Uncategorized | Bonnie Barnard - Part 6

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The Practice of Living Mindfully

Mindfulness began as a Buddhist, Eastern practice. It is one of the seven factors of enlightenment known as “right mind or watchful mind.” One practices mindfulness by becoming awake to moment-by-moment awareness of present conditions and events. It is a practice of focus, observation, and acceptance. I learned to practice mindfulness on my emotional states. I had been an emotional stuffer, not allowed to be angry, sad, disappointed, and trained to be happy regardless of situations. Any feeling unlike happiness had to be stuffed. By the time I was in my late 20s I was filled with rage and deeply depressed. I happened upon Jack Kornfield’s book A Path with Heart. In this book, I learned the benefit of interviewing my emotional states. I learned to sit in meditation with the emotion currently within me and observe it. My intention wasn’t to change it, but to simply observe it. One emotion at a time I learned how they operated within my body. I taught myself to be mindful of...

Affirmative Prayer Technology in Brief

When I was a child I talked to God. I told God what I was doing, asked Him questions, contemplated what it meant and felt like to be Infinite. At age five I felt God’s Love surround and embrace me. As I grew older I learned to pray to God in a formal way as though he were separate from me and to be addressed with respect. “Dear God,” I’d begin and “Amen” would be the salutation. My heart’s desire was very sincere, yet the style of prayer was one of a plea. A prayer may have been “God, help me to not be mean.” Or, “Dear God, please give me confidence in making my presentation third period.” Or, “Dear God, make them like me.” Somewhere between my childhood innocence and my learned prayer, the communication style changed and the sincerity remained. I was introduced to Affirmative Prayer. It is a five-step process blending meditation, contemplation, and affirmation, with the ownership of a feeling within my body of knowing...

Creating Sacred Space for Prayer

Ritual is a part of our everyday life. Most of us have some form of routine. We have a time we wake up and go to sleep. A favorite sport team or television show to watch on a given night. We have a go-to CD when we want to lift ourselves out of a funk. Having a prayer practice means ritualizing and making regular the practice of prayer. Preparation 1: Intend your space to be holy. Space for prayer supports or ritualizes the practice of getting quiet within oneself, centering, and spending time Spirit. Preparing an external space for prayer requires first and foremost internal intention. Intention is a strong power that directs energy from within outward. When we intend a space to be sacred, it is. It’s that simple. We can be in the middle of a supermarket and realize it is holy. You and I determine the quality of and the way we receive space. Preparation 2: Choose your space. We can really stop there, but we’re...

Loving Yourself Through Transitions

The Presence of God, Life Itself, lives in the new. Rev. Dr. Bonnie Barnard I am currently in the middle of another life transition. Some of my transitions I haven’t chosen, but have happened; like the death of my beloved father or the ending of a relationship I didn’t want to end. Other transitions I have sought out, hunted down, and squeezed out of them juicy joy. Others, although wanted, I have tip-toed and waded in as a swimmer adjusting my body to a surprisingly cold and refreshing ocean on a hot day. Each transition I’ve walked through has been poetically different than the other. Romantic, gritty, welcomed, unwelcomed, bigger than me, exciting, grief-filled; each one has had its own tune and tone. And yet with each one, I learn something more about my self, my Soul, and this thing called life. The transition I am currently in is a dream realized. I have yearned for and nurtured this transition for twenty years. Although deeply desired, the signs of...

Prayer Challenge

“The word for prayer in Aramaic is slotha. It comes from the root word sla, which literally means “to trap” or “to set a trap.” Thus, prayer in its initial sense implies “setting your mind like a trap so that you may catch the thoughts of God – in other words, “to trap the inner guidance and impulses that come from your inner spiritual source.” Rocco A. Errico, Setting a Trap for God, The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus I take it as a given that prayer heals my body, reveals my Soul, and guides me into right action and aligned relationships. And, I have all kinds of proof of its efficacy in my own life and the lives of my clients. I went on-line with the intention of gathering research statistics to demonstrate its power. However, what I found was a mess. Some reports say prayers heal. Some say they make conditions worse. And others say results are neutral. This leads me then, to a prayer challenge. Prove to...

Creating a Prayer Partnership that Works for You

Imagine the feeling of your favorite holiday or birthday moment and times that times ten. That is the feeling of a powerful prayer partnership. It consists of love, surprise, recognition, intimacy, delight, and the visceral knowing someone has your back. Contrast this with the feeling of being bogged down in complaints, disappointments, anger, unhealed messes … placed at your feet to fix. This is the heaviness of a prayer partnership that is misdirected. Prayer partnering can change your life or can be a waste of precious time. I’ve experienced both. As my Prayer Partner (PP) and I are defining and playing with our partnership, I thought I’d share my notes and insights with you. 1. Choose a partner who has the same level of commitment to their spiritual practice as you do to yours. Now remember, I am a reincarnated monk and nun many times over and I can and have invested all day in prayer. To be with a praying lightweight isn’t a fair exchange and creates a disproportionate...