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November 30 - December 1, 2021
Shabbat, or sabbath, the ancient practice of rest in the Jewish tradition, offers us a model that we can draw on to create a modern ritual of making space for connecting to ourselves.
in our modern lives, sabbath can be applied especially usefully in three ways: tech sabbath, sabbath for solo time, and sabbath for play and creativity.
Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book The Sabbath
Book
My focus was shattered, and any centered calm was long gone
nothing is harder to do these days than doing nothing.
not to abolish technology or turn back time, but to be intentional about how we use it.
Reclaiming Conversation: “first, that we will always be heard; second, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and third, that we will never have to be alone.”
“emotional pinball machine,”
I’ve learned that I don’t need to be responsive all the time.
“I am offline from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, when I observe a tech sabbath,”
journal on my sabbath days, writing stream-of-consciousness thoughts and often finding new ideas or inspiration as my brain unwinds
think of sabbath time as the apex of the week, a “climax of living.” I started to look forward to the times when I’d read for the sake of pleasure, rather than learning or productivity.
Reading during sabbath time opened up new worlds because I was free from the constraints I’d built myself.
Sabbath inverts some of the most destructive stories we tell ourselves: that we are what we do, that we’re worth only what we create.
In sabbath time, our creativity is not meant for performance—but for enjoyment, and perhaps even as an offering of thanks for the time and freedom we have.
When we keep a sabbath, we get to practice saying “no.”
we are profoundly good enough—just as we are.
The gentle burbling of a brook or the sound of the wind in the trees shifts your nervous system into a relaxed state, according to a 2017 Scientific Reports paper, and data reveals that people who have regular access to nature are less likely to be on antidepressants.
A 2015 study from Stanford University demonstrated that those who took a ninety-minute walk through a natural landscape had reduced neural activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness compared to those who walked in an urban environment.
“forest bathing,” the practice of spending time in a forested area, has multiple positive effects on human well-being.
Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest medicine.
Pilgrimages come in all shapes and sizes. Nearly all of us move from one place to another.
More than 300,000 people from around the world walk the Camino de Santiago to the shrine of Saint James in northern Spain each year.
Pilgrimage is a multisensory experience. It’s about making contact, getting up close and touching, looking, smelling, listening, even tasting the land around us.
As you share your shortcomings in a safe way, you’ll find that these people will love you and hold you responsible for your actions. They don’t need to believe in the same things you do, nor use the same language to describe their spiritual practices. Nor do they even need to be your closest friends. But they will start to matter enormously. I
By now, we’re aware of the power of vulnerability, but so rarely do we have a place where we can tell the ugliest truths about ourselves and know that we will still be fiercely loved. After
The unexpected joy of a small group of love and accountability is that we learn that others have problems just as we do and that the list of issues where we feel like failures is often not that different from everyone else.
personal-growth programs like the Landmark Forum or Harvard Business School professor Bill George’s True North small groups, where people can gather to have in-depth discussions and share intimately about the most important things in their lives.
In our low moments, small groups can lift us up again. If these people, who know all our inner ugliness and still love us, believe that we can change the situation and trust in our willingness to try, then perhaps we can do more, be more, than we expect of ourselves.
chain of gratitude
Journaling is a wonderful way to practice gratitude prayer,
recent research suggests that gratitude improves our mental well-being, too.
people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed.
“Gratitude gives us a new story. It opens our eyes to see that every life is, in unique and dignified ways, graced:
Imagine you only have a year left to live. What might you do with the time you have left? Spend some time thinking or journaling. Visualize where you might go, who you’d want to talk to. What you’d stop doing. Now imagine you only have a week. How might you choose to spend your last days? What would your last meal be? Who would you be with? Now imagine it is your last hour alive. And then your last minute. Your last breath. This very breath you’re breathing right now.
memento mori: a reflection on my mortality.
Buddhist metta (loving-kindness) meditation practice, where we repeat three intentions over and over again. We start with ourselves, then turn to someone we love, then to a stranger, and then to someone with whom we are struggling: May I be safe and free from suffering. May I be as happy and healthy as it is possible for me to be. May I have ease of being.
Prayer is like a workshop for the soul. In it, we get to work out all the kinks and knots of life. It can soften resentment and make space for forgiveness.
You meet some people whom you just know have that deep connection to something bigger. They radiate spiritual maturity. But as ever, with great power comes great responsibility.
A Rule of Life can reflect back to you the words that open your heart and lift your spirit, reminding you of your inherent connection to yourself, other people, the natural world, and the great mystery of being alive.
