Hailey Stessman OPINION EDITOR

Before 2020, the way that I dealt with stress was through meditation. At the time, it was easy to close my eyes and let all of my responsibilities and worrying thoughts slip away. I would simply play free meditation music on Youtube, turn off the lights, and fall into a relaxed state of mind. But with the complete chaos that this year has shown us, it quickly became difficult to quiet my thoughts. Calm music and dimmed lights just wasnt enough.

So with a bit of researching and scrolling through the app store on my phone, I decided to try a few meditation apps out. However, I immediately stumbled upon an obstacle. Almost every single meditation app that is offered requires a subscription or payment to use its services. But with my impulsive nature, I agreed to pay the cost of ensured mindfulness.

For example, the first app that I fully paid for was Headspace. On their website, Headspace has one singular mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. A free trial allows users to use their free basics course that outlines the essentials of meditation. Once your free trial is up, you have the option to choose a subscription plan. For $69.99 a year, you can access Headspaces full library of guided meditations, courses, and soundscapes. Thankfully, they offer a student plan where the cost is lowered to $9.99 a year if you provide confirmation that you are a student. (I chose the latter option.)

At first, I was incredibly impressed with the app. I thoroughly enjoyed the wide array of guided meditations along with the freedom of changing your listening preferences. As someone who has struggled with falling asleep, I greatly appreciated the Sleep section that includes Sleepcasts, Wind Downs, Nighttime SOS, Sleep Music, Soundscapes, and a Sleep Radio. The Headspace app helped give my meditation practice structure that I was lacking previously.

However, as my responsibilities began to pile up and the state of the world fell into disarray, I abandoned the Headspace app. In full honestly, I completely forgot that I had the app on my phone. Every now and then I would open the app, scroll through the meditations and then log out without even pressing play.

Then I started to wonder, Why do I have to pay for mindfulness?

I think its important to establish that therapy and mindfulness are two separate things. In most cases, you have to pay to meet with a therapist and receive those services. But mindfulness is its own entity that has been taught to be void of any fees. It has been ingrained in our heads through media and spiritual outlets that mindfulness is free and can be practiced anywhere at any time of the day. So why was I spending my money on something that can be attained at no cost?

Our society has become so centered around capitalistic structures that even our mental health has become a commodity. It all comes at a cost. Not to mention, the act of using an app to feel mindful felt contradictory.

If you are struggling with calming your thoughts or need a space to relax, I would encourage you to look elsewhere before paying for a meditation app. For example, Youtube has a plethora of free guided meditations, music, and courses that touch on mindfulness and meditation techniques. You should not have to pay a fee to feel at peace.

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OPINION: The Problem with Meditation Apps - Gateway - The Gateway

Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the 4th World Day of the Poor on November 15, drawing from the Parable of the Talents to offer a reflection on the beginning, the middle, and the end of our lives.

As well, he offered an insight into who could be symbolized by the bankers that would have returned the one talent with interest.

Here is the full text of his homily:

~

The parable we have just listened to has a beginning, a middle, and an end, which shed light on the beginning, the middle and the end of our lives.

The beginning. Everything begins withagreat good.The master does not keep his wealth to himself, but gives it to his servants; five talents to one, two to another, one to a third, to each according to his ability (Mt25:15). It has been calculated that a single talent was equivalent to the income of some twenty years work: it was of enormous value, and would be sufficient for a lifetime. This is the beginning. For us too, everything began with thegraceof God everything always begins with grace, not with our own efforts with the grace of God, who is a Father and has given us so many good things, entrusting different talents to each of us. We possess a great wealth that depends not on what we possess but on what we are: the life we have received, the good within us, the indelible beauty God has given us by making us in his image All these things make each of us precious in his eyes, each one of us is priceless and unique in history! This is how God looks at us, how God feels towards us.

We need to remember this. All too often, when we look at our lives, we see only the things we lack, and we complain about what we lack. We then yield to the temptation to say: If only! If only I had that job, if only I had that home, if only I had money and success, if only I didnt have this or that problem, if only I had better people around me! But those illusory words if only! prevent us from seeing the good all around us. They make us forget the talents we possess. You may not havethat, but you do havethis, and the if only makes us forget this. Yet God gave those talents to us because he knows each of us and he knows our abilities. He trusts us, despite our weaknesses. God even trusts the servant who will hide his talent, hoping that despite his fears, he too will put to good use what he received. In a word, the Lord asks us to make the most of the present moment, not yearning for the past, but waiting industriously for his return. How ugly is that nostalgia, which is like a black mood poisoning our soul and making us always look backwards, always at others, but never at our own hands or at the opportunities for work that the Lord has given us, never at our own situation not even at our own poverty.

This brings us to thecentreof the parable: the work of the servants, which isservice. Service is our work too; it makes our talents bear fruit and it gives meaning to our lives. Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. We must repeat this, and repeat it often: those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. We should reflect on this: those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. But what kind of service are we speaking of? In the Gospel, good servants are those whotake risks. They are not fearful and overcautious, they do not cling to what they possess, but put it to good use. For if goodness is not invested, it is lost, and the grandeur of our lives is not measured by how much we save but by the fruit we bear. How many people spend their lives simply accumulating possessions, concerned only about thegood lifeand not thegood they can do. Yet how empty is a life centred onour needsand blind to theneeds of others! The reason wehavegifts is so that we canbegifts for others. And here, brothers and sisters, we should ask ourselves the question: do I only follow my own needs, or am I able to look to the needs of others, to whoever is in need? Are my hands open, or are they closed?

It is significant that fully four times those servants who invested their talents, who took a risk, are called faithful (vv. 21, 23). For the Gospel, faithfulness is never risk-free. But, father, does being a Christian mean taking risks? Yes, dearly beloved, take a risk. If you do not take risks, you will end up like the third [servant]: burying your abilities, your spiritual and material riches, everything.

Taking risks: there is no faithfulness without risk. Fidelity to God means handing over our life, letting our carefully laid plans be disrupted by our need to serve. But I have my plans, and if I have to serve. Let your plans be upset, go and serve. It is sad when Christians play a defensive game, content only to observe rules and obey commandments. Those moderate Christians who never go beyond boundaries, never, because they are afraid of risk. And those, allow me this image, those who take care of themselves to avoid risk begin in their lives a process of mummification of their souls, and they end up as mummies. Following rules is not enough; fidelity to Jesus is not just about not making mistakes, this is quite wrong. That is what the lazy servant in the parable thought: for lack of initiative and creativity, he yielded to needless fear and buried the talent he had received.

The master actually calls him wicked (v. 26). And yet he did nothing wrong! But he did nothing good either. He preferred to sin by omission rather than to risk making a mistake. He was not faithful to God, who spends freely, and he made his offence even worse by returning the gift he had received. You gave me this, and I give it to you, nothing more. The Lord, for his part, asks us to be generous, to conquer fear with the courage of love, to overcome the passivity that becomes complicity. Today, in these times of uncertainty, in these times of instability, let us not waste our lives thinking only of ourselves, indifferent to others, or deluding ourselves into thinking: peace and security! (1 Thess5:3). Saint Paul invites us to look reality in the face and to avoid the infection of indifference.

How then do we serve, as God would have us serve? The master tells the faithless servant: You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest (v. 27). Who are the bankers who can provide us with long-term interest? They are thepoor.

Do not forget: the poor are at the heart of the Gospel; we cannot understand the Gospel without the poor. The poor are like Jesus himself, who, though rich, emptied himself, made himself poor, even taking sin upon himself: the worst kind of poverty. The poor guarantee us an eternal income. Even now they help us become rich in love. For the worst kind of poverty needing to be combatted is our poverty of love. The worst kind of poverty needing to be combatted is our poverty of love.

The Book of Proverbs praises the woman who is rich in love, whose value is greater than that of pearls. We are told to imitate that woman who opens her hand to the poor (Prov31:20): that is the great richness of this woman. Hold out your hand to the poor, instead of demanding what you lack. In this way, you will multiply the talents you have received.

The season of Christmas is approaching, the holiday season. How often do we hear people ask: What can I buy? What more can I have? I must go shopping. Let us use different words: What can I give to others?, in order to be like Jesus, who gave of himself and was born in the manger.

We now come to theendof the parable. Some will be wealthy, while others, who had plenty and wasted their lives, will be poor (cf. v. 29). At the end of our lives, then, the truth will be revealed. The pretence of this world will fade, with its notion that success, power and money give life meaning, whereas love the love we have given will be revealed as true riches. Those things will fall, yet love will emerge.

A great Father of the Church wrote: As for this life, when death comes and the theatre is deserted, when all remove their masks of wealth or of poverty and depart hence, judged only by their works, they will be seen for what they are: some truly rich, others poor (SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,Homilies on the Poor Man Lazarus, II, 3). If we do not want to live life poorly, let us ask for the grace to see Jesus in the poor, to serve Jesus in the poor.

I would like to thank all those faithful servants of God who quietly live in this way, serving others. I think, for example, of Father Roberto Malgesini. This priest was not interested in theories; he simply saw Jesus in the poor and found meaning in life in serving them. He dried their tears with his gentleness, in the name of God who consoles.

Read more: Pope sends moving message to funeral of martyr of charity

Thebeginningof his day was prayer, to receive Gods gifts; thecentreof his day was charity, to make the love he had received bear fruit; theendwas his clear witness to the Gospel. This man realized that he had to stretch out his hand to all those poor people he met daily, for he saw Jesus in each of them. Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to be Christians not in word, but in deed. To bear fruit, as Jesus desires. May this truly be so.

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Parable of Talents is meditation on beginning, middle, end of life: Pope Francis homily (Full text) - Aleteia EN

By: Kaitlin Smyth

In less than two weeks, UMW students will move back to their homes to finish the fall semester virtually. In these stressful times, students are looking to meditation and mindfulness as a way to calm down their anxieties and doubts of going into the upcoming holiday seasons.

While some students relieve their stress through activities such as exercising, others use meditation. Meditation has two types of practices: mindfulness meditation and concentrative meditation, which trains an individuals mind to reach an emotionally stable and calm state.

UMW has offered students a meditation and mindfulness course since 2013. The Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation is a seven week course that helps students through a semester potentially filled with many obstacles that COVID has brought into their lives.

The course is led by William Brooks, a certified meditation teacher hired by Campus Recreation. Brooks views meditation as a form of contemplation and reflection as individuals step away from their daily activities. He connects with students by understanding their fears of transitioning back home for the holidays: he used meditation and mindfulness himself while he was a student. Brooks also reaches out to Eagles during these stressful times by providing beneficial tips for students to meditate at home during break.

Meditation and mindfulness are our life survival toolbox. It is beneficial in terms of being able to be present with the challenging times in life, especially times in anxiousness and worry. The key is to bring meditation practices to the immediate experience. I advise to simply pause and take a step back to allow yourself to re-energize and recenter. Bring attention to your body. Then rengage to whatever challenge you are experiencing. Personally, meditation gives me these tools that allow me to meet those challenges in a way that is graceful, said Brooks.

With two weeks left until Thanksgiving break, on-campus students will have to finish their semester virtually from home due to the fear that students might travel and bring COVID-19 back to campus if they were to return after break. Brooks encourages students to practice meditation and mindfulness during break as it can help improve their academic performance.

One meditative practice is sitting still and feeling a sense of your breath in your body. This practice strengthens ones concentration because the intent is to continue to pay attention to the breath. With consistent practice, meditation improves our ability to focus and concentrate. I find that the ability to focus and concentrate is very helpful. Meditation and mindfulness are very beneficial not only on the emotional level but over time improve our capacity to focus and concentrate which is beneficial from an academic perspective, Brooks says.

Anne Franklin, a junior psychology major, reflects on her experience in the Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation course, which has helped her manage a semester unlike no other.

This is my first time taking the Intro to Mindfulness course at UMW, although I have some prior experience with mindfulness and meditation. I was already anxious about coming back to school full-time. I had doubts about how well Id handle a full course load. Its so easy to get stressed out in life, and with school in particular, said Franklin. I have found mindfulness to be incredibly helpful for coping with lifes difficulties. Mindfulness practices have been enormously helpful in navigating intense emotions and feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, and depression that sometimes come along.

Franklin offers her fellow eagles meditation advice for those transitioning back home for virtual classes or anyone who is experiencing stressful life situations. She recommends students set time aside daily to check in with their emotions.

Just setting aside five or ten minutes each morning to see what your body feels like, what things might be causing you anxiety or excitement can be so helpful, said Franklin. Franklin also advises her peers to know the importance of offering gentleness and patience to themselves through mindfulness and meditation as these techniques can give them tools to gain a better understanding and relationship to the body and mind.

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Meditation and mindfulness recommended for overwhelmed students - The Blue & Gray Press

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Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market: How Will Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market Grow With Higher Rate For The Upcoming Years - TechnoWeekly

Eartheater, the debut novel by Argentinian activist and writer Dolores Reyes, is billed as literary fiction. But it has many of the hallmarks of the YA genre. Its appealingly precocious young narrator has special powers that she uses to perform heroic acts while pursuing a parallel romantic plotline. Reyes takes these familiar elements and breaks them apart, reassembling them into a fragmented narrative about trauma, violence against women and children, and a journey into an adulthood which is also the land of the dead.

The protagonist of the novel is a never-named young girl living in an Argentinian slum with her brother, Walter. The protagonists mother has died by violence, possibly killed by her father, who also leaves the children. Living with the death and absence leads the narrator to start eating earth; she discovers she has the ability to see those associated with the ground she consumes, whether theyre dead or alive. Her powers terrify and alienate many in the community; speaking for victims and the marginalized is dangerous and frightening. Her fathers sister, her caretaker, leaves her and her brother orphaned. Her boyfriend flees too. Others, however, start to come to her to find their lost loved ones, leaving jars of earth in her yard along with notes and painful hope.

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Much of the narrative is a series of investigations, with Eartheater as a kind of psychic Encyclopedia Brown. But where Encyclopedia keeps his sneakers firmly anchored in fact, the Eartheater lives on the border between vision and reality, with the barrier between internal and external outlined by the mud on her lips. The prose shifts seamlessly from the clarity of everyday realismeating, shopping, playing video games with friendsto the clarity of nightmare. Death is always close enough to touch, or eat. I saw Florensia, maggot-ridden like a sickly heart, her hair a spiderweb that peeled off her skull.

Walter is a stable touchstone, but otherwise names flicker in and out of the narrative, passing across her mind and out, or underground. Eating earth is a metaphor for trying to stay grounded, and to stay connected with the lost. At the same time, its a symbol for madness, mental illness and PTSD. The narrator puts her hands in the soil, but the globe still turns out from under her as her her fingers scrabble in it.

Time in the novel moves in odd fits and starts. The narrator at the beginning of the book is in her tweens. She moves into her teens without specific time markers, and without much change in her voice or monologue. One day shes in middle school, and then all of a sudden shes drinking beer and having sex with a cute young police officer who brings her a missing persons case. Its a disorienting demonstration of how quickly children mired in poverty and violence have to grow up. One of the most memorable and oddest images in the novel is of too fecund and sudden maturation, as the weeds outside the narrators house flourish untended. She imagines that the passionflower would swallow up our crib like a carnivorous plant, her home disappearing into luxuriant and cancerous eternity.

The speeding up of change and growth also gives you an eerie sense of watching the narrator from somewhere outside of time. Throughout the novel, she dreams of Seorita Ana, a teacher murdered when she was young, whos body she had helped discover. Ana stays the same age as the Eartheater grows older, so that its as if the narrator is carrying her own death with her, changeless, as she walks towards it.

The novels storyline is episodic and uncertain, and the end offers little in the way of resolution. A new character shows up in the last act, an old one returns without much explanation. Ominous prophecies are half-fulfilled and half left hanging. Theres some sense of escape, but the earth is everywhere, and while you can walk away from some violence, theres likely more waiting up ahead.

Eartheater doesnt always balance its genre impulses and more lyrical and metaphorical approaches. Theres an action fight sequence towards the end in particular that seems ill considered and out of place. And throughout the book there are some odd phrasings and word choices that may be problems with the translation by Julia Sanches. For example, the narrator refers to people she doesnt like as yokes. The term seems like its supposed to mean something like jerk, but it doesnt have much meaning or resonance in English. Its not clear if its untranslated from the original slang, or if it is translated oddly, but either way it doesnt seem like a successful choice.

But putting aside such minor missteps, Eartheater is a sad, strange little novel about the trauma and cost of suffering, and speaking about, violence. In Reyes hands, this coming-of-age novel flowers into a meditation on death, and the earth all children will eat in the end.

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Dolores Reyes Eartheater Is Both a Coming-of-Age Novel and Meditation on Death - Observer

The goal of the Christian life is to love God for all eternity. We can begin that goal during our life on earth, loving God each day more and more.

However, it is not always easy to maintain that love, especially when trials and tribulations strike. We are tempted to neglect our prayer life and our love lessens each day.

St. Gertrude the Great had a method that she thought could help an individual maintain that love of God on a daily basis.

She wrote various spiritual exercises, and in one exercise, she wrote a morning meditation that was focused entirely on loving God when you wake up.

Often it is easier for us to love someone when we can see them. While we cant see Jesus with our bodily eyes, we can use our imagination, or put before ourselves a picture of Jesus, reminding ourselves that Jesus is truly beside us in a real way.

Then, after envisioning Jesus presence, we can stir within our soul a deep love of him. This should be done regardless of our sensible feelings.

This little exercise doesnt have to last long, but it can be a powerful experience to start your day basking in the light of Gods love for you. It can affect our every action, and reminds us where to put our priorities, even before we have started our day.

God is love. Let us start our day gazing at Love, loving him in return.

Read more: St. Francis Xavier encourages us to love God for only one reason

Read more: Prayer for a greater love of God

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Increase your love of God with this morning meditation - Aleteia EN

Leadership requires not only management skills but also creativity and a sense of balance. One thing some well-known leaders have found to be beneficial for these areas is meditation.

In a fireside chat at the Greenwich Economic Forum, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates and Arianna Huffington of Thrive talked about meditation and the benefits it can have for people in leadership positions. Dalio ascribes much of his success to meditation and says it has been instrumental in his processes and success.

Meditation enables creativity

Dalio said when there are many things on his mind and plenty of reasons for stress, meditation helps clear his mind and provide clarity.

It gives one an equanimity, he said. It gives one a creativity. The act of repeating a mantra, which Is just a sound, and then transcending into the subconscious mind not only brings a peacefulness and a healthy state of mind, but it also taps the subconscious mind, which is where the creativity comes from.

Huffington loved that Dalio stressed equanimity and perspective. She they said are two of many amazing qualities of leadership that arent discussed a lot and havent been prioritized as much as other leadership qualities have been. Huffington added that during the pandemic when multiple crises are happening, its important to talk about resilience for both managers and their teams.

Dalio said he doesnt think anyone he has introduced meditation to that has given it a chance has said that it hasnt had a great impact on their lives. He added that many people in positions of power find they need to meditate regularly, and most wouldnt think that such people would practice meditation.

Will you succeed?

Huffington talked about the time she decided to leave the Huffington Post and start Thrive. She noted that you never know if youre going to succeed, but she wanted to provide the tools necessary to help others succeed.

You never know when you launch something new that it will succeed, Huffington said. For me, the key was to actually be able to bring to people tools and techniques to achieve behavior change. Its one of the hardest challenges.

She explained that 75% to 90% of the skyrocketing disease problems, such as diabetes, are behavior-based. Thus, she built micro-steps to help people with changing their behavior and matched it with storytelling to touch peoples hearts and motivate and inspire them.

Just get started

Huffington advises people who say they dont have 20 minutes to meditate to start with just one minute. She said a lot of science shows it takes 60 seconds to course-correct from stress and reduce the stress hormone cortisol.

For me, its all about starting somewhere, Huffington said. If 20 minutes seems too much, begin somewhere so you get the value of practice.

Dalio said he and Huffington have discovered why Type A and people under stress dont understand, which has to do with doing rather than not doing.

I think we think that the more we know and the harder we try, the more successful we can be, and while there are elements of that, weve learned that the opposite is the case, he said.

Use mistakes as learning

Dalio also said its important to recognize mistakes and use them as opportunities for learning. Huffington believes its imperative to build a culture willing to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them.

People have a much easier time talking about their colleagues than talking to their colleagues about what they are thinking or feeling she said. That culture has been incredibly rewarding because its kind of removing the toxicity of going around people instead of managing to work through disagreements.

She added that this is important not just for business but for every aspect of life.

Learning humility

Dalio said he has learned a lot about leadership through his experiences in the market, which have taught him humility.

Ive come to learn that I have to be an independent thinker because whatever is commonly thought is built into the price, so you cant make money unless you think differently, he said. And whenever youre thinking differently, theres a significant chance that youre wrong, and so finding out what is true is so fundamental to making a good decision and overcoming ones emotional barriers to that through meditation or however you do that.

Dalio also learned that truth in relationships brings about trust.

What I learned through my experiences over 45 years or so starting running Bridewater is that in life, for me, the most valuable thing, meaningful work, meaningful relationships, if I can be on a mission with somebody to do something great with them, to win the battle, to achieve great things, and you can have that relationship that is deep and meaningful, thats very powerful, he said.

Two minds in one

Dalio also said being honest about strength and weaknesses is logical and powerful in building relationships. He explained that its like having two minds in our mind. Theres the conscious mind that were aware of and thats logical, and like Freud discovered, there is the subconscious mind thats emotional.

He said its important to align those two minds so fears of disagreement and discovering the truths about your weaknesses dont stand in the way of success or building great partnerships. Dalio added that if youre carrying home thoughts, criticisms or failures, youre not going to be successful.

He added that it helps to think about how sports teams operate. They require criticism and understanding to put points on the board. Dalio also said you have to be calm and truthful to be successful in the markets and in entrepreneurship.

Dalio and Huffington believe meditation can help managers achieve these things so they can be more successful and better leaders.

Commentary by Jacob Wolinsky. Heres what youve missed? Best Family Ski Resorts In The World. 3 Ways To Measure Brand Awareness Accurately. Top Models in Asia That Are Global Stars. Top Female Fashion Designers to Know About.

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Ray Dalio talks about the benefits of meditation - CEOWORLD magazine

Deontay Wilder

Alexander Netherton

Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has begun mediation in an attempt to force his trilogy fight with current holder Tyson Fury.

Deontay Wilder has begun a dispute resolution process in an attempt to force a third match between the Bronze Bomber and Tyson Fury.

Fury is the current WBC heavyweight champion after defeating the American boxer in February 2020, and a trilogy fight had been anticipated for December 19.

That third fight had been postponed twice, first due to injury and then as a result of the coronavirus, and both the pandemic and a bicep injury to Wilder have been blamed for a third postponement. US broadcasters were also keen to move the fight into next year after other sports restarted, reducing the need for boxing content.

That delay caused Fury to claim he was moving on from the fight and that he considered any contract between the pair to be void.

Fury is now due to fight Agit Kabayel on December 5 in London as he looks to stay sharp, and is expected to take on Anthony Joshua twice in 2021.

According to The Athletic, the first stage of the process is mediation which is due to take place this week with a retired judge looking over the contracts, before coming to a binding judgment.

Wilders manager Shelly Finkel told the site that they were, going into it very optimistically this week, and hopes for a conclusion to the matter before the end of the year.

Fury and his US co-promoter Top Rank believe that the contract between Fury and Wilder cannot enforce a rematch at any given time, and that any bout needed to take place by mid-October. As the 32-year-old had already agreed to a delay until December, they believe there is no further need to deal with Wilder.

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Deontay Wilder begins meditation in attempt to force through Tyson Fury rematch - DAZN News US

On Facebook religious historian Gregory Holmes Singleton was recommending a book

Edward Baring, CONVERTS TO THE REAL: CATHOLICISM AND THE MAKING OF CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.

Along with being a scholar Professor Soingleton is a practicing Anglo-Catholic and offered a small justification for Anglicans to read a book about continental Roman Catholicism. He wrote:

Anglicans in the 19th and 20th centuries, in both Great Britain and the United States, were surrounded by a philosophical tradition that developed from empiricism and utilitarianism to logical positivism, analytical philosophy, and pragmatism. That is far less the case with the Anglo-American intellectual tradition which draws heavily from literature, music, comparative religion, mythology, and drama than from formal philosophy. Anglicans in general and Anglo-Catholics in particular are more apt to opt for poetic expressions of both mystery and ambiguity than the obsession with doctrinal precision. William Blake and T. S. Eilot may well be our patron saints. Alan Watts MYTH AND RITUAL IN CHRISTIANITY may be (at least for American Anglicans) something of a prophetic text.

(Personally I would pair Alan Watts BEHOLD THE SPIRIT with MYTH AND RITUAL as anticipatory of a rather powerful mystical Christianity that genuinely touches my heart. I actually consider these books potentially more important than his writings about Zen. But unpacking that would be a different reflection.)

I found myself caught particularly by Dr Singletons juxtaposition of that traditional characterization of Anglo American thought derived from empiricism and utilitarianism to logical positivism, analytical philosophy, and pragmatism. And that other current, also very much alive, which draws heavily from literature, music, comparative religion, mythology, and drama than from formal philosophy.

I immediately thought of the great Transcendentalist spiritual eruption within the early-mid Nineteenth century New England Unitarian churches. I also felt something of the Zen way.

And a bit more

For me personally it, it, the fundamental matter, and how I engage has always been within a tension existing between that rationalist and that more, I think Ill use the word poetic style of engagement that has characterized much of my spiritual path. And given the professors observation it would make sense, I guess, that I would flirt with Anglicanism, although it also should make at least as much sense that I would end up standing in a place encompassing Universalism (within the Unitarian Universalist communion) and Zen Buddhism.

As I age I am increasingly inclined toliterature, music, comparative religion, mythology, and drama, as informing my spiritual path. Rooted, or grounded in the practices of shikantaza and koan introspection. Here I find the great pointers for my heart. My practice and my obsession. Together with the activated social conscience that informs the current UU world, which I find as an expression of the depths into which Ive been thrown by Zen.

Still, theres something rich and wonderful in being less informed by traditional theologies, as important, and sometimes critical as they may be, and more especially toward comparative religion and mythology and the dreamscape of what in Zen Buddhism we call the Sambkogakaya.

I suspect this is why I feel my life more and more encompassed by the wisdoms of the heart, especially that of Mary and of Guanyin. And to some degree by a Pure Land reading of the story of Jesus.

While I find it increasingly hard to see how we as humans are going to muddle through the messes weve created, if theres a way through, I suspect it will have to do with this liberating love, this unfolding love that can be found in many, most, all of the worlds religions.

And. I do have a hope for a new universalism, expressed in its several ways as our individual hearts call us.

A small hope.

A burning coal.

Perhaps like that fabled mustard seed. Either the Buddhas or Jesuss, they both encompass important angles on the mystery.

For the world. And for each and everyone one of us. And of course within that strange mystery of not one, not two.

A small, broken hallelujah.

A feast that nourishes all of us lost and left behind.

A terrible silence.

A prayer.

A hymn

Go here to see the original:

That New Universalism: A Smallest Meditation on a Religion of the Heart - Patheos

Imagine being stuck in the middle of a lake in a canoe with a single set of paddles and a life jacket. Now, imagine that your life jacket deflates, and your paddles shrink ever so much with each stroke you take as you make your way back to shore. Now imagine there is a tiny hole in your canoe. You work hard to try and make your way back to shore, but your resources are being depleted. Despite your best efforts, you are eventually underwater.

That is sort of what it has felt like being a healthcare worker during COVID-19. It is the long hours, extra shifts, lack of PPE, and high nurse-to-patient ratios because the unit is short-staffed. It is feeling drained emotionally and physically. Its burnout. Unfortunately, burnout has been a chronic issue within healthcare and something that hospital leadership has not adequately addressed.

What is burnout? Maslach defines burnout as a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors that can manifest as overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. Burnout is nothing new in nursing. A quick literature search will show you that. Burnout within critical care can be attributed to many things, including caring for very sick patients teetering on death, high workloads, combative patients or family members, harsh work conditions, and more.

Hospitals have dealt with this problem by investing in mindfulness. Why mindfulness? Well, studies have shown that mindfulness and meditation can help one manage stress and build resilience. In other words, hospitals encourage staff to meditate mental strength and flexibility into their lives. I would say that nurses are already quite resilient. It would be difficult for a nurse to succeed through nursing school and critical care training without coping skills and mental fortitude. While I see nothing wrong with meditation, I find it is quite interesting that institutions are shifting the sole responsibility of managing burnout onto the individual rather than implementing meaningful change within the workplace. Somehow a nurse who may or may not even have an opportunity to fit in a lunch break should dedicate 15 minutes of his or her shift to mindfulness exercises as a way to manage the lack of resources on their unit.

Burnout leads to increased job turnover; turnover of ICU nurses ranges from 13-20% per year. This can cost the hospital a lot of money. The estimated cost of replacing a critical care nurse is about $65,000. Money aside, burnout can lead to poorer patient outcomes and lower quality of care.

Unmanageable workloads coupled with low staffing ratios, working through an entire shift without a break, and lack of support or resources are all too familiar to ICU nurses. These are issues that cannot be meditated away. I find it insulting to chalk this up to a lack of resilience when it is partially due to institutional shortcomings. Mindfulness cannot grow another nurse to help ease the workload. Mindfulness does not diversify the workplace. Mindfulness does not heal that black eye from the combative patient.

So, where do we go from here? What steps are hospital administrators willing to take to preserve morale during this pandemic and after? What changes can we make beyond this acute phase of the pandemic to ensure resiliency amongst healthcare workers? It will take resources to do this, and I just hope that the hospital administrators can see the value of adequately investing in their employees.

Chinoye Onyebuchi is a registered nurse in Newington.

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Read the rest here:

Burnout in nursing: Are we really supposed to meditate our way out of this? - The CT Mirror