Building a Spiritual Practice Through a Time of Transition Email 3

Today, we look at the 2nd descriptor of this email exploration: Deconstruction. ‘Deconstruction’ was originally coined by post-modern philosophy.  Given where it comes from, it’s not surprising that this is a complicated term, especially out of context. Roughly speaking, ‘deconstruction’ means getting at the real essence of a thing.  Part of the process is to get past what we told ourselves ‘X’ meant, and what needs we thought it was fulfilling.   Therefore, a chef might ‘deconstruct’ a dish by considering what is non-negotiable about it.  She might then ditch all the other traditional parts of this dish which are not part of that essence.  They can then serve up something which is simultaneously new and familiar. This term is attractive to many who are in a spiritual transition.  It implies an interesting in finding the true essence of the faith, and uncovering what hidden needs and wants were being satisfied by practicing the faith in a certain way.  In my own life, for example, I once believed that the hard work I did for a certain church was for God’s glory.  As I have deconstructed these beliefs, I become increasingly clear on the idea that much of this hard work was really for the attention and acclaim of other people. Transitions in general and deconstruction in particular leave us in a space of wondering who we are and who God is.  Today’s practice owns these questions head-on. Background: It is said that St. Francis past an entire night asking 2 simple questions: “Who am I, God?”  and “Who are you, God?”  It is not known what his method was; the correlation of the two questions to the two parts of breath is purely speculation on my part. The Exercise Sit up as straight as you comfortably can.  Release your worries and obligations for the duration of your spiritual exercises today. As you inhale, ask the question, “Who are you God?” With your next inhale, ask the question, “Who am I God?” Continue this pattern.  When other thoughts or concerns arise, release them by returning to these questions and your breath. When your time is nearing completion, dismiss the questions.  Enjoy a time of wordless communion. When you are ready, explore your feelings about the questions and consider whether or not you have anything that looks like answers to these two important questions. Today’s practice can be considered a breath prayer.  A breath prayer, as I am using the term, is a spiritual practice which puts a special focus on the breath, particular with the intent of connecting specific phrases or words with the inhale, the exhale, or both.  If you are interested in more breath prayers at The Faith-ing Project Website, click here.  There are several small guides available from The Faith-ing Proejct focused on various aspects of spiritual practice.  One of them is a book devoted to breath prayers like this one.  It is available as an e-book or paperback. For more information, click here. The Faith-ing Project Main Page The Faith-ing Project Main Page

Building a Spiritual Practice Through Transitions Email #2

This email exploration is focused on three interconnected ideas: Transitions, Deconstruction, and Liminal Space.  These three ideas grow increasingly specific and increasingly complex.  Over these next three emails we will consider each of them.
Transitions happen every day, of course.  Compared to deconstruction or liminal space, they are fairly straight foreward.  Nonetheless, they are not easy.  The transitions that we are hoping for in life are not the ones we notice much.  Generally speaking, the transitions which cause us stress bring with them a host of unwanted emotions.
This is why we are beginning with 2 different forms of The Welcoming Prayer.   There are many forces which conspire to “teach” us to live in denial of the feelings we carry.  We hope that ignoring these feelings makes them go away.  The reality is that the opposite is true: Naming and owning them can go a long way toward evaporating many of our most intense and unwanted feelings.

Create a safe, quiet environment for yourself.  Turn down your phone and consider lighting a candle. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth. Take a mental inventory of where you are, right now.  List the feelings you are experiencing.  Do your best to engage this with a nonjudgemental attitude.  Your feelings are neither good nor bad.  They simply are.   Choose the feeling which seems to be the most impactful.  Think, or say “Welcome ___________”  (E.G. ‘Welcome, Fear.  Welcome, sadness.  Welcome, anxiety.  Etc.) Breathe once. Say, or think “I let go of my desire for security and survival.’ Breathe again. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire for esteem and affection.’ Breathe again. Say, or think ‘I let go of my desire for power and control.’ Breathe. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire to change the situation.’ If you wish, you can repeat this process for a second, troubling emotion.

We have recently made our entire audio file library available to everyone.  There are numerous exercises on this page, including an audio file of the welcoming prayer we have been practicing these last couple days.  You can find The Welcoming Prayer and other audio files here. One of the figures who has been pivotal on my spiritual journey is father Richard Rohr. He has written many amazing books.   The organization he began is The Center for Action and Contemplation.  They feature a powerful daily email, classes, podcasts, and more.  Check out the CAC here.

Building a Spiritual Practice Through Transition, Email #1

Thanks for joining The Faith-ing Project’s September Email Exploration.  You probably know that this time around, the focus is on building a spiritual practice through times of transition, deconstruction and liminal spaces.  These emails will launch every other day at 5 PM US Eastern Standard Time.
They will consist of 3 parts.  This introductory section will introduce ideas relevant to building a spiritual practice of related to the topics of transition, deconstruction and liminal space.
The middle section will consist of the day’s suggested spiritual practice.
The bottom section will feature announcement and updates about other exciting events, generally those related to The Faith-ing Project.
Many of the positive outcomes connected to a spiritual practice will come up when they are practiced at least once a day.  On the “off days” when no email arrives, it is highly recommended that you give a second try to the most recent spiritual practice.
It’s exciting to have you on this journey!  Thanks for taking it with us.  There are lots of ways to connect with me and I love hearing from participants.  If you would like to share observations, please reply to this email, click the links at the bottom of this page, or send a message to otherjeffcampbell7@gmail.com

Background: This prayer become popular in the centering prayer movement.  It was originally written by Mary Mrozowski.  It is a method of recognizing, then releasing difficult emotions.

This is an important place to begin during times of transition.  It is inevitable that lots of feelings, many difficult to manage, pop up in the midst of change.  For this reason, our next exercise will be a similiar practice, designed to identify and welcome the feelings that pop up for us.

It is always advisable to read through the practice before beginning them.  Notice that on step 5 today you will have a choice to make about the specific words that you use.  Choosing which one you are going to use in advance will be helpful.

36 A

The Exercise:

1.  Create a safe, quiet environment for yourself.  Turn down your phone and consider lighting a candle.
2. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth.
3. Take a mental inventory of where you are, right now.  List the feelings you are experiencing.  Do your best to engage this with a nonjudgemental attitude.  Your feelings are neither good nor bad.  They simply are.  
4. Choose the feeling which seems to be the most impactful.  Think, or say “Welcome ___________”  (E.G. ‘Welcome, Fear.  Welcome, sadness.  Welcome, anxiety.  Etc.)
5. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire to change this feeling.’  or ‘I let go of my ___________’  or ‘God, I give you my _____________’
6. Progress on to the next emotion, repeating steps 4 and 5.
7. When you have worked through these emotions, spend a moment doing a mental inventory, assessing whether you feel differently.

The exercise to be introduced Wednesday is an alternative Welcoming Prayer.  It is exercise 36-B.    If you would like to try it in advance of that email you can find it here.  

Did you know that the Faith-ing Project is more than just a web page describing spiritual practices?  In addition to four books, a facebook page, and regular email explorations, on the webstie, you can find tips for building your spiritual practice, audio files of many spiritual practices, links to influential and thought provoking sites, and more!

Consideration #2: Personal, Impersonal, Transpersonal

Perhaps some of the broad strokes of my journey will sound a bit like yours.

The first faith comittment I made was awfully focused on the personal nature of God.  The creator of the universe has a human-ness, even a gender.

There were very good things about looking at it this way.

During the time I drifted away from Evangelical Christianity, it was easy to see the very bad things about looking at things this way.  Like many people, I call this stage my deconstruction.

This was the time I fell in love with contemplative practices.  This is the time I rediscovered meditation. Many of these practices helped me get in touch with God’s transcendence.  I suspect they were suppressed by modern Evangelical Christianity precisely for that reason: they did not fit well with this picture of God as fellow human.

This fueled my resentment.  It motivated me to develop a robust spiritual practice.  The most obvious intuitions this practice fed were intuitions about God’s otherness, God’s distance, God’s hugeness.

But it put, I hope, on a path forward truth.  I began to get reminders: God is both here and there, human an other, transcendent and immanent.

The point at which I began to trust these ideas again, that I orvercame my prejudice against these ideas, is the point at which I went from deconstruction to the early stages of reconstruction.  (I think. Maybe in time I will see this differently.)

My time embracing contemplative practices has prepared me for this sort of non-dualistic, both/and thinking.   A simple way to think about is perhaps this: in Evangelical Christianity I proclaimed my belief in a personal God.  During my deconstruction I interacted with I God I saw as impersonal. Now, I think I would say that God is transpersonal.

And so, this corner of the Faith-ing Project is devoted to practices that some of us might do well to refresh ourselves in.  This area includes prompts for word-based prayers and journaling, lenses to read scripture through, and other traditions to consider.  To explore these traditions, click here.