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This practice challenge comes from SDI member and SDI webinar presenter Lisa Van Allen. She lives with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS,) a chronic condition that afflicts people with severe and relentless pain. (She's says she's not brave, but I, like others, admire her.) I share this practice here so all may benefit from her approach to embracing resilience in a time of intense and perseverating difficulty. (Lisa's original Facebook post is below for context.) I am grateful to Lisa for her permission to share it with our community. Sending you love, Lisa - Steven Crandell, SDI Content Director

Use this practice at any time, in any place, no matter how hectic or stressful or painful life is. It will help you towards balance. It will help you welcome the love that arises naturally within us. The practice is simple, but not always easy to follow. Don't chastise yourself for getting distracted. Always forgive yourself. If you feel you have lost your way and are overwhelmed with negativity, that's the perfect time to try this. Or to try it again.

I recently had the great privilege of spending 5 days in beautiful and wildly resilient New Orleans with co-conspirators (and SDI New Contemplative mates) Alison McCrary and Chelsea Forbrook.   Our time together came as a breath of life-giving fresh air for all of us - what an immense support to be held in deep, spiritually-rooted community.

I made God an offer She couldn’t refuse.

I would be grateful for everything in my life, all my experiences - no matter how hard, no matter how painful, no matter what. For as long as I lived.

What did I get in return?

Something beyond my wildest dreams.

When you wake up, what comes to mind first - problems or peace?

Do you feast on the present or pick through leftovers from the past? Do you open your senses to what’s around you or open the Pandora’s box of anxiety about what may never come to pass?

As you might discern from the above illustration, Sharon Seyfarth Garner isn't just a spiritual director and author, she's a workshop presenter at the SDI Conference Seeking Connection - Across Generations, to be held in Bellevue, Washington, USA March 14-17, 2019. Not surprisingly, she'll be doing a  workshop on prayer mandalas. We're grateful she took time to write this piece for us on one of her favorite spiritual practices.

Our dog, Bear, loves to go on walks.  He’s no longer a puppy, so he is usually pretty mellow as we stroll quietly around the block together.  That is, of course, unless we see a … “Squirrel!”  Then, all focus is gone and our normally calm Bear is completely distracted and off to the races.

My prayer life is full of these “squirrel” moments. I calmly settle into prayer with all the best intentions.  However before I know it, distractions take over and my mind is off to the races.  Time to be still with God is quickly overrun by “squirrels” that turn my distracted mind toward the grocery list, family calendar, or work deadlines rather than staying focused on God.

I haven't been writing much over the last few years. A few blogs here and there, some sporadic journal pages, but nothing approaching the near-continuous outpouring of words that characterized most of my life before that point.

If this feels like a paradox, perhaps even impossible, then you are on the right track and it's the perfect time to try it.

Lately I’ve discovered that I, and a number of my clients, have been struggling with what I call existential FOMO. For you non-millennials out there, FOMO is a fear of missing out. It’s the unpleasant anxiety that by staying home, declining a job opportunity, passing on a blind date, or generally saying no to option A— we will miss out on something extraordinary. How do I know I made the best decision? If I go with option B, how do I know I wasn’t supposed to go with option A? (Or C, or K, or Z?)

Editor's Note --Jerome Neyrey, SJ, will present a full-day seminar and a half-day workshop on Igantian Spirituality and contemplative prayer at Seeking Connection - Across Generations, the SDI conference to be held March 14-17, 2019 in Bellevue, Washington. Neyrey offers a fresh approach to those familiar to Ignatian contemplative practice, blending spirituality with social science. Here Neyrey, a retired professor from Notre Dame, explains how the Ignatian approach to spiritual imagination can also be culturally and historically accurate.  

Contemplation of the Gospel has long emphasized focus on the humanity of Jesus. This means appreciating that he thought with a human mind, willed with a human will, and loved with a human heart. The day-to-day life he lived from birth to death matters, because, for Christians, he sanctified all human living; he made all human living holy.

The Executive Director and Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International wish to join their voices in condemning the unconscionable, and senseless attack on one of the USA's oldest Jewish communities.  We grieve for all of those lost beautiful souls, for their families and friends.

Our hearts are breaking once again, and we urge our leaders to implement sensible measures to tamp down the sickening frequency of these violent attacks.

One of the things I loved about my new teaching position this year was I had the opportunity to teach young students about mindfulness. We used both the contexts of drama and music to become witnesses to our own thinking and the emotional results we get from our thoughts. Our school bought a program called Zones of Regulation. It puts emotional states into 4 colour groups. Red for angry emotions, Blue is for fear or tired states, Yellow is anxious or on the verge of going into the Red zone and Green is for happy and peaceful emotions. I thought I was using the program to teach students about mindfulness and managing emotions but once again, it turns out that they had some things to teach me too.