Some of us race through the day, then hurry home to more projects and pressures. When our internal motors rev up, we have a hard time turning them off.  Sleep may elude us because our racing mental engines won’t slow down. Our heavenly Father knew we might have a tendency to hurry through life and miss the silent joy, so He said, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Current scientific research agrees that quieting the mind and body can calm the sympathetic nervous system, cause heart rate and blood pressure to drop, and tense muscles to relax. Redford Williams, M.D., director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University, says, “Withdrawing from problems and calming your mind can calm the body, blunting the adrenaline surge.”

I want that–to untie the knots in my muscles. But even more I want to know God–and just sit still with Him. I think Centering Prayer (CP) might be a way to experience both of my desires. I’ve enjoyed CP before, but lately… Well, let’s just say, “Not so much.”

As I contemplate my dreams for this next year, I want Centering Prayer to be a part. Do you want to join me? If like me, you’re interested in living a calmer life in the midst of our culture’s maxed-out reality, click and read this CP information/explanation–and tell me what you think.

I sense God encouraging me to work less, relax more, and reach out with love. I know it will be an imperfect process, but I’m committed to it. How about you?

Processing life–with the good, painful, and disappointing–is an annoyingly slow procedure at times. Although the growth process is always worthwhile, sometimes it takes me to frightening places where I feel unfamiliar emotions, think uncomfortable thoughts…and well, just plain hurt.

My stomach aches. My head throbs. My body gets tired. I find it takes courage to let myself experience these things, acknowledge my reality, and move beyond my conditioned attitudes and behavior–to GROW as a person–mother, wife, friend, writer, coach, business owner and child of God.

Although process isn’t always fun and I want God to hurry up sometimes, it helped me immensely when I realized that God could have sent His Son to accomplish His redemptive work during a weekend retreat. Perhaps then Jesus would have escaped much of the prolonged discomfort.

Instead God chose for Jesus to arrive as a baby, become a teen, and confront young adulthood. The faultless Son of God left perfection with His Father to face earth’s reality: sickness, death, abuse, and unbelief.

As I realized that God sanctions process, I began to relax and accept that progress takes time. And now as the years march by (hmmm, actually it feels more like they’re racing!) I want to remind myself again.

When I take substantial steps forward and then something happens to trigger old response strategies and I fall back, I have the option to pause where I am and begin again. Because God sanctions process. I love that. How about you?

Balance itself has no specific objective. It is a constant state of motion and flex.

To understand this, imagine the following. [You might even wish to take a break from sitting at the computer to actually DO this! Oh, go ahead. Nobody’s watching and if someone is, she won’t care!]

• You stand up and twirl around several times.
• You run in place for several minutes and skip to the corner of the room and back.
• You twirl around twice more.
• Then you immediately try to balance on one foot.

Now imagine (or notice if you were brave enough to stop and try this exercise!) the subtle adjustments you have to make in your foot and body to maintain equilibrium.

This imaginary activity is designed to give you a picture of what you’re attempting to do in balancing the different aspects and roles of your life during any given day. Balance doesn’t mean scheduling an equal number of hours to each role or activity in your life. Not only is that unrealistic, it’s impossible.

Developing balance is a skill (just like standing on one leg is a learned skill.) Remember God cares about all areas of your life and He wants to help you flex with your roles and goals. Today consider asking God to help you cultivate this skill. You can do it. It’s a doable and reasonable process!

I’d love to hear from you. What has helped you develop balance and maintain equilibrium? What frustrates you about all this?

Today I read my friend, Author Mary Pierce’s BLOG at http://www.laughlady.com/. I always LOL on Tuesdays because that’s the day Mary (When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister?) writes her Blah! Blah! Blah! BLOG. This morning her entry was titled “The 1% Solution.”

“Last January, I set three major goals for 2007. . .” writes Mary. “I missed each goal by–you guessed it–100%. HA! . . . [So] I’m changing my approach; I call it The 1% Solution. Here’s how it works:
Today, I’ll exercise 1% more than I did yesterday. Yesterday my only exercise was beating around the bush and jumping to conclusions. Today I’ll take a five-minute walk. . . . Then I’ll throw myself a little party. . . Woo-hoo!”

And I decided to respond to her blog, even though I’ve never done it before. I typed, “Fun stuff and reasonable idea—that Laugh Lady’s 1% plan! I just typed in a witty reply to your blog, but made a mistake and lost it all. Bummer. Oh, well, sounds like a little ‘Relief of Imperfeciton‘ for me today.” Comment by joancwebb — January 8, 2008 @ 11:02 pm

THEN I SAW IT! YIKES! So I wrote another entry to the blog. “Oops! I re-read the comments I just posted and I realize I’m having trouble spelling the title of my new book. (Hey, give me a break–typing comments on blogs is NEW to me!) Anyway, the word ‘Imperfection’ is not spelled ‘Imperfeciton.’ The title of the book is–The Relief of Imperfection: For Women Who Try Too Hard to Make It Just Right. And well, the truth is, I’ve made several ‘imperfectionistic‘ blunders today and I’m still standing and smiling.

“Just for the record, in addition to the two I’ve mentioned above, I forgot to get my husband’s boarding pass online as I promised I would. Now he’ll probably have to sit at the “back of the bus” on his flight from Phoenix to Little Rock! Double bummer. It reminds of the Laugh Lady’s 1%. Mary writes that she can’t do everything [just right], so she is going to make a 1% shift in the right direction.

And I did, too. I said, “I’m really sorry, Richard.” And since I’m not down on myself tonight, it is reason enough to join Mary, the Laugh Lady, in a “Woo-Hoo!”

The 1% Solution works! And by the way, so does The Relief of Imperfection! Try it! I think you might like it! Go to http://www.amazon.com/ and type The Relief of Imperfection in the “search.” Also, go to http://www.reliefofimperfection.com/ and write me an email under the CONTACT US menu. I’ll enter your email into my January FREE BOOK DRAWING. Maybe you’ll be a winner like Linda Christ. (See the recent posting.)

Relief blessings to you this January 2008!