Meditation is a quieting of our thoughts to create space for mental rest. Our minds have constant and ongoing opinions about everything. These opinions can create judgments and comparisons of everything.
God clearly commands us to rest in His Word.
But, how can we rest if our minds never stop thinking, judging, and reacting?
Meditation Invites Stillness
Meditation is a practice (it gets easier over time) of letting go of our mental chatter and releasing the thoughts of worry, of work and of wanting, it allows us to invite silence and stillness to our minds.
Focusing on our breath, our breathing and our bodily sensations can help us escape from the mind and its thoughts.
Focus on your feet, your toes wiggling and bring your attention to your body and the pattern of your breathing. Slow everything down to create an inner calmness.
Jesus Stayed Calm
Jesus commands us to not retaliate, to not judge others, and to not be overcome by evil. This requires self-control and non-reactivity.
The spiritual practices of meditation and prayer increase our inner peace and decrease our reactive minds (thoughts and feelings).
Jesus’ life is filled with examples of staying calm and non-reactive, even in moments of turmoil.
The Book of John reads,
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
JOHN 8:1-11
Meditation Cultivates Kindness
Meditation allows us to grow self-awareness through noticing the content and the nature of our thoughts. We can create mental space to allow the consideration of other possibilities.
Meditation enhances our ability for self-regulation and responding without reacting and over-reacting with emotions. It also generates loving kindness and compassion towards the self and eventually towards others. It is a suspending of our internal judgmental nature.
Benefits of Meditation
- It reduces the release of cortisol known as the stress hormone
- It can decrease anxiety
- It decreases the negative thoughts in our minds
- It enhances our positive emotions and our self-awareness
- It improves our memory, attention span and the grey matter in the brain
Helpful Resources
Written by Cheryl Rountree
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