A. Be-here/now-in/love all day long.
Make this the chief concern of your attention.
B. Exercises for Silence:
C. Quiet Prayer of Presence, asking
nothing of God than to be in God's loving presence.
--Centering Prayer method.
2. Recognizing
A. What concerns keep coming up in the
silence/relaxing?
--especially those which come with anxiety, resentment, guilt, and
shame.
B. Make a list of these concerns, and
rank them according to their degree of emotional
intensity.
C. Take one concern at a
time:
a. What question has this concern
presented to your mind?
b. Why is this question so important to
you? What do you think will happen if the "wrong" answer comes
from life?
c. What have you been doing to respond
to this question?
d. What consequences to you and others
have come from your efforts to respond to this
question?
e. What parts of this situation are you
simply unable to change?
f. What parts of this situation can you
change?
3. Releasing
A. Make a commitment to do what you can
do to respond lovingly and honestly to each of your
concerns.
B. Surrender to God in prayer all the
parts of this concern that you cannot control. Use Prayer of
Surrender format.
C. Identify all judgementalism you had
previously connected with this issue: ex. success/failure,
approval/disapproval, smart/dumb.
D. Release all judgementalism through
affirmation prayer:
ex. "Lord, help me to continue to (work
on this project)
but to let go of all concern over
approval/disapproval from others about the outcome. Help me,
instead, to be content with my best efforts, and to find my joy in
loving union with You in this moment.
E. Symbolize your releasing of the
unhealthy parts of your issue by trashing your paper with
recognitions '. or visualizing each unhealthy aspect and "blowing
it away."
F. Continue to release unhealthy
preoccupation when it comes up by Recognizing, Releasing with
Serenity Prayer, then Relaxing.
4. Responding
A. After a few moments of quiet prayer,
see yourself involved in the situation/concern you've been working
with, but now in a loving way--without any of the unhealthy
aspects.
B. Move back into a Relaxing mode,
willing to respond in a loving manner to whatever comes
up.
C. Do not indulge the old, unhealthy
aspects. Quit it!
D. Do what is yours to do today, and
leave the rest for tomorrow.
