“I’m going through a hard time, I’m swamped with all kinds of worries that I can’t get out of my head. It’s affecting every aspect of my life. How am I supposed to recover my personal serenity in my relationship with my spouse, my children and everything else?” This situation of extreme tension Justine is going through is familiar to many, because of financial or professional hardships, the health of our loved ones, etc. How can we get through these difficult, painful, and uncomfortable moments? How can we make the inner turbulence that can suffocate our days and nights stop?
Regaining control of our emotions to recover our serenity
Opening up to a third person, to someone who can bring an emotionally neutral perspective to what you are going through, can certainly help shift our perspective. What often disturbs us is more the way we are thinking about or responding to an issue than it is the issue itself. Justine says she wants to regain her serenity. Is that possible for her if she’s still trapped in a state of anxiety?
Serenity, the tranquility of the soul that Seneca so highly valued, does not just pop up with a touch of a magic wand. To find it or recover it, it will first be necessary to get our emotions under control. Regaining confidence in ourselves and our abilities can create, or bring back, inner peace. You have to be patient: time is, without a doubt, our best ally. Living, taking advantage of the present moment, admiring a ray of sunshine, a bird chirping, the smile of a child, in sum, developing a positive view in spite of the life we have been given, no matter how awful it may be, opens us up to this state of the soul that is inner peace.
Jesus, spiritual teacher par excellence
These attitudes, so difficult to contemplate in hard times, can be helped by the proven practice of meditation. This form of prayer is deeply Christian, rooted in biblical tradition and the teachings of the Desert Fathers. Meditation can show us the way to the heart of our relationship with Jesus, the spiritual teacher par excellence. Tossed and turned by the storm, let us allow, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Christ to see us.
Marie-Noël Florant
Read more:
A prayer to overcome fright and worry
And today we celebrate...