My present personal goal has been to find a new spiritual practice. So, I am trying different varieties of practices. I honor the title of this particular one: “Holy Listening.” As you may know, I always enjoy breathing. Well, I hope everyone enjoys their breathing. What I mean is that before I pray, I spend some time in intentional breathing. When I am stressed, I stop and do some breathing. Likewise, I add a mantra. Just last night, I woke up remembering a nightmare. My heart was racing; I was breathing shallow and fast. Once I got my bearings to understand it was a nightmare, I took deep breaths as I said, “Lord, Jesus come. Bring me peace.” I continued until I felt calmer. Well, then I was battling negative thoughts ruminating in my brain. It was a rough night! Again, I used a breathing technique called box breathing: inhale to the count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale to the count of four and hold to the count of four. I fell asleep doing box breathing. Side note, then I kept waking up with Charlie horses in my legs. As I mentioned, it was a rough night. But God has brought me to a gift. I found this new practice: Holy Listening.
t is a practice rooted in silence. It seeks emptiness in order to be filled with the Spirit. It is permeated by humility. Such listening assumes that the Spirit is active among us and works through us. So it makes space for that movement. It is primarily receptive, patient, watchful and waiting. Yet, it does not fear action when action is called for.
These are the steps for Holy Listening.
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
Ask the Holy Spirit to increase your awareness of God’s promised presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
What gifts did you receive from God? What gifts did you receive from others? Give thanks and celebrate these things.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
List a few feelings that were present throughout the day (i.e. embarrassment, fear, elation, contentment).
What was the context of these emotions?
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
Ask the Holy Spirit to bring one element of your day to mind. Focus specifically on that experience. Sit with it, listening in prayer, and journal what you sense God is speaking.
5. Look toward tomorrow.
As you look toward tomorrow, what emotions or feelings are present? Excitement? Anxiety? Dread? Delight?
Allow your expectation of the coming day to form a prayer to God.
I hope you find this helpful.
Remember: God loves you and so do I.
(Taken from Matthew E. Scott at Touch Point)
- 100% agreement with all points.‼️ May I respectively add that controlled breathing also works to stop hiccups . Incapacitating “charley horse” ⁉️ That is easy drink a whole bottle of water ( that is if the cramping allows you to roll over and retrieve said bottle of water 😂 )