Mind and Spirit toolkit:
• Examen: The Examen is a
centuries’ old spiritual practice that can enrich conscious awareness of the
fullness of life and the subtle clues that guide daily living, and uses
non-religious language. Examen
You might
also like to try Movements of the Soul
• The Jesus Prayer: The Jesus Prayer has been reverently used for
hundreds of years as a means to encounter stillness, the Divine Presence of God
and healing. This uses more religious language from the Christian tradition. Jesus Prayer
• Mindfulness resources:
Mindfulness can be described as
paying attention to what we are experiencing, and doing so with a particular
attitude: One of curiosity, openness, acceptance and warmth. Simply observing
what we are experiencing, right now, and bringing a warm curiosity to whatever
arises. In formal mindfulness practices
our intention is often to centre our awareness on one particular experience,
such as the sensations involved in breathing or the sounds that we can hear, or
to widen our awareness to incorporate a range of experiences simultaneously, or
to watch where our attention goes without getting caught up in particular
experiences. Mindfulness is also something that we can bring to any aspect of
our day to day life, cultivating the same qualities of curiosity, acceptance
and warmth.
There is a free resources section
on this website – www.headspace.co.uk Also try www.freemindfulness.org for examples of
free Mindfulness exercises, Sitting Meditations, Mindful Movement and Guided Imagery
PAYG Breathing & Body: on http://pray-as-you-go/go-deeper/
for information on breathing and body exercises.
• Personality Profiling: A key to greater spiritual well-being is
understanding ourselves better. There are two major personality tests; Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram.
Go
to www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/ for the Myers Briggs model or www.enneagraminstitute.com Both
of these give on-line free of charge examples and also some which need to be
paid for. It is also possible to send
for free daily emails.
You
might also like to look at these two reflections: The Broken Jar and The Perfect Cup
• Why not try a retreat? Right
down through the ages, individuals have always needed to withdraw occasionally
from day-to-day life. This is what we
call a ‘Retreat’. It is a way of opening
up, getting away from the rat-race and slowing the body down which has proved
to be spiritually beneficial. Each
religion has its own model for the discipline of spiritual retreat and there
are a couple of websites which can be accessed, The Good Retreat Guide (www.thegoodretreatguide.com/)
and The Retreat Association (www.retreats.org.uk/findaretreat.html)
The Good Retreat Guide Online gives
information on retreats plus lots of other Mind and Spirit resources.
The Retreat Association is UK based
and more Christian-based, though if your retreat is unguided, this should not
be an issue.
If you live in or near
Manchester, Gorton Monastery is definitely worth exploring for a day-visit, and
offers various spiritual activities. An inspirational place of retreat run by
the Franciscan Community in Manchester.
Said to be “Blessed with a feeling of well-being”. There are Open Days, Workshops and Guided
Tours. On most Sundays and on the 3rd
Monday of each month the Monastery is open to the public with FREE admission
from 12.00 – 4.00pm. http://www.themonastery.co.uk/
• Why not try a laughter workshop?
Laughter has been proved to have
a positive effect on stress hormones and is said to boost people’s ability to
communicate and help with people’s ability to cope with life, leading to a
sense of well-being. www.laughtertherapy.org.uk
• Action for Happiness
This is an organisation which
aims to help local people, whose aim is to spread happiness in their community
by putting a number of ideas into practice.
There are free resources which can be downloaded in order to achieve
this. www.actionforhappiness.org/
• Religious-specific resources and information,
The Serenity Prayer
Questions from God to You
Reflections on Psalms 139 and 88
Pray-as-you-go podcasts, http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/
Buddhist groups and activities
(Manchester Buddhist Centre for local people www.manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk
);
Islamic mindfulness resources… http://www.virtualmosque.com/personaldvlpt/reflections/mindfulness-in-islam/
• A simple spiritual well-being
self-assessment tool [LINK to smiley
thermometer]
• Planning what to do (specific, deciding on frequency, duration,
time and venue using calendar, goal or target setting)
We would encourage you to practise
Mindfulness/Examen at home on a daily basis, and the same would apply to
religious-specific resources such as Sacred Space or Pray-as-you-Go. Other
groups or activities may occur on a weekly or monthly basis; retreats and every
6 or 12 months. Once you have done some research into local and national
resources, and tried some of these out, think about forward-planning regular
and sustainable rhythms of spiritual practice.
• Journaling
Keeping a journal, recording
thoughts, feelings, insights, revelations, is in itself a practice in many
spiritual traditions, and so we do encourage you to do this on a regular basis.
You may like to visit http://www.methodist.org.uk/media/829993/dd-explore-devotion-keeping-a-spiritual-journal-0313.pdf
for further information.
• Self-assessment and evaluation
As well as the SWB
self-assessment tool, you could try Chaplains on Hand etc. www.chaplainsonhand.org/
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