Sunday May 26: We Are Not Our Thoughts

To Practice:

– Prayerfully re-read these passages again in the manner of Lectio Divina, reading them aloud to engage more of your senses and feel the vibrations in your body. What do you hear for your journey now?

– There is a positive energy of doubt that arises from wisdom, the kind that comes from the inner voice of conscience which nudges us awake amid the unconscious flow of life to follow a higher Truth or higher Good, even if it is risky and means going against the tide of culture and cherished relationships. Contemplative discernment is a useful practice to cultivate this inner listening and prayerfully navigate the choices before us. You may wish to try Anne Stadler’s practice above, and/or you may be interested in this 40-day discernment booklet (also available as a PDF) or this discernment e-course to learn the practice and assist your process.

– Thoughts are linked to stored energy in the body. The Welcoming Prayer is a useful tool for feeling into and moving the “issues in the tissues” – the energies of fear and doubt in your body.

If you wish, you may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2024-word-of-the-week-may26

[Adeline Behm]

“Doubt is inherited in our personality and in our familial and cultural conditioning. A skeptical, fearful, or traumatic environment fosters a habitual pattern, where second-guessing seems to be a fruitful response for our programs of safety/security, power/control, and affection/esteem. Uncertainty, disbelief, hesitation, indecision, and chronic mistrusting are all forms of doubt, with fear as the root energy.” In this past year a lot has come to light, to new life about how I inherited my doubt response. Last night access transit a service here for people with disabilities forgot me which meant I didn’t get to Mass. I experienced a series of unsettling reactions such as “I didn’t handle it well; I may be penalized, then as the evening proceeded something like self pity arose. I was lucid enough to ask, “what is self pity doing here”? I could see it clearly, and , no, this is not my today response; I realize it’s root is way back in my childhood, somewhere around age 8 when my youngest brother was. His 82 birthday was this week. Ages 2-8 were defining years in the development “making my own happiness”. Yesterday seven hours later a hint of a migraine showed up, indicating to me to take my preventative med. I am honestly open and willing to let my doubt history speak words of wisdom into “letting go”.

 

 

 

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by Adeline Behm.

Adeline, I so appreciate your deep commitment to inner work and the allowing of the process that ensues. You are a great teacher for me. – Pamela

Thomas Merton told us to keep faith with our doubts.   For me, trying to do this is a way of letting my doubts teach me to let go into Trusting.

Well said, Brenda.  Thanks for sharing. – Pamela

Anne Stadler’s questions say it all for me. Looking at my whole life narrative helps me to keep a perspective on things that might be disturbances in the immediate here and now. It creates that tiny but all-important space between who I am and what I am thinking or feeling.

What I hear for my journey now is “learn how to act in accord with the Holy Spirit that ‘does not act according to human prudence.’” It has been quite some time since Spirit has “suggested a course that contradicts what has been a great source of support in one’s spiritual journey.” Sensing a new liminal space opening, I too want to open to what Spirit has in mind. <3 linda

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