Benefits of Spiritual Practices ~ Our Inner Peace Guided Meditation

This is our Sunday, January, 12, Inner Peace Guided Meditation.  As you may know, I am in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we have been snowed in!  However, yesterday afternoon the Sun came out, the snow started melting and families showed up at the park!  It is cold today, but warm enough for a walk.

So, I am in the park, soaking up Sunshine and breathing fresh air.  As usual, Creation is working just fine!  Unfortunately, Human Beings seem to be having difficulty getting along.  Lessons we might have learned in kindergarten, didn’t seem to soak in.

Last week I watched the funeral at the National Cathedral for Jimmy Carter.  As I listened to the eulogies, again I was so impressed by all the good that Jimmy and Rosalynn were able to accomplish in their lifetime. They literally walked their beliefs into the world not only in the United States, but all around the world.  This is not easy to do.  Most of us are aware of how challenging it often is to bring Light and Healing into the world.  So, I felt deep gratitude for the patterns of compassion and charity they were able to bring into the world. 

Unfortunately, all those accomplishments do not seem to be nearly as exciting in the news for many people.  Now that the “media” serves up hour after hour of disasters, murders, and near disasters, we are often “bored” with goodness.  Because our brains are wired to be on the alert for “danger”, our attention is easily drawn to danger and drama!

Of course, there are times when there really is “danger”, but that is usually when the Weather Channel is showing the radar of approaching hurricanes, tornadoes, or snow storms.

If you have been watching any of the news on television, on your laptop or phone, you may have noticed how the news clips are structured to trigger fear or anxiety.  I don’t watch much television anymore, mainly because of the ads selling illnesses.  Now that I have noticed how the news clips are structured, I am avoiding that as well.  One ad or news clip that I saw recently, was very short.  It showed a photo of several young people of different races in a protest march.  I couldn’t see anything about the focus of their protest because there was large signage on the lower part of the clip with Big Letters that said, “Socialism”!  I didn’t keep watching because I was aware that the point of this clip was “to trigger” fear or anxiety.  However, I was impressed at how well done this ad or “news clip” was.  It was short and if I had not been paying attention, that image with the word “Socialism” might have slipped right by my conscious mind and into my subconscious.

I was aware, not for the first time, that we are being influenced to be afraid of, or worried about “other people” who may or may not look like us.  And, these ads or “news clips” are often exceptionally well done.

Because we as Human Beings are wired to look out for danger, anything that looks or sounds dangerous or threatening can grab our attention quickly.  If we are not aware that our attention has been grabbed, we may shift from feeling safe to feeling threatened.  Sometimes, this can happen very quickly.  This shift happens because of the way we are wired and because the amygdala may be triggered.  The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped part of the brain.  It plays a key role in processing emotions, especially fear, anxiety, and rage.

The amygdala is part of the limbic system, which controls emotions, behavior, and memory. It helps identify potential threats and can quickly trigger the body's "fight or flight" response.  So, if we are not paying attention, or if “the news” is running in the background without our full attention, we can find ourselves feeling anxious or even fearful.  Then we are moving into survival mode.  Our cortisol levels go up along with our heart rate.  If we are not entirely present and aware of the information and images that we are absorbing, we can be “triggered”.

Here is the Good News, courtesy of Google AI …

“Early scientific studies involving Buddhist monks and the amygdala primarily focused on observing how experienced meditators showed significantly reduced activation in the amygdala when exposed to emotional stimuli.  When the research compared non-meditating individuals to Buddhist monks, it showed a potential ability to regulate emotional responses through long-term meditation practice.”  

“This research often used brain imaging techniques like fMRI to measure brain activity during meditation sessions.  In one of  the very early studies, the monks involved had all been meditating on compassion or loving-kindness for at least 25 years.”

So, we are in good company and just need to keep up our spiritual practices, such as our Sunday Inner Peace Meditations !!!  Most of us have been meditating, at least since the 1970s.  This means we have been building “spiritual muscle”, and we tend to be more aware of the “mass mind” information we are absorbing!  Good for us !!!

Thank You all for showing up.  Thank You for keeping up your spiritual practices because it does pay off.  And, thank you for all the good you are doing in the world every day !!! 

Mary Christopher