritual journey… To work deeply and naturally, spiritual practices require time, commitment, and patience. Choose some that you are drawn to, do them every day, and you will see significant changes in your life… It is tried-and-true ancient wisdom.”
“Wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself, you are in an ideal position to perform spiritual practice.”
“The point of such practice is not to escape pressures or get our minds off our problems, although either may happen as a welcome side effect. The real purpose of spiritual practice is to strengthen our presence of mind right here and now… Spiritual practice helps us handle… anything that comes our way in the rip-roaring roller coaster of life.”
“It’s not about changing the event itself—although miracles do seem to happen sometimes as we develop faith and awareness—but about staying in the moment of reality, remembering that even this moment belongs in our spiritual journey. As we become able to face danger or conflicts without getting lost in fear and denial, we have the opportunity to play the hero of our dramas rather than their victim. Life dramas can take an almost playful turn when, as Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron puts it, ‘your curiosity becomes stronger than your fears.’ ”
“For that reason, many of these practices can be done during the course of the day, not only at some special time like meditation or yoga. For example, the best (and most difficult) time to work on anger is when we are getting angry… Nothing outside can prevent us from doing spiritual practice. I have learned that lesson well from my thousands of prison friends who choose to develop awareness and compassion in some of the noisiest, angriest, most brutal environments on earth. Their amazing persistence has transformed my life.”
“My own studies and experimentation have led to a style of practice that suits my nature, just as your studies and experimentation will lead to a style that suits yours. But all of us need to touch some balance of mind, body and spirit with our practices. All of us need to balance the mystical and the pragmatic.”
“As time goes by, as our hearts open and our vision clears… Our lives become a seamless whole, and every moment becomes our conscious practice. We accept life and life accepts us, and the fears, worries, and internal bickering of a lifetime fall away. Getting there is not always easy. But the joy and gratitude inherent in this spiritual awakening surpass any other kind of payoff life could possibly offer.”
“The ultimate purpose of all spiritual practice is to reach a state of uninterrupted Communion, a state in which no difference exists between ‘my will’ and ‘Thy will,’ or indeed between the self and God. ‘I and the Father are One,’ as Jesus said (John 10:30).”
May you remember the lord is always very close helping you in this.
Pray for the stressed marriages as the Lord adds more to my contacts. Thanks.
Peace, Jim
January I, 2010
Dear friends,
Here are some suggestions for putting disciplined quiet time into your life’s routine. I wish I had these when I started.
1. Commit yourself to a goal you think you can fairly easily meet. Too many times we set the bar too high and fail to achieve it and then feel guilty, saying “I will never be able to be disciplined,” or “This just doesn’t fit who I am.” And then we give up trying.
2. Choose something that is meaningful to you - read the psalms, a prayer book, another book, some type of meditation, or a combination of things. To begin with, it is best for this to be fairly simple.
3. Be creative. I have heard of people having a regular, disciplined quiet time as they drive or travel on public transportation. I know of one woman who scheduled three hours once a week, sending her small children off on a “date night” with Daddy. Ask God to lead you.
4. Try to keep the same routine for your quiet time – the same amount of time (10, 20 or 30 minutes or whatever you choose), the same time period, the same place. These can all help you to establish this discipline.
5. Commit yourself to do this for two weeks to a month despite the call of sleep, laziness, urgent matters or whether you feel like it or not.
6. Commit yourself to do this discipline for the allotted time period before you evaluate or change your routine. Do not evaluate or change it till the time period is up. This can be hard, as there is a real tendency to evaluate and change it during this time. A voice will tell you, “Oh, that part is no longer meaningful. I will just change this small part.” But try to avoid this till the committed time is up. This is because evaluating or changing it will make it unclear to you as to whether it was worth your effort to discipline yourself in this way.
7. If you “fall off the wagon,” it does not mean you should stay off! You should just get back on the wagon again!
These ideas come from the book It’s a Meaningful Life - it just takes Practice by Bo Lozoff. Bo teaches prayer and mediation to prisoners as a way reducing violence in prisons.
My quiet time is a time of the day I really look forward too. It is worth your every effort.
Peace, Jim Fitz OVER
PS: Here are some quotes from Bo’s book (pages 18-21) that further describe the significance of spiritual practices.
“We are always beginners on the spiritual journey… To work deeply and naturally, spiritual practices require time, commitment, and patience. Choose some that you are drawn to, do them every day, and you will see significant changes in your life… It is tried-and-true ancient wisdom.”
“Wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself, you are in an ideal position to perform spiritual practice.”
“The point of such practice is not to escape pressures or get our minds off our problems, although either may happen as a welcome side effect. The real purpose of spiritual practice is to strengthen our presence of mind right here and now… Spiritual practice helps us handle… anything that comes our way in the rip-roaring roller coaster of life.”
“It’s not about changing the event itself—although miracles do seem to happen sometimes as we develop faith and awareness—but about staying in the moment of reality, remembering that even this moment belongs in our spiritual journey. As we become able to face danger or conflicts without getting lost in fear and denial, we have the opportunity to play the hero of our dramas rather than their victim. Life dramas can take an almost playful turn when, as Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron puts it, ‘your curiosity becomes stronger than your fears.’ ”
“For that reason, many of these practices can be done during the course of the day, not only at some special time like meditation or yoga. For example, the best (and most difficult) time to work on anger is when we are getting angry… Nothing outside can prevent us from doing spiritual practice. I have learned that lesson well from my thousands of prison friends who choose to develop awareness and compassion in some of the noisiest, angriest, most brutal environments on earth. Their amazing persistence has transformed my life.”
“My own studies and experimentation have led to a style of practice that suits my nature, just as your studies and experimentation will lead to a style that suits yours. But all of us need to touch some balance of mind, body and spirit with our practices. All of us need to balance the mystical and the pragmatic.”
“As time goes by, as our hearts open and our vision clears… Our lives become a seamless whole, and every moment becomes our conscious practice. We accept life and life accepts us, and the fears, worries, and internal bickering of a lifetime fall away. Getting there is not always easy. But the joy and gratitude inherent in this spiritual awakening surpass any other kind of payoff life could possibly offer.”
“The ultimate purpose of all spiritual practice is to reach a state of uninterrupted Communion, a state in which no difference exists between ‘my will’ and ‘Thy will,’ or indeed between the self and God. ‘I and the Father are One,’ as Jesus said (John 10:30).”
May you remember the lord is always very close helping you in this.
Pray for the stressed marriages as the Lord adds more to my contacts. Thanks.
Peace, Jim
Comments
Post a Comment