If you followed me on my other blog, Dr. Allen's Musings (sallencounseling.blogspot.com), thanks for checking out this new endeavor. If you are new to my blogs altogether, I welcome you as well.
Mindful Musings is a place where I "think out loud" about the art and science of mindfulness and, more specifically, about the integration of mindfulness concepts and skills with Christianity. Some have referred to this as Christ-mindfulness. I am endeavoring, here, to explore ways in which the well researched benefits of mindfulness and mindful living can be utilized by Christians to enhance their pursuit of Christ-likeness (Sanctification). For example, can learning to be better aware ( a distinct outcome of practicing mindfulness) assist the believer in being more sensitive and responsive to the Holy Spirit's role in making us like Christ. I have written in my other blog (sallencounseling.blogspot.com) about some of the tangible ways I believe mindfulness has benefited me in my own quest for spiritual growth. I hope to build on this theme here.
I cordially invite you to embark on this journey with me. Check in often and, if you like what you see, tell others to check it out as well. In the very near future I will consider how mindfulness can be a resource for prayer, Bible study, personal Christian growth, fellowship, and as many other notions as come to mind. And let me say from the outset, everything written here is my notion and not intended to be taken as anything but. Agree or disagree (hopefully in a direct response post), but at least ponder some of these humble musings. I wish to have a dialogue not a monologue.
I consider you all friends. As a seminary professor of mine once told me, a good definition of a friend is "someone with whom you can share your most profound heresies." Please know that I sincerely pray that what I share will only help build the Kingdom and you as a fellow Kingdom dweller. In closing this post, I offer this sage advice from the Twelve-step tradition, " Take what you can and leave the rest." Selah.
Dr. Allen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for so eloquently articulating why any other religion or philosophy doesn't have to threaten the Christian faith. It ALL belongs to God. I just recently finished my first audiobook by Thich Nhat Hanh. I agree that he makes complex ideas very palatable. In one of the latter chapters he talked about how the wave doesn't resist the ocean. He was talking about emptiness and surrender and accepting "what is as it is." His use of metaphor is astounding and the simplicity is profound. If I wasn't a full-time employed single mother and graduate student, I could live in this conversation. After a 3 year "recovery from life" sabbatical, I am back to the grind. How can I carry the peace of solitude and silence from the last few years into the hectic American culture where I now find myself? It seems that in my new job people FEED off of stress. How do you practice carrying peace and loving kindness into the moment...even those moments that are so "noisy" with responsibility? Thank you, Tara
For me, Tina, the enhanced awareness that mindfulness brings allows me to make "constant contact" with God. This 'mindful' contact helps me to recognize that the Holy Spirit is available to provide what I need in the "moment." Part of that awareness is about how God created my mind to function. The great strides we have made in neuroscience have served to give evidence that the potential benefits of 'mindful living' are a direct result of how marvelous and "wonderfully made (Ps. 139) we are.
DeleteThank you for reading the blog. I hope you come back and tell others.