Have you wondered if there was a spiritual practice that you could do laying in bed? Well there is! It’s simple, effective, and requires nothing more than your Attention! It’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I combine it with a spoken prayer, sometimes a silent one. Most times I simply focus my Attention on my whole Self. I start with my Body and do a Scan based on Wonder and Attention. I focus my awareness, centering different body parts in my mind’s eye and ask:
- How is My Mind?
- how does it feel? Do I have a headache? Sleep in my eyes? Is my vision blurry still? Do I remember what I was dreaming about?
- I try not to think about anything I have to do or obligations I have…that can wait!
- How is my Breath?
- I take a few slow breaths, if I can, and try to notice how the air moves through my system….through my nostrils, or my throat, into my lungs, and then out again
- Do I have a sore throat? Do I need water? What will help replenish me this morning?
- How is my Heart?
- I listen to my heartbeat for a bit. Feeling it’s rhythm, the first rhythm I knew as my own outside of the womb.
- I feel the pulse of blood in my chest, in my neck, in my head, in my feet, in my arms
- I move my awareness up and down my body, noticing any aches, pains, stiffness, tenderness, ease, pleasure, softness
- I give thanks for the blood flowing throughout my body, delivering the oxygen brought in through my lungs, and I give thanks for the gift of Life I get to open every morning.
That’s it! I notice my body, this wonderful machine that is mine, even when it’s feeling rundown, doesn’t work how it used to, looks a little beat up, or is in a different shape than how I wish….it’s still mine. It deserved to be paid attention to, every once in a while.
I find that noticing my insides and outside with intention and attention leads to gratitude, and that small time of the day devoted to just being and breathing helps me feel centered and grounded to then get to the checklist of tasks for the day.
Do you take time for you everyday? I hope we can work towards it. Changing the world requires bodies and minds ready and willing to get to work. May it be so for all of us to use our differently made, abled, and structured bodies and minds to make it so.
Amen.
Rev. McKinley L. Sims, M.Div. 
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