Distractions

[yahoo1225]

So how do you deal with distractions? It is a big problem for me. My mind wanders so much. Closing my eyes helps. Until I fall asleep.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

So how do you deal with distractions? It is a big problem for me. My mind wanders so much. Closing my eyes helps. Until I fall asleep.

Thomas Keating gave some advice about distractions that I found helpful. He said to imagine them as leaves floating down a river. A leaf falls in the river and floats on by. You see it passing but you let it go. Treat distractions the same way. Perhaps a thought comes into your mind. Instead of dwelling on it, let it go the same way you’d let the leaf go.

“Oh no, I have that big project I need to finish at work!” Don’t dwell on it or start fretting over it…just let it go. “What am I going to buy for Dad for Christmas?” Just watch it float away.

It’s very gentle…just let it go…

Something important will still be waiting for you when you finish praying.

 

[JRKH]

Just to add to the above, Don’t fret too much about the wandering mind but just draw yourself back to God.
If your mind wanders 15 times and you come back fifteen times, then you have thought of God 15 times and drawn yourself toward him 15 times instead of just once for a long time.

Peace
James

 

[jpk1313]

I have found that when a thought I don’t want or need comes up I bind it in the Name of Jesus and through the power of the Holy spirit cast it out. when I do that the same thought never (or rarely) comes back and has the benifit of bringing my thoughts back to God.

 

[JRKH]

I have found that when a thought I don’t want or need comes up I bind it in the Name of Jesus and through the power of the Holy spirit cast it out. when I do that the same thought never (or rarely) comes back and has the benifit of bringing my thoughts back to God.

This is good, but one must be careful.
God may be leading us into some interesting insights by a “roundabout way”. I have discovered this to be the case more than once.
So if the thought is clearly inappropriate, by all means cast it off.
Otherwise you may want to allow the thought to proceed without holding on to it, that is not dwelling on it, One thought may lead to another which provides insight into a problem or question you have been dealing with.

Peace
James

 

[tinalewis]

I treat disctractions like ants at a picnic.

You know you’ll always have some. You brush them away when you’re aware of them, and maybe even move the picnic someplace else to get away from a huge anthill.

But you never let them spoil the picnic!

 

[S_and_C]

Distractions will always happen. For me, when I realize I’ve went off on a tangent, I just stop and go straight back to my last prayerful thought. Seems simple, but it’s just how I try to work with it. I don’t think we can fully prevent them altogether. Besides, dealing with them helps build our resolve little by little.

With the rosary, one thing I do is try to be really vivid with my meditations on the mysteries. Instead of just seeing a still picture of the mystery, its title or even a scene out a movie, I look at all the different details that were probably part of that scene: rocks, clothing colors, sounds, the sky, etc.

 

[JRKH]

Distractions will always happen. For me, when I realize I’ve went off on a tangent, I just stop and go straight back to my last prayerful thought. Seems simple, but it’s just how I try to work with it. I don’t think we can fully prevent them altogether. Besides, dealing with them helps build our resolve little by little.

With the rosary, one thing I do is try to be really vivid with my meditations on the mysteries. Instead of just seeing a still picture of the mystery, its title or even a scene out a movie, I look at all the different details that were probably part of that scene: rocks, clothing colors, sounds, the sky, etc.

Peace
James