Recently, I attended a webinar in which the presenter discussed
the effects of stress in our lives, citing various statistics about heart muscle
regeneration, chemicals our body releases, neurotransmitters, etc. As it
happens, I’d been reading a book recommended during a homily by Fr. Miguel on
EWTN recently, Be Healed, written by Dr. Bob Schuchts from the John Paul II
Healing Center. In it Schuchts tells us that
many experts believe 90% to 95% of all physical illnesses are caused by stress. In
fact, he cites resources that link unresolved anger and bitterness to an
increased probability of many forms of cancer, arthritis, digestive problems, and
heart and immune system issues, just to name a few. The general
message here (stress is bad for us) probably isn’t news to anyone, but the
approach suggested by the webinar presenter for dealing with stress is something
that you may find interesting—I know I did.
Based on psychological and physiological research, the webinar
presenter suggested in a nutshell that we would all benefit by cultivating a
stronger awareness of the positive elements of our lives and taking occasional
breaks throughout the day to recharge mentally.
More specifically, her formula for success includes:
- Start the day quietly reflecting on what you are thankful for (10 to 20 minutes)
- Take a break—disengage and unplug—mid-morning to quietly meditate for a couple of minutes
- At noon, do the same—disengage and unplug—for about five minutes
- Midafternoon—same drill as in the morning—disengage and unplug—to quietly meditate for a couple of minutes
- End the day with a reflection on all that you have to be thankful for
Does this process of starting and ending the day in
thanksgiving, together with some pauses to reflect during the day, look
suspiciously familiar to you? It’s not
unlike the Divine Office, which has been prayed in one form or another in the
Catholic Church since about the 12th century by the clergy and
religious, as well as some laity, who stop throughout the day to recite the
prayers. Now admittedly, it might be
difficult for many of us in the laity to be able to take the time required during our work
days to pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours, but we all can find some time at
the start and end of the day, and perhaps during the day, for short periods of
prayer.
For example, at a less intense level than praying the Divine
Office, in Consoling the Heart of Jesus, Fr. Michael Gaitley suggests
getting into a prayer routine that includes at a minimum, a morning offering
prayer, which includes offering thanks to our Eternal Father for all that He’s
done for us, (including His gift of our small share of suffering), pausing at
the 3:00 o’clock hour for reflection on our Lord’s passion and Divine Mercy,
and closing out the evening with an examen process that includes a prayer of
thanksgiving as well.
Consider also the current advice from many Christians,
including Catholic Christians, to develop an “attitude of gratitude” if one wants to
improve their life. In fact, besides
recommending that we take some time out each day to read the Gospel, inserting
ourselves into the scenes as we meditate on them, St. JosemarĂa Escrivá
continually exhorts us through his writings to be grateful to God for all
things.
More recently, in an interview posted at EWTN, therapist
Eric Gudan states that,
“Gratitude is a positive moral affect. In
other words, it is a pleasant feeling arising from the good action another has
done to you, from judging that it has been good for you…A growing number of
studies have linked gratitude with higher general feelings of happiness and
have found that more grateful persons are more satisfied with life. This
includes people who may not necessarily feel grateful, but attempt to arrive at
the virtue by mental exercises such as thinking about the gifts that they
received…
…one way of confronting depression
is seeing the power that negative attitudes have upon our experience of the
world and our relationships, affecting our behaviors and ultimately even our
brain chemistry…Depressed persons generally have a negative attitude…This
negative attitude becomes a filter that focuses and amplifies all the bad
things that happen...Gratitude, on the other hand, is the uplifting feeling
resulting from the recognition that another person has done something good for
us. Instead of a negative self-focus, gratitude has a positive other-focus.
We have been created to love and be
loved. There is a way to consider every person you come into contact with as a
gift, an opportunity to love in order to become the person you were made to be.
In addition, any love that you have
experienced through another person is a gift. Thus, with this attitude, there
is always something to be grateful for.”
So, the bottom line in all of this would seem to be that developing
a healthy prayer life, asking for the grace daily to maintain an attitude of
thanks and praise, and consciously being thankful to God for all things will
lead to a better life—and it really does work!
As a sidebar to this post,
at the end of the webinar referred to above, the host asked me specifically if
I had any questions. I told him, “No—no questions
really, but rather a comment: It occurs
to me that what you’re suggesting in a secular context is something that we believers
have been doing through daily prayer for a very long time.” At this, there was some commotion and
background noise, throat clearing, etc., followed by a short pause, ending with
the host’s non sequitur, “Well…I go for walks,” together with silence from the
presenter… J
Resources:
Blog post re: the Divine
Office from Ian at Aquinas and More store, Ft. Collins, CO
More in-depth discussion of
Divine Office from EWTN
Laudate App for iPhones/iPads
– access to Divine Office
Magnificat website – morning and
evening readings and daily Mass readings
Article from ETWN about gratitude’s
salutary effects on depression
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