Peace to you!

Each week, the Monk Mindset newsletter comes with:

Monk Mindset for Living Well

Monk Mindset 1
Show Up and Receive the Light: Meditation and Prayer

Reflection on the Monk Mindset and Quote

At 19 years old, I got a group of friends together over my first summer back from college to go skydiving over the Georgia plains. I remember the skydiving guides telling us before we went up: 

“Now, when you get up there and you’re standing on the edge of the plane holding on, everything in your mind and body will NOT let you jump. You actually wont be able to jump because your body wants to preserve itself. But when we say go, you HAVE to jump. You will have to mentally override your instinct and force yourself to jump. You will have to trust that it will be ok. That is why you came here.”

This is basically the spiritual life. 

St. Therese, the 19th century Carmelite nun and spiritual powerhouse, once wrote in a letter that “confidence” is the surest path to Love – by which she means to God and living out of His love. 

What does this “confidence” actually mean?

During our day there are so many things that press in and give us anxiety, fear, uncertainty about the future. We make many excuses not to do little things well, not to be present or loving to others, not to follow the demands of faith or love.

But it is in having confidence that we can do all these things not on our own but because we are then carried by Love, by God, just as I was carried by my parachute after jumping. 

Meister Eckhart, the 14th German mystic, described this as “sinking into God” – to fall onto him in our soul, psyche and even sometimes physically. To do this, we actually have to spiritually jump out of the plane and trust that our parachute is there and it will work and we will be safe. 

To close the story. Sure enough, when I was holding on the edge of the tiny plane 2 miles above the earth I was not actually able to let go and jump. But I closed my eyes and literally willed to jump. I let go and jumped as far as I could from the plane into the open air. 

For what seemed like eternity I fell to the ground. Interestingly, it didn't even feel like I was falling – I felt like I was in a giant wind tunnel above the earth until I pulled the parachute and the ground crept closer and closer.

Put It Into Practice This Week

What’s one area of your life that you have trouble trusting that things will be ok, that you will be supported, or that God will help you?

Close your eyes and imagine standing on the edge of a tiny plane suspended above the earth. The plane is whatever it is you have trouble trusting about. 

Now, imagine yourself forcing yourself to jump off from the plane – trusting as you jump. Not into an abyss but into the thermals of God’s support and strength to support you.

Feel the air and rush of flying – knowing that your parachute is there and that you are safe in His support.

Just in Time for Fall - Here are the Monk Mindset Courses!

It’s so hard building prayer and meditation routines into the day.

So I created a mini-course based on my 7+ years in the monastery and coaching hundreds of founders & CEOs to walk step-by-step through how monks and nuns go deep in prayer and meditation.

It also includes very practical guidance for how to implement these approaches in your life. Would be honored for you to check it out!

Do you feel like you lack the harmony and order in your life and yearn to find it?

This course organizes my 7 years in the monastery — and the entire monastic life — into 7 principles and 98 lessons so you can implement these practices into you day-to-day.

Perfect for grounding yourself this Fall!

Wishing you abundant peace this week,

John

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