Welcome to Serenity and Health on Substack
Four Practices for Health of Body, Mind, and Spirit
To my longtime readers and to new friends, welcome to Substack, my new online home. I am grateful and humbled that you choose to spend your time reading what I write. To mark this transition, I offer a simple guide to help you get the most from this publication as you continue your own journey toward greater health of body, mind, and spirit. I believe that striving together to be better and do better connects us as brothers and sisters, and that this spirit of connectedness can help heal our messy world.
Four Suggestions to Get Started
1. Dedicate quiet time for prayer or reflection every day, even if only for 10 minutes. This single action will help you more than anything I write.
2. “Never get tired of always starting again,” is a favorite saying of Fr. Jesus (his real name!). An inspirational person or book might motivate you to begin again. Or sometimes your own suffering will spur you to start a new exercise routine (my story), prayer practice, eating plan, or to seek professional help. Today is a good day to take your first step. Check out my Resources page for ideas.
3. Try to practice mindfulness, that is, staying in the present moment. I learned about finding God in the present moment in Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s classic, Sacrament of the Present Moment. We tend to worry about the future or ruminate about the past. Learning to live fully in the present moment will bring healing and peace of mind.
Mindfulness also helps us in making better choices about exercise and eating by helping us pause and be aware of our choices rather than acting on autopilot. Consider this unique take on mindfulness, equating a mindful pause as a “space.”
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Attributed to Viktor Frankl
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs are widely available. For more information about how to become more mindful, check out this remarkable free online MBSR program.
4. Make yourself available for healing. I’ve gradually learned that my mind is too active—planning, controlling, formulating the best answer, worrying about the past or the future, and obsessing about my need to work and be productive at all times. Recognizing these traits is vital, but more thinking and work will not solve the problem. Eckhart Tolle recently said:
The world will not be saved by more thinking. It will be saved by a shift in consciousness.
I’ve been striving to let go of control and trust God more. I believe this is a shift in consciousness that cannot be forced. I cannot make it happen. But I can take steps to allow it to happen. Centering Prayer, a Christian form of meditation, is the practice that is helping me be open to God’s presence and healing. You can read my Q and A about Centering Prayer. There are many other practices that open us to this kind of interior healing—meditation, spending time in nature, making or enjoying music or the arts, or quiet walking.
If you want to get a better idea of topics I write about, check out these examples of previous Serenity and Health posts:
Three Flashes of Clarity, Seeing the Obvious
Sometimes the most powerful insights are the ones that seem obvious—once we finally see them. Three times in the last 10-15 years I’ve had startling insights about relationships and communications with others. These truths should have been obvious, and I’m still perplexed by how long it took me to fully grasp them. The simple nature of my insights may …
When Both Sides Claim God's Will? What Then?
In September 1862, President Abraham Lincoln bore the unfathomable weight of the Civil War as no one else could. He agonized about his double sense of responsibility to human duty and Divine Power. Pressures were fierce: abolitionists demanded full freedom for all slaves, border states pushed for compromise to end the carnage, the midterms loomed—and m…
Triple-Action Healing Works Best
Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? I’m not so big on making New Year’s resolutions because I don’t tend to keep them. I do better with an ongoing process of evaluation and renewal that grows from my faith and includes my prayer life, conversations, books, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation—commonly known as confession.
Big Red Dumpster
Seven women were having lunch together to celebrate yet another retirement. We sat around the dining table listening to Jen describe what had happened after her friend and long-time neighbor Marnie died, when the big house had to be sold.
Dear reader,
If you enjoy my work and it has helped you over the years, I would be grateful if you’d share Serenity & Health with a friend who might also find hope or encouragement here.
Word of mouth is the simplest and most powerful way this community grows.
You might forward this email to someone you care about, share the link with a friend who is seeking a bit more peace of mind and closeness to God.
I would love to hear from you! Please email me at serenityandhealthdc@gmail.com or leave a comment directly on Substack.
God bless each of you,
Donna
My grandson, @Arjuna Marsiglia is my trusted “tech guy,” and he made my move from Squarespace/Mailchimp to Substack remarkably easy, and even fun. He also works with Wordpress.
He handled every step with professionalism and care: following my instructions, staying organized, never overpromising, and welcoming feedback.
Arjuna now offers a migration service to others through his business, OneStack Blogs. You can learn more and work with him at https://onestackblogs.framer.website/ and on Substack at @Arjuna Marsiglia. I am proud to be able to highly recommend his services!
Thank you donna congratulations for your new blog