The Top of Every Hour

Spiritual growth and healing on your spiritual journey!

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March 1, 2007 at 14:15:55

by Dan Joseph Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.awakeningpath.com

I recently read a book called Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. The book was written in 1934, and was likely one of the first books to link psychological practices with creativity.

In the book, Ms. Brande encouraged budding writers to commit to write at a specific hour each day. In describing this practice, she was surprisingly firm. If you choose 4:00 pm to write, she said, do not break your commitment. If that means exiting a social conversation at that hour, do it. If it means risking being made fun of, do it. Honor the commitment, she said.

What struck me about this was the similar approach that the workbook of A Course in Miracles describes. The Course encourages us to set aside specific times each day for prayer/meditation. It encourages us to be very structured and very firm with ourselves about this. The idea is that developing a new habit requires commitment, practice, and (to some degree) regularity. Structure can be helpful in this regard.

Along those lines, I’d like to share a practice that I have written about before. It is, perhaps, one of the most effective and powerful spiritual practices that I have encountered. In fact, I find it remarkable that I tend to stray from such an easy, powerful approach.

The practice is this: at the top of every hour, you stop and take thirty seconds or so for a meditation/prayer break. That’s it.

That’s it!

What could be easier – or more fulfilling. In these thirty-second break times, we give our minds a rest. We allow our hearts to open. We clear a space for a sense of comfort and peace to reach us.

The Challenge
The funny thing about this practice is how challenging it can be. In fact, I remember once when I was running a Course in Miracles group. I asked the group members to record, for a week, how many times each day they stopped and took these prayer breaks. I figured that the average would be around seven or eight times a day.

In fact, it was more like one or two – if that. Some people felt "pressured" to do the work, and decided not to do any. Others claimed to be too busy. Even I myself only took eight or ten breaks a day, out of a possible sixteen waking hours.

This type of practice actually has a more powerful effect than it seems. Taking hourly prayer/meditation breaks begins to corral the rebellious, ego-oriented parts of the mind into alignment with a greater harmony. Like a child, the mind often resists this reorientation. But like a patient parent, we can lovingly but firmly persist.

I encourage you to try this practice for yourself. If thirty seconds on the hour seems too much, try fifteen seconds – or five. The simple act of stopping is the key. See how many times you are able (or willing) to take these breaks, out of the sixteen waking hours of your day.

And if you wish, note any resistant thoughts that arise in the mind. Things like:

"I need to finish this one thing. I just can’t stop right now."
"People will think I’m crazy if I stop what I’m doing and shut my eyes here."
"I meditate/pray all the time… Why should I have to stop every hour?"

And so on. The ego-oriented part of the mind can be ingenious in its attempts to resist discipline. Virtually anyone who has developed a meditation or prayer practice can give you stories about this. But all we’re really doing in this practice is giving our minds a rest. Even the resistant elements of the mind will eventually have to admit that it feels good.

Dan Joseph
www.DanJoseph.com

www.DanJoseph.com

Dan Joseph has been writing about the connection between spirituality and psychology for the past ten years. He is the author of two books: "Inspired by Miracles" and "Inner Healing."

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