10 . If you are feeling particularly stressed, you can imagine each
breath bringing in calming cool air and it spreading throughout
your body. Then, as you release your breath, you can imagine
the stress leaving your body from the neck, shoulders, back,
tummy, or wherever you tend to hold on to stress.Morning Meditation Walk or Exercise
The Archbishop takes a morning meditation walk or constitutional
each morning, and he continued to do so throughout the anti-apartheid
struggle, even when he experienced death threats. I had the opportunity to
accompany him on one of his meditation walks when we were working
together in Florida. We walked silently for half an hour when the
walkway abruptly ended at a wall. I will never forget seeing him walk
right up to the very end of the path, right to the wall, so that his nose was
practically touching it. It was at that moment I saw the man who was
willing to walk around the world to end apartheid, no shortcuts, no
turning back, going to the very, very end. Walking, hiking, running, or
any other exercise can be made into a meditative experience. The key is
to avoid all external distractions like talking, music, or television. The
goal is simply to listen to the wisdom of the spirit that often comes
through the wisdom of the body.
Fear, Anger, and Sadness—An Analytic Meditation
As the Dalai Lama said, fear, anger, and sadness are natural human
responses. Fear and anger are natural stress responses, and these emotions
carry important information for us. Sadness, too, can tell us that we are
unhappy with something in our life. These three emotions no doubt
evolved to motivate us to change our situation. As the Archbishop said, to
be human is to feel, and these emotions will arise at times, regardless of
our spiritual mastery. Yet responding to a situation constantly with fear,
anger, or sadness tends to perpetuate negative energy. It is the irrational