Prayer-Walking: Fitness For Body & Soul

Prayer-walking is a winning combination for caregivers who want to enhance their fitness and spirituality. Physical activity is important to reduce mental stress and fatigue. It helps counter the detrimental effects of stress chemicals associated with the fight or flight response. In fact, prayer-walking evokes the Relaxation Response, which not only lowers stress, but has beneficial cardiovascular effects.

Prayer-walking is simple and low-tech. It requires little in the way of special gear or instruction. A good pair of walking shoes is recommended. Some people may also choose to use a pedometer, depending on their exercise goals and how they are monitoring those outcomes. Like any other form of exercise, we see more benefit when we schedule and practice it regularly.

Walking can be done solo, with a partner, or a group. Each option offers its own richness. The setting may vary based on what’s available and safe, the weather and time of day. Taking in the scenery, sounds and aromas when prayer-walking outdoors, can be an extra special experience. So far this week I enjoyed seeing flowering trees, watching an eagle soar in the sky, smelling the aroma of lilacs and honeysuckle, hearing frogs croak in the pond and birds singing their hearts out.

When we engage in this activity, we should bring a prayerful intention to it, making it holy. Even though we are physically walking, it is very much an interior journey–taking steps of faith. Prayer-walking is suitable for individuals from diverse faith traditions. It is appropriate for spiritual novices, as well as, those whose faith is more mature.  

There are many ways to pray on our walks. Prayers may be silent or aloud, spontaneous or rote. Sometimes we intercede on behalf of others and make petitions for ourselves. We may choose to reflect on a word, phrase or verse from the scripture or another sacred text. Prayer-walking can even include singing a song of praise. Whatever is on our heart at a given time, is offered and released. It may be our hopes and dreams; or feelings, worries or concerns. Regardless, God is with us each step of the journey. 

Prayer can be thought of as having a conversation with our Higher Power. It isn’t meant to just be a monologue. Our listening is an essential part of communication. Prayer-walking may also include stopping for reflection. 

What might happen on our prayer-walks? Well, it has certainly heightened my self-awareness. It is a “now” experience for me, being fully present and open to Spirit. I have been given solutions to challenges and creative new ideas. Some of my feelings include gratitude, joy and peace. When I prayer-walk, I notice that I not only shed pounds, but cares and concerns as well. From time to time, I journal about my prayer-walk experience and explore some of the insights I have gained. Prayer-walking is a practice that I want to continue for physical and spiritual fitness.

Today, I told my 89 year-old mother that I was writing about prayer-walking. She surprised me by saying, “Oh, I prayer-walked for years. I always paused when the cars drove by so they wouldn’t think I was just talking to myself.” But now her physical activity is limited, so she “prayer-rocks” instead. Rock on, mom! 

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Memorial Day Is For Remembering

Memorial Day is more than the picnics, parades and other activities we so often enjoy on this holiday. It is an important time to remember those who have sacrificed their lives to preserve our country’s freedom and way of life.

Many of us have family members who served in the military. In our church service yesterday, we had an opportunity to honor them. Representatives from each family recognized their veterans and told something about their military service. We sang patriotic songs and prayed for our nation.

My father was a soldier in the Army during WWII. He fought in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. Dad was wounded during combat around Luzon, and later received the Purple Heart. My father-in-law flew B-26 Martin Marauder planes in the Atlantic Operations. In its early days, the B-26 was known as “the widowmaker” because of frequent crashes during takeoff.

Estimates based on census data predict that over 1100 of the Greatest Generation die each day. Fighting in a war is a life-changing experience. But so often their personal stories are never told. What an opportunity for our children and grandchildren to learn history from loved ones who helped to shape it. Then family get-togethers on Memorial Day would be even more meaningful. 

Many of our veterans are care recipients, at home, in residential or health care facilities. As family and/or professional caregivers, let’s give them the recognition and thanks that they deserve. And the chance to share whatever they want about their experiences and life lessons. 

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Mindfulness Is Great For Stress Reduction

For a little more than a week now, my mom has been quite ill. Thankfully, she is on the mend. She finished her second round of antibiotics yesterday. Although her energy level is still pretty low, she’s starting to engage in some activities again. Today she potted flowers in planters for family gravesites in observance of Memorial Day. I’ve been kept pretty busy coordinating and providing care. I have to admit that it was pretty stressful seeing her so frail. One small thing that I did was give myself permission to put blogging on hold. But a more powerful self-care strategy was my deliberate use of mindfulness with several activities throughout each day. I also made a conscious effort to stop multi-tasking, which seems more efficient than it really is.

Mindfulness doesn’t have to be part of a formal meditation or a religious practice to be effective. Just bringing one’s focus or awareness to the present moment or on what is happening now, is enough. I found that I was calm and able to enjoy doing mundane tasks. I also profoundly felt the exchange of love as I was providing physical care and doing Healing Touch for mom. There was more of a sense of peace than I would have otherwise expected during this time.

Washing dishes is one such example. I focused on each individual element of the experience. I observed the bubbles forming in the dishpan when the soap was added while the water was running. I felt the soothing warm water on my hands and observed the force of the sprayer while rinsing each dish and utensil. I made stacking dishes in the drainer an artform. I noticed stray crumbs and spots of various shapes and colors on the stovetop, counters, and table disappear as I cleaned them with my purple sponge. When I wiped the surfaces dry, they gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. Well, you get the idea. Then when I drained the dishwater, washed and rinsed the sink, I engaged in a little imagery and symbolically sent any remaining tension down the drain. 

Now that I’ve experienced some emotional and physical effects of mindfulness, I’m actually finding more ways to maintain the practice. Brushing my teeth has become a new cue to remind me to be here now and not creating a grocery list in my mind or ruminating on an earlier conversation.

Mindfulness is evidence-based. More and more studies are showing that being mindful can help us enjoy life more, cope effectively with illness, and improve physical and emotional health. It’s been about twenty-eight years since Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and brought mindfulness into the clinical arena and everyday life. http://www.umassmed.edu/content.aspx?id=41252 Now the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) http://nccam.nih.gov/ sponsors research investigating mindfulness-based stress reduction for symptom relief in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and chronic low back pain.

There are several resources available to assist individuals in learning and integrating mindfulness-based stress reduction: books, audio CDs, online instruction, retreats, and trained practitioners. If you’ve never tried mindfulness, I invite you to explore it further. For readers who practice mindfulness, what tips do you have to share? How has it affected your health and wellbeing?

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Godly Mothers Are A Blessing

In reflecting on the impact that my mother has made throughout my life, I have concluded that her love of God and faithfulness in praying for her children (and others) matter most. Those prayers started before I was born. She had a rocky pregnancy and often told me that she laid hands on her belly and prayed for my protection and God’s favor for my life. Well, her fervor hasn’t slowed any…she still intercedes on my behalf throughout each day.

For mom, praying or communing with Source is as easy and as natural as breathing. It is part of the rhythm of her life. From her example, it becomes easier to understand the Biblical admonition to “pray without ceasing.”

Thank you Lord, for Godly mothers everywhere. Through their deep connection with Spirit, they are wonderful role models for their families and a blessing to all.

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Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils & Hypertension

“I can’t believe you’re taking a picture of me with my hair looking like this!” But mom didn’t protest too loudly. After all, she was making Bismarks today, from scratch. She hasn’t done that for about ten years. Her favorites have a maple nut frosting with chopped walnuts. I’m partial to the ones filled with mom’s raspberry preserves (made from our garden last summer) and a coconut frosting.

The last couple weeks of April were pretty challenging. Mom had more chest pain that was no longer fleeting, and her blood pressure was labile and hard to control. Her doctor has been great to work with since hypertension reared its ugly head four months ago. We found from experience that she can only take small doses of her prescription medication at a time without dropping her blood pressure too low.  In fact, mom is on the lowest possible dose of her ace inhibitor and her doctor gave us a range, so that the medication can be held, or adjusted up or down, as needed. But when I suggested that mom see her doctor again, she said, “he’ll just give me more pills and I don’t want that.”

Ever since I can remember, Mom has preferred more natural, holistic approaches to health and wellness. She even has it specified in her advance directives. We use therapeutic grade essential oils (clinical aromatherapy) on a daily basis for a variety of purposes (e.g., soothing a headache, shifting/lifting a mood, in shampoo and other personal care products, as a flavoring agent in cooking, for repelling mosquitoes, in place of dryer sheets…the list goes on and on). So I decided maybe it was time to create a custom aromatherapy inhaler for mom to use as an adjunct to her current regimen.

Mom has been using her aromatherapy inhaler about four times a day for the past seven days. She reported that she “took a few sniffs” of the inhaler during the first night and her chest pain promptly subsided. Pretty cool. She has been monitoring her blood pressure 3-4 times a day and recording the results on a medication and supplement log. We discovered early on, that just using the inhaler alone brought her blood pressure down from 189/90 to 160/83 in one hour. We know from past experience, that would not have happened even if she just rested in her recliner. Over the course of this past week, her blood pressure has been in her desirable range most of the time. She has needed minimal prescription medication, which makes her happy. 

So, today mom made Bismarks. I see from her log, that her blood pressure was 127/65 after a day of cooking. Tomorrow she is getting her hair done, with highlights, if you please. I’m thankful that there are many approaches to support our health and healing. Most of all, I’m grateful that mom’s focus right now is back on scrapbooking, cooking and baking her favorite recipes, and on whether or not her hair looks good enough to let us take her picture.

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