Finding your Inner Peace

Being at Peace – how do we get there?
Meditation, Prayer, Music?
All of the above!

As we continue our journey, I would like to show you the cross-over between mediation and prayer; how the two activities are not necessarily independent of each other.

I realize that there are folks in this world who are not religious, only spiritual, or maybe not even that – just simply someone seeking the calm in their life (like my son, for example). And then, of course, we have very religious folks (no matter the base of religion), spiritual, and take praying very earnestly.

Personally, I am a little mix of it all – Religious (Methodist as you might have gathered on my “About Me” page), Spiritual (seeking something greater than myself), and most importantly, why we are here today CALM (someone yearning for stillness and peace in their life). I want to throw some light on the ways that work for me – through meditation, prayer, and music.

With Meditation, you channel and listen to your inner voice, finding stillness in your breath and surroundings. When you can focus and not let the mind wander (when it does, just gently nudge it back), you can literally feel a wave of calm come over your body. It is an amazing feeling.

For me, Prayer and Meditation are usually at the same time and not necessarily back to back, but intertwined. I may begin with mediation, and when I feel my mind wandering, I may turn to prayer. Or vice versa – begin with prayer, and then my mind becomes so wonderfully still I can hear just my breath. This stillness allows for a moment of faith, forgiveness, grace, and the sense of a power much greater than I.

And finally, MUSIC! Music can be compelling for when you want to celebrate, be angry, or when you want to be sad, simply by pulling the feeling out of you that you need at that very moment. As I was drafting ideas, this particular song by Adele played on my Pandora station (I have many – we may need a post on that topic alone – LOL!) … several ideas came to my mind that I couldn’t write them down fast enough; so I just listened to the words and cried. I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t angry – in this case, her words hit my heartstrings so hard that I had to cry (as I am now, typing this note to you).

Please don’t get me wrong and think I will always post these sappy, tear-jerking songs – remember I posted “This is my fight song” with this post!

However, yesterday, Sunday April 14th, launched Holy Week (the week before Easter beginning with Palm Sunday) and our Pastor’s sermon was titled “Keep Singing”. In sum, his message, “Through it all – in times of joy, sorrow and anger, even when all seems lost and hopeless – keep singing“. It was very inspiring to me and I felt that Adele’s song for this particular post was perfect.

I am looking forward to diving into these topics in greater detail with you. I hope you can see how these stories / these posts are intertwined, supporting each other, supporting me, and supporting you in our journey together “As we get through this thing called LIFE” [Prince, “Let’s go Crazy”].

Until next time … Peace and Blessings, Friends!