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Shalom SOULjourners! This week we're in week two of Lent. Have you tuned in to the podcast series and downloaded the Lenten Devotional?
Lend yourself to lean into this week's Lent theme: wonder.
We are in a meditation series for the 40-days of Lent through the last day of Passover/The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Follow along and align your soul.
Together, Let's BLESS, BREATHE, and RELAX as we choose to fast from going fast.
WONDER - Children + Curiosity
Let your fascination with the Beloved fill you with healing wonder, even if you've been journeying through difficult places. Wonder does not discriminate. It desires to engage in our pleasant and unpleasant places. Wonder follows curiosity and curiosity leads us into fascination.
Children are easily fascinated because they are so readily open-hearted and curious as life captivates their attention. They are incessantly drawn into curiosity. This is what Jesus desires of us no matter our age. A curiosity that keeps us receptive.
When researchers look at the human brain in an MRI scan, in a state of fascination, the brain lights up in a state of relaxed happiness when we're curious.
Scientists now know that when a person's curiosity is piqued, there's increased activity in the hippocampus, which is involved in the creation of memories. Psychologist and researcher, Dr. Charan Ranganath explains: "There's this basic circuit in the brain that energizes people to go out and get things that are intrinsically rewarding."
This circuit lights up whenever we experience pleasure. When the circuit is activated, our brains release a chemical called dopamine this is our motivator, it keeps us engaged with the things we love to do, it keeps us passionate. We can control our own levels of dopamine just by choosing curiosity.
Curiosity plays a huge role in enhancing the connections between cells that are involved in learning, and this is why I believe children tap into fascination more than most adults. At some point we become too familiar, too self-conscious, too skeptical or too cynical.
These survival mechanisms can become gateways to our wholeness, but oftentimes, they become barriers to curiosity, they become life narrators, and they become pieces of heavy armor we put on, which prevent us from experiencing the ongoing practice of fascination.
But we can embody Jesus with childlike fascination and return home to curiosity. We can choose to delight in the gift of our childlike nature that never leaves us.
Let's enter into this blessing as a child. How old will you be in this pilgrimage? What stage of your childhood development will you embody as we take this journey into wonder, our embodied journey into curiosity?
BLESS - Your Childlike Wonder
Curiosity is a blessing. It invites us to embrace being a generous recipient of new discoveries in the simple things in every day.
Curiosity is a grace. It's a gift that reminds us that we are free, empowered and accepted daughters who are welcomed and expected to be captivated in the nature and nurture of Abba's heart.
We are free to wonder and explore new ways to experience the Beloved's touch with new truths and assurances that we've never understood or heard. We are empowered to breathe in this blessing. We are accepted in the embrace of this blessing.
BREATHE - Inhale Receptivity, Exhale Unwillingness
Breathe in how the Beloved is mesmerized by you. He's fascinated with your humanity. Breathe that in. Now mirror that fascination back to Jesus. Inhale receptivity to this truth and exhale unwillingness that seeks to distract you.
Let wonder. Let it lead you to joy. Let joy bubble up. Let joy fill you. Let joy overflow. Let joy expand you and strengthen you. Let joy lead you to dine at a table where Love promises to feed you and serve you from His abundance.
You are not left to feed yourself. He takes great pleasure in knowing what you need and desire. To feed you is to bring you into His tender care. Not just for one feeding, but a life immersed in God's satisfying Sustenance.
Let His abundance open you up to wonder in your imagination. An unceasing fascination that leads you to slow down to enjoy many wonderful moments that you would otherwise miss.
Where has wonder summoned your childlike heart? (in an emotion, a challenge, a point of view, a relationship, in a resolve, etc.) Did you resist or did you lean in?
Now let's return to consider a fascination that draws Jesus into your imaginative prayers. Where does your imagination go?
Let the gift of wonder lead you to savor a meal unhurriedly, to splash in puddles, jump on trampolines, run through sprinklers, play in the snow, make up silly stories, dance in public, laugh or giggle without restraint, ask for help, wave to strangers, read a story in a different voice, play on a playground, courageously and bravely make a mess, cry when you're happy or hurt, or sing praises aloud with all that is within you (on or off key).
Let wonder transform you. Let wonder heal you. Affirm wonder. Embody wonder. Breathe in wonder deeply. Thank wonder.
RELAX - In Curiosity
Make space to not merely eat a meal with those you love, relax in wonder. Be attentive. Be open. Get curious and fascinated about the Presence of the Beloved in the lives of others and in the unlikely places and moments of your fully, embodied life.
Go Slow & Savor Our Meditation Focus - Feeding
Deuteronomy 8:3 & Luke 4:4: "Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."
In This Mohawkmomma Soul Podcast Episode:
— You’ll be invited to connect with your childlike fascination over familiarity.
— You’ll be guided to name curiosity as a grace.
— You’ll learn how neuroscience and curiosity work together.
Until next time,
Scribble. Speak. From your soul.
Links for further discovery Subscribe & Listen to my Soul Care Podcasts
Lent week Three
Shop with Soul in the Boutique - we empower and advocate for the marginalized in the US and globally.
More SOULutions Worksheets here
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