In July, my aunt Hilde left her body. After suffering from a brief illness, she left us to be with the Lord forever. During her life, she carried a beautiful joy for many things: music and singing, delicious food, travel, writing and reading, fashion, and for her service as a nurse, service she fulfilled for nearly 50 years. She lived with a true “zest for life,” as my mother calls it; she loved celebrations and gatherings, and had so many amazing experiences during her lifetime.
I was sitting in the park thinking about her, as I looked upon the horizon, where the sun was setting in a gorgeous array of colors. I thought about how our souls are given this bodily vessel and how to have that experience is a blessing. We tend to lose our awareness that it is a gift to dwell in a body, even if that body has aches and pains or things we might wish to change.
Journaling has been a practice of mine since I was a child. My mother still gifts me the most beautiful journals for my birthday, and I wonder if she prays over them before giving them to me, because I always end up experiencing beautiful revelations through the journaling I do in them.
Healing journaling helps you know yourself and God better
Healing journaling is meeting yourself and God on the page through your most intimate reflections. Journaling can be a form of prayer, a true spiritual practice, when approached with intention. It can help you:
Develop your relationship with God
Understand yourself better
Foster your personal development and growth
Discover your wounds so that they can be healed
Find and develop your personal voice
…and so much more!
This 26-page resources guides you through five healing journaling practices, with tips for how to incorporate them into your life. You’ll gain encouragement and practical tips for starting or developing this practice, which will help you strengthen your connection with God and with your own heart.
The truth is I’m just endlessly curious. I love learning about people, about life, and especially about spiritual things. That’s probably why I read so much.
Recently, it occurred to me that I could intentionally use curiosity as an approach to problems and challenges.
So much of life is mystery, isn’t it? How do you face the mystery of life? The issues, questions, challenges? I don’t know about you, but the mysterious makes me curious, and curiosity is at least a much more interesting approach to the mystery of life than fear.
Curiosity used in this way might look like:
an openness of heart
an open-mindedness to the experience of life
a continuing acknowledgment of all that you don’t know; living from a place of humility
a willingness to be surprised by life
a willingness to be patient with yourself and with life’s complexity
There is so much going on in the world, both on a global level and in the nitty-gritty of our daily lives. It can be a challenge to find ways to manage the stress of it all and remember the light and resilience we carry within.
I’ve long known that mindfulness practice is a powerful way to promote calm and reduce the effects of stress, but I recently learned the fascinating and life-changing details of just how it can achieve this.
I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Dr. Kirk Bingaman, Fordham University professor of mental health counseling and spiritual integration, at Trinity Church Wall Street about anxiety (both personal and collective) and how mindfulness practice can help us manage it by rewiring the brain over time – toward resilience, non-reactivity, steadiness, and positivity. We discussed mindfulness practice, neuroplasticity, and how we can access calm and peace in daily life. Dr. Bingaman gave a presentation on these topics before our chat.
Click the image below to view the event recording.
Tiffany Nicole Fletcher and Dr. Kirk Bingaman in conversation at Trinity Church Wall Street
Did you know that the innate orientation of our brains is anxiety and hypervigilance?
This ancient design served an evolutionary purpose, as a way to help our ancestors anticipate threats and survive in the face of mortal danger a long time ago. It has helped humans survive through the ages.
Most of us no longer face the threat of being killed by a tiger, yet we all still carry a brain that is constantly anticipating danger and pain. In his book, The Power of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral and Spiritual Care (which I highly recommend!), Dr. Bingaman shares about the ways that mindfulness practice can help us steer the brain toward the positive:
This 26-page PDF contains the personal affirmations that have kept me afloat through all kinds of seasons. There are affirmations and prayers for grounding, blessing, self-compassion, navigating grief and sorrow, embodying power, calling in help, blessing, abundance, and protection. One of the themes threaded throughout the affirmations is embodied safety – body as home, as safe home – which makes them particularly soothing for survivors of trauma.
