Hi friends,

My August words to you are about a prayer and about smiling, standing tall, and listening. The message is so simple, yet so powerful. See what you think.

Late in my medical career, I began researching many subjects related to the health of body, mind, and spirit. The body-mind connection fascinated me. I was intrigued by research on posture and what one investigator called the “power pose,” a strong confident stance, and how this position increased confidence and positivity. Or the research on smiles, how our smiles affect others, and how even a pretend smile can improve our own attitude. I also did a lot of reading about mindfulness, about which I knew very little. I soon realized that I was not very mindful and was usually up in my head planning, fretting, or analyzing. Therefore,  too frequently I was not listening to whoever was speaking to me.

My reading and thinking on these subjects somehow led me to formulate a brief prayer, which I’ve said every morning for years. It addresses standing tall, smiling, and listening. Here it is.

My S, S, and L Prayer

Dear Lord,

On this day please help me to stand up tall, smile, and listen.

Amen.

As I say these words aloud, I stand or sit taller, throw my shoulders back, look up to the sky, smile, and take some slow breaths. This brings me back to the moment so I can start listening—to God, my body, my mind, others, or extraneous noises—which for me is frequently the morning chirping of the birds. I feel relaxed, closer to God, more at peace, more positive, and more confident as I face my day. It’s a terrific demonstration of how body, mind, and spirit are connected.

Please say this prayer right now, remembering to do the actions…sit or stand tall, look up, take easy breaths, smile, and then mindfully listen… Well?… Don’t you feel better with that one quick prayer practice?

A number of years after I started saying this prayer every day, I was astonished to realize that my prayer had a deep family connection for me. The three steps of the prayer are to Stand, Smile, and Listen. The initials of my 3 daughters in birth order are S, S, and L. The same as my Stand, Smile, and Listen prayer. This thrilled me because I look at this kind of coincidence as a grace from God, his special encouragement.

That’s all for today, folks. Short and sweet for this hot August day.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Smile, stand up tall, and listen! To help you remember, try the S, S, and L prayer this week. It may be a simple prayer, but I think it is very powerful.

2. Are you convinced about the mind-body connection? If you have doubts, a practice that might change your mind is deep belly breathing. Just breathe in slowly through your nose as you keep your hand on your abdomen. With each inhalation, the abdomen will expand. As you breathe out, it will flatten. Do this for a couple of minutes during the day when you are feeling stressed or to prevent stress as you prepare to begin a stressful activity.

3. Listening is an act of love. See what Richard Rohr writes about Holy Listening.

2. I am always curious about what personal prayers other people use. Do you have an original or special family prayer that you would like to share?

I want to mention how much I love hearing from you. If you haven’t reached out, know that I will always answer your emails. You can email me here. If you are reading this and are not yet a blog subscriber, you can become a subscriber here.

Happy summer.