You’ve got nothing to lose
ere is our final story for now by SMASH regular Sophie. We have such a wide variety of faiths and beliefs through our community and so we found this interesting to see mindfulness from a slightly different perspective. Sophie is more than happy for anybody to contact her if you want to find out more (just message us and we will put you in contact)
The thing that keeps me mentally healthy is prayer. As a Christian I have a relationship with God, through Jesus, that is real and alive, and so I chat to him every day. Although it blows my mind to think about it, God is everywhere all the time and so I know I can talk to him whenever or wherever. Sometimes my prayers are short one-liners “Lord please help my baby to sleep!” (as is a regular prayer of mine at the moment!). Sometimes, my prayers are more reflective telling God how great he is, and sometimes it’s more just telling him how I’m feeling. There are times when it feels like I’m just talking to myself, but I trust God is there and know he’s listening.
For me practically, this looks like taking time each day - whether it’s whilst I’m brushing my teeth, or walking to the tube, or making dinner - to just lift my eyes off of my current circumstances and focus on something with greater perspective - what my purpose in life is, what I have hope for for the future, and trying to receive the peace that God promises. And I also try to carve out specific time each day to sit in a quiet spot and pray more intentionally. I find one of the most useful ways of doing this is by writing my prayers down so I have a prayer journal. Not only is this is a really powerful way of processing what’s on my heart and mind, but one of the best things is that it documents what I’m praying so I can look back and see amazing answers to prayer over time.
This might all sound totally bonkers to you, and I don’t know where you stand with the idea of faith or God or prayer, but I’d love to encourage you to explore it. A bit like Ash’s attitude to trying Mindfulness, you’ve got nothing to lose. Why not start with the simple prayer of
“God if you’re out there, show yourself to me”. That’s a prayer I prayed many years ago and have never regretted it since. I can honestly say that prayer is what keeps me mentally healthy and can highly recommend it to anyone.
Thank you Sophie!
Sam & Ash
