Relax!
Do you have trouble unwinding? There are many reasons why that might be so, as we shift deeper into the 21st century and all its vicissitudes
Knowing has multiple levels, does it not?
I may know something intellectually but it may make no difference in my heart, gut, or life.
Julian of Norwich understood better than most, I think, that being able to fully sink into the Reality of God’s love, healing, and Passion has a significant cost. It isn’t a mere intellectual assent.
Having understood it, she has gifted generation after generation with this glorious affirmation of the essential rightness of Reality despite all appearances to the contrary.
Every morning each person in the world has an opportunity to begin again afresh.
“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” — L.M. Montgomery
So how is it that it can be so difficult to relax and simply enjoy it? And what helps short-circuit stress?
1, Each day is new, but the troubles of previous days get dragged in
If like me you awake early in the morning after hours of sleep but somewhat unrefreshed, and still struggling with bodily tension, it is very likely that we are still struggling with the previous days’ burdens.
Like Julian of Norwich, the writer of the hymn What a Friend We Have In Jesus had a life filled with pain and grief.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!
As I wrote a few days ago, God’s yoke is easy and burthen light because God carries it with us. But does not force us to share. I usually obstinately try to bear the burden alone. That does not go well.
2, The Problem of Hypervigilance
I was reading this article yesterday about what has happened to the world since March 2020. The combination of #CovidForever, #ClimateCrisis, the war in the Ukraine, and other serious worldwide issues has kept humans in a state of perpetual hypervigilance.
‘The neural circuits that govern rest, safety, repair, and connection have been stretched.
Even therapists are asking: When do we feel normal again?
Feeling unable to rest isn’t weakness—it’s physiology adapting to years of collective stress.’
The article begins with the words, ‘We are living through a psychic restlessness unlike any in recent memory. It’s not just that life is busy, or that technology hums in our pockets and minds. The truth is deeper: our nervous systems themselves have been remade by the sustained stress of the years since 2020.’
Just imagine the effect of all this, then, on those who already have been living with anxiety disorders and other trauma loads.
However! Hold on.
Help is on the way.
Forest-bathing or shinrin-yoku:
Decades of scientific research papers have proven that forest therapy is no mere woo woo Eastern philosophy concept but that there are demonstrable benefits to spending extensive time in forests.
‘Shinrin-yoku started in Japan in the 1980s in response to a national health crisis. Leaders in Japan noticed a spike in stress-related illnesses, attributed to people spending more time working in technology and other industrial work. Certified trails were created to guide people in outdoor experiences… Stress raises levels of the hormone cortisol. Long-term stress and chronic elevations in cortisol play a role in high blood pressure, heart disease, headaches, and many other ailments. In test subjects, levels of cortisol decreased after a walk in the forest, compared with people who walked in a laboratory setting.
Trees give off volatile essential oils called phytoncides that have antimicrobial properties and may influence immunity. One Japanese study showed a rise in number and activity of immune cells called natural killer cells, which fight viruses and cancer, among people who spent three days and two nights in a forest versus people who took an urban trip. This benefit lasted for more than a month after the forest trip!’
Meditation and Contemplation:
As well as spending time daily in Nature, exercising adequately, properly hydrating, and eating healthy foods (and supplementing with vitamins and minerals, as modern diets are inadequate), I need daily meditation and contemplation time to root myself more deeply into the Ground of Being, and to encourage those muscles and neural pathways that have been tensed up and over-activated by the world’s issues as well as my own struggles to unwind and be restored.
It’s incredibly helpful to remember that at any point in the day I can stop, check in with myself, and center down, even if it is just for a few minutes at a time in the midst of busyness. While I may be far from the goal of contemplating continually, the habit of reaching into contemplative mindset in a range of activities and places throughout the day is slowly and gradually becoming more established.
Community
I need God, and also as a human, I need those around me who help me better understand the love and support of God in practical and tangible ways. Spending enough time with my husband, my close friends, and my various circles of community, church, contemplative, family, and choirs gives me courage and resilience to keep diving again and again into the more stressful and painful parts of life.
Books, movies, TV shows, social media, and just staring off into space
Books like Kai Cheng Thom’s I Hope We Choose Love or just fun and frivolous escapist fiction; screen time - not always awful as long as it is kept in balance - to enjoy films and shows and following social media; and do not underestimate the importance of time to stare off into space or to nap. Not everyone can nap, I know. But I love naps, and as we move into the dark of the year, I crave nap time more.
Powering… down… now…