The Worrier and the Warrior

One morning in the clinic, I saw a 61 year old patient who'd gained 25 pounds this last year, and told of the stress in her life.  Very tough things like lately widowed, living alone, and working hard to make it.  But the mild insomnia which she'd always had was much, much worse, and now she gets up and goes to the refrigerator, or the pantry.  Just a little snack.  Every night for 365 days.  Twice she said, "I find myself thinking, 'It's 3 AM, and there is nobody having this problem but me.  Nobody is awake but me.' " 

That afternoon one of my 93 year old patients came in saying, "I knew my blood pressure'd be up because I did not sleep a wink last night.  Not one wink! This has never happened to me before!  What do I do, Doctor?"

Lord's Prayer Breathing

Lord's Prayer breathing ... for the body and the soul

First How:

This is easy, and below I explain why and when to use this invaluable expression of our knowing that we need more of God.

As you detect tension, stress, pressure or any other fear-laden symptom, pause.

Take only a quick inhale and on the exhale begin speaking the Lord's prayer:
Take three inhales for the entire prayer on the words,

"Our Father ..."
"Give us..."
and "Lead us..."

Prolonging the exhale as you speak the endings to each of the sections is the exact reason that this helps us physically.

Repeating four Lord's prayers this way takes one minute.  That gives us 12 breaths a minute.  Perhaps the optimal normal rate for adults.

Because I've practiced this for many years, I find I am getting just a bit closer to praying without ceasing.  And you can too.


And now Why do this  : (taken from an earlier post on this blog)

Finding Your Way

In 2007, God led me to offer Wellness retreats.  In 2009 He moved me to offer groups to follow up retreats, and add members from my clinic practice as well.  Next came "Real Comfort" retreats. In one group a gal said, "I cannot find my way out of this problem.  It's like I live with a monster inside me."  So we named the groups "Way Groups."  We walk together, and we all are finding our way.

There are usually two things that have to be addressed immediately, and a third that takes time.  

Church

My favorite devotional bible is the Oswald Chambers One Year Bible. I should call it my Four Year bible, though, as I read one page a day.  In it there's both an old testament and a new testament reading with a psalm and proverb in between. 

For me, as I look at Genesis abruptly juxtaposed beside Matthew, I grieve all that time before Christ, the countless lives lived before God's hopeful Answer comes to mankind's main problem.

And then there's the countless lives since the fact God's offer of grace in the Cross. 

And Remembering God

For the Soul:

I was thinking about the patient who worried about her grandchildren's diet, as I headed out into a beautiful winter evening for a walk-jog, or a "wog." I admit to being a fair-weather-wogger. I soaked up the last of the sunshine and felt the gentle breeze and did "intervals." Since doing intervals forms a sort of "kind exercise" to line up with "kind repentance," this evening's wog qualified for the words, "it doesn't get any better than this."