Worries are less obtrusive when we choose activities that bring us into a state of flow. When we experience flow, we are completely immersed in what we are doing. We are so absorbed in the present moment that time falls away and we forget our worries. A friend of mine is obsessed with ice climbing. Climbing up a mountain in the bitter cold does not sound like much fun to me, but when she explained why she loves it, I immediately understood. “It forces me to focus only on climbing, because if I don’t I could fall. It’s the only time I forget everything else–all my worries, my work, everything–and just focus on what is right in front of me.” What my friend was describing was the sensation of being in flow.
A few years ago I took up sewing. I spent hours creating dresses and dance costumes. I was so absorbed in my creations that hours flew by without my noticing. Nowadays, I experience flow most when I’m writing. Instead of sewing fabric, I stitch together ideas. When I’m immersed in a writing project, I can’t think about anything else. Writing gives me plenty of footholds to climb out of all the dark places my thoughts want to go. Other introverts might feel this way when they are playing the piano, gardening, or cooking. Anything that fully immerses us in the present moment will also give us respite from our worries.
—Michaela Chung, The Irresistible Introvert
Category: SUFFERING
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“What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.”
—Ellen Glasgow -
“If you wish to remember God unceasingly, do not reject as undeserved what happens to you, but patiently accept it.”
—St. Mark the Ascetic -
“Could I too choose to make the pain stop by staying busy? Eventually, the action was over and everyone had to go home. There is always a point when the doing ends, and then we are faced with the deafening and horrendous silence that is our thoughts.”
—Joe Watson Jr., The End of Despair -
“God Himself heals the proud. This means that inner sorrows (by which pride is healed) are sent to us by God, for the proud man will not suffer anything from others. But the humble person will endure everything, and will always say, ‘I deserve this.’”
—St. Ambrose of Optina -
There was a hermit who was often ill. But one year he did not fall ill and he was very upset and wept saying, ‘The Lord has left me, and has not visited me.’
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Benedicta Ward -
“Patient endurance kills the despair that kills the soul.”
—St. Peter of Damaskos -
[Concerning trials] For God is able to free you from all these evils this day. But not until He sees that you are purified; not until He sees that a conversion has taken place, and a repentance firm and unshaken, will He entirely remove the tribulation. The goldsmith, until he perceives the gold well refined, will not draw it out from the furnace; and even so God will not take away this cloud before He hath thoroughly amended us. For He Himself who hath permitted this trial, knows the time for removing it. So it is also with one who plays the harp; he neither overstrains the string, lest he break it, nor relaxes it too much, lest he mar the consonance of its harmony. Thus does God act. He neither places our souls in a state of constant repose, nor of lengthened tribulation; making use of both these at His discretion; for he neither suffers us to enjoy continual repose, lest we should grow listless, nor on the other hand does he permit us to be in constant tribulation, lest we sink under it, and become desperate. Let us then leave to Him the time for the removal of our evils; let us only pray; let us live in piety: for this is our work, to turn to virtue; but to set us free from these evils is God’s work! For indeed He is more desirous to quench this fire than thou who art tried by it: but He is waiting for thy salvation. As tribulation then came of rest, so also after tribulation, rest must be expected. For neither is it always winter, nor always summer; neither are there always waves, nor always a calm; neither always night, nor always day. Thus tribulation is not perpetual, but there will be also repose; only in our tribulation, let us give thanks to God always.
—St. John Chrysostom
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When I joined L’Arche Daybreak, where people with disabilities are at the center of the community, no one cared that I write books or give lectures to university audiences and church groups around the world. My achievements did not impress them. What they cared deeply about was how consistently I showed up for them and showed them how much I loved them.
—Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life
SO GOOD QUOTES 