Tag: anxiety
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The Mindful Life
Last week I taught a class about “The Mindful Life” at my college. Mindfulness is rooted in the Buddhist philosophy that only the present moment exists. The future does not yet exist. The past no longer exists. Therefore, we should focus our energy and attention on that which is real, the present moment. Personally, I […]
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The Practice of Doing Nothing: How I Stopped Fueling my Stress
I caught myself getting overwhelmed tonight. I’d been distracting myself from my stress all day long—running from meeting to meeting, answering emails, sending emails, moving from one uncompleted task on my desk to the next. When I finally got home and needed to focus on my children, though, I no longer had the energy to […]
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A Preacher’s Anxiety
I’m excited to share another article of mine published in the June 24th issue of The Christian Century, A Preacher’s Anxiety: Between Panic and Pride. All my life I have wanted to write for this extraordinary magazine. Still hard to believe this is real!
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The Practice of Doing Nothing: Sitting with my Suffering (Part 2)
On a bright summer morning, I dropped my 5-year-old daughter off at day camp placing her in the care of counselors who all appeared to be in high school. Looking at Ella’s counselors I remembered myself at their age, and the parents who entrusted their children to me. I didn’t take the same precautions with […]
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Twelve Minutes
Last Thursday I settled myself cross-legged on my zafu and set my timer for twelve minutes of meditation. I had just finished scratching out my to-do list for the day—a mistake—it made me realize I only had an hour free this morning to finish writing my sermon for Sunday and meet a few other deadlines. […]
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Choose Life–Even When Life is Hard
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Deuteronomy 30:19 Do you believe life is a choice? It doesn’t feel like a choice. Life feels more like something that just happens—something you can’t control. Life propels you forward and you just swim along, […]
Teri McDowell Ott 