Fighting Stress…Posted on 02/28/2021  |  By

… and strengthening one’s will.

I was going to title this post “Morning & Evening” but felt the title I chose might prompt you to look at this post more readily. Did it work?

Morning: Breathing Meditation

This can be part of your regular morning meditation routine.

  • Daily – In the early morning, immediately after waking, before any other impressions have passed through the soul.
  • The whole meditation need not last longer than fifteen minutes.
  • In all the periods specified in this exercise, do not go by the clock but by your feeling.
  • Take care to adopt such a position of the body that the body itself cannot (because of fatigue, for instance) be a cause of distraction.
  • Your hands are either held folded, or the right is laid over the left.
  • This exercise must be enacted with the utmost devotion and reverence.

breathe

As you breathe in and out,

  • Empty your mind of thought.
  • Direct your whole consciousness to the breathing.

While you abstain from breathing, at the point between breathing in and back out,

  • Concentrate on the point lying between and a little behind the eyebrows, at the root of the nose, inside the forepart of the brain, i.e. your third eye, your nous.
  • Fill your consciousness exclusively with whatever you have chosen as your mantram.

Example Mantrams:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, save us

Namu Amidabutsu (nah-moo a-meed-a-boot-soo) “I put my faith in the Buddha of infinite light”

Om Yesu Christu (ohm yay-soo kris-too) “(Om) Jesus Christ” – A mantram used by Christians in Kerala, India

Rama (rah-ma) (Hindu) “The Lord as the source of abiding joy”

Evening Retrospect

This aids greatly in strengthening one’s Will. Do this exercise in the evening, just before you go to sleep.

  1. Review the scenes of the day in reverse order. Examine the events of:
    1. the evening
    2. the afternoon
    3. the forenoon
    4. the morning
  2. Picture to yourself — as faithfully as possible — each scene and all that took place in each pictured scene.
  3. Review your moral attitude in relation to each scene:
    1. How do you judge your actions?
    2. Did you do it right; could you have done it better?
    3. Conveyed your words the meaning you intended or did your words give a false impression?
    4. In relating experiences to others, did you overstate or understate them?
  4. Regarding the wrongs you have done.
    1. Take full responsibility
    2. Think:I couldn’t do otherwise back then, but now I can do it better and I will do it better in future.
  5. Regarding the good you have done
    1. Approve — impersonally — of the good you have done.
    2. Determine to do still better.

Strengthening the Soul’s Forces

This can be practiced anytime throughout the day.

  1. Focus on a situation
  2. Make a focused effort to recall small details

Example

Let’s say you want to remember a situation where you were walking down a shopping street.

In that case you should try to remember how the rows of shops ran, which store windows you passed, the people you met, how they and you looked.

If you went into a store, see yourself going into that store, recall which sales lady came towards you, her face, the clothes she had on, how she spoke, moved, etc.

Notes

  • This exercise is related to (supports) the Evening Retrospect exercise
  • You can do this exercise at any moment of the day where you have some spare time, while commuting to work, waiting for somebody, etc.
  • The situation you focus on doesn’t has to be a very important situation. It is even better to recall less important situations that didn’t interest you that much and are therefore more difficult for you to remember.