My Sabbath Experiment
Nov 30, 09- (by Mama MPJ)
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- Family and Friends, Sober Salon
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Earlier this month, I decided I was going to set aside one day each week for spirituality and health, a sort of personal Sabbath. I picked a day of the week and made some rules for myself and set about my spiritual experiment. This week will be my fourth “Sabbath,” and while three weeks is hardly enough to see substantial change, I have noticed some interesting things:
- It’s hard to break out of my routine and not do my usual work. It’s like the first time I sat in meditation and was there for about fifteen seconds and thought, “Ok, is this over yet? Can I get up now and do something?” I feel like there are all of these Really Important Things I should be taking care of and I get anxious and jittery about them. Which brings me to…
- There are no Really Important Things that I must do right now. When I turn my computer back on on Thursdays, the world hasn’t ended. There haven’t been thousands of items clamoring for my attention. Everything was just fine waiting a day, and in fact, very few people even noticed that I was off-line at all. In spite of this, I still worry that this is going to be the week that there really will be something earth shattering in its importance dropping into my inbox.
- I use sugar to self-medicate my stress.
- I haven’t felt any closer to God. And because of this, I’ve realized that I expected to have some transcendent spiritual moments on my Wednesdays, especially given that I am spending much more time in prayer and meditation than on a normal day. But I haven’t experienced those moments. So far my Wednesdays have felt like any other day (minus sugar and electronics). I’m not making a judgment on that, just sitting with it and noticing what my expectations were and what the reality is.
- The day after my Sabbath is wonderful. So far, while my Wednesdays themselves have had difficult moments and have lacked anything overtly transcendent, they have acted as a reset button for my habits and my week. The day after I’m a little more relaxed and a little more likely to do little things to take care of myself that I overlook at other times.
I’ve learned a little more and a little something different each week, so I intend to continue the practice of setting aside Wednesdays for spirituality and continue to observe how it goes.
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I am trying to get back to taking a Sabbath as well…I guess I sort of do now, but I think it’s great that you are doing this!!!
I love this. Please keep posting about this. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m still stuck on Sundays but your determination has set a spark in me for how I observe this day. Thanks.
Thanks for the post. As long as you keep learning and it is good stuff…then keep up with the meditation and the spiritual Wednesdays!