Meditation is a great way to settle your inner being, your soul. One of my favorite psalms for this spiritual and physiological work, is one of the shortest.

Take a phrase (especially vs. 3) of this psalm and say it on your heart until your center of being moves from your head into your heart. You will know when this has taken place—your shoulders will relax and your breathing will settle into deeper, slower rhythms and your heartbeat will slow. Let yourself go to a deep place of trust before God. It usually takes about 5-10 minutes if you practice regularly.

Meditation is a practice and it takes practice if it is going to change your brain and your response patterns to stress. When you do move to a place of abiding in God’s presence, just stay there for awhile and rest, trusting what God is doing within us, within you. Pray vs. 3 on your heart throughout the day, memorizing it and letting it change you from the inside out.

Blessings, Jon+

Psalm 131

Song of Quiet Trust

A SONG OF ASCENTS. OF DAVID.

1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;

2 I do not occupy myself with great matters,

Or things that are too hard for me.

3 But I still my soul and make it quiet,

Like a child upon it’s mother’s breast;

my soul is quieted within me.

4 O Israel, wait upon the Lord,

from this time forth for evermore.

Translation: vs. 1, NRSV, vs. 2-4, BCP.