Stress Reduction | Ascension Mission

Stress Reduction

Life is stressful.
Prayer, meditation and mindfulness can help.

Stress is an unavoidable part of being human. Cultivating acceptance, awareness, mindfulness practice, and prayer are empowering ways to start managing your response to it. Here you'll find resources designed to support you in becoming less reactive and more responsive.

I'm Experiencing Stress...
Now What?

You can choose to view practices by selecting a 'Category' below:

AUDIO VIDEOS EXPERIENCES

Audio

Returning to the Spirit of God

Audio Contemplative Prayer

The Hebrew word for spirit is Ruach, which can also be interpreted as breath. The Spirit of God is as close to us as our breath.

Let us pray together in silence, beginning and ending with the sound of the bell. Quieting our mind can help us open our heart. Each time the mind wanders is another opportunity to return to the presence of God.

Counting Meditation

Audio Meditation

Meditation can feel difficult sometimes when we set expectations that are different from the experience that we are actually having.

Sometimes we can make focused concentration a little easier by increasing the weight of the object of our attention.

One way to do this is to count the breaths.

4-7-8 Meditation

Audio Meditation

Borrowing from the limb of Yoga known as Pranayama, we can explore breathwork with a modern twist. For many, beginning a new practice such as the 4-7-8 breathing technique requires some sort of motivation.

It is widely accepted that this method helps to reduce blood pressure, decrease anxiety, and help with sleep. Not to mention, bringing about an overall sense of calm and well being after practicing for a few weeks.

Meditate with Julian of Norwich: Faith

Audio Contemplative Prayer

Wherever you find yourself today, allow yourself to fully arrive.

Settle in and listen along as we meditate on the words of Julian of Norwich, 14th century Christian mystic. We will begin and end with the bell.

Faith is nothing else but a right understanding of our being – trusting and allowing things to be; A right understanding that we are in God and God whom we do not see is in us. - Julian of Norwich

STOP Meditation

Audio Meditation

We can access peace in stressful situations by using an informal practice called STOP. The formal sitting practice helps us to become more aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise in the body.

S. Stop
T. Take a breath
O. Observe what is occurring objectively
P. Proceed with mindful intent

Jesus Prayer

Audio Contemplative Prayer

Welcome to an introduction to the Jesus Prayer. Repeat the words of the Jesus Prayer as they slowly move from your head to your heart:

“Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner”

You can repeat these words once or as many times as you need. Modified wordings of the Jesus Prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner”

“Lord Jesus, have mercy”

Square Breathing

Audio Meditation

Working with your breath can have many benefits both physiologically and psychologically. Physical effects may include increasing lung capacity or lowering blood pressure and heart rate. Psychological effects can range from calming the mind to increasing the ability to focus.

Square breathing technique is one of the most accessible and easy to learn methods. We can begin with an easy count of four:

Inhale for a count of four
Hold for a count of four
Exhale for four
Hold for four

Formal Sitting Practice

Audio Meditation

This Mindfulness Meditation incorporates the labeling of thoughts, emotions, and sensations with five minutes of silence and guidance to close.

For gradually increasing periods of silence, click here to learn more.

Matthew 12:34 | Lectio Divina On-The-Go

Audio Contemplative Prayer

Welcome to an abbreviated version of Lectio Divina, an ancient Christian practice of reading the Scriptures. In this contemplative practice, we are invited to listen to Scripture with the ear of our heart.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. - Matthew 12:34

Equanimity Meditation

Audio Meditation

To live life is to witness change. It is inevitable and unavoidable. The suffering we experience when things change is not from the change itself. It is from our resistance to change.

We cannot stop change from occurring, but we can cultivate equanimity. Equanimity allows for the space needed to hold the mysteries of life with non judgemental acceptance. Whether change is seen as pleasant or unpleasant, we can see the uncontrolled and impermanent nature of our experiences and still embrace our tendency to resist the change itself.

Equanimity is sometimes referred to as the grandparent feeling. Grandparents often have the same love for their grandchildren that they had for their own children, but with more ease and perspective around expectations and difficulties.

Body Scan

Audio Meditation

The aim of the body scan is to bring your attention to the different regions of your body, and allow yourself to experience how each part feels, without trying to change anything.

It is our natural propensity to run away from unpleasant sensations like pain. Just allowing a sensation to be there without the responsibility to do anything about the sensation feels a little unnatural to us. This is an opportunity for us to practice both acceptance and shifting our focus from one anchor to another.

In the body scan, we learn skills to better identify the link between emotions and physical sensations.

Sensations and Emotions: Like Two Unruly Children

As in the formal sitting practice of meditation, we observe thinking, emotions and sensations as separate experiences. Pain is often accompanied by an emotion such as despair, anger, sadness and helplessness. Identifying the emotion associated with the sensation brings realization of their separate nature.

Sensations are sensationsand emotions are emotions.

Like two unruly children, they shouldn't be allowed to play together. Perceiving the emotion and the sensation as separate experiences often reduces the level of suffering we feel from the pain sensation itself.

Enjoy your practice, be kind and curious about what you find in yourself, and as much as possible, be aware of your breath and your present moment experience.

Centering Prayer

Audio Contemplative Prayer

Centering Prayer is a silent prayer practice largely taught by a Trappist monk named Father Thomas Keating. The intention of Centering Prayer is to deepen our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence within us.

This contemplative prayer practice invites us to rest in the Presence of God based on the wisdom saying of Jesus:

“…when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” - Matthew 6:6

It is recommended to practice twice each day for a minimum of 20 minutes. If new to the practice, try to build your capacity to 20 minutes starting with whatever amount of time feels right. Feel free to use the 20-minute timer below. It includes a bell to start and end the practice.

20-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Sleep

Audio Meditation

For this 20-minute guided Meditation, it is recommended that you lie down or find a comfortable place to rest your body for the duration of the practice.

In gratitude for all that your body does for you, find a nice comfortable place to let go and let be.

Videos

Chair Yoga

Video Meditation

Chair Yoga can be done anywhere, even in your office, and you can do it in just a few minutes and bring some mindfulness to your day.

This video introduces you to Chair Yoga, one of several practices in the Cultivating Reverence for Living series.

A Pause in Your Day

Video Meditation

Meditation can be as simple as paying attention to the rise and fall of your breath in the same way. So, give yourself permission to just be for a few moments and join Brian Woolworth in a short meditation to help cultivate the skills we need to live more mindful lives.

How Do I Regulate My Stress?

Video Education

ission to just be for a few moments and join Brian Woolworth in a short meditation to help cultivate the skills we need to live more mindful lives.

Frustration and Anger

Video Education

This video introduces the practice of studying our anger, becoming more mindful of it, and offering strategies for diffusing it.

Emotional Regulation and Working with Fear is a one video shared from the Cultivating Reverence for Living series.

Emotion Regulation Training

Video Education

This video introduces the role of mindfulness in understanding emotions, reducing emotional vulnerability and emotional suffering. Mindfulness practice can help us regulate our responses to one of our most basic and powerful emotions: fear.

Emotional Regulation and Working with Fear is a one video shared from the Cultivating Reverence for Living series.

Walking Meditation

Video Meditation

Walking meditation is considered a formal meditation practice. It, of course is also an active practice. You can imagine that this might be an excellent choice for someone who has difficulty remaining still or who has pain when sitting for longer periods of time.

The invitation is to bring your focus to the movement and the physical sensations of walking itself. To quote Zen instruction, “when you walk, just walk.”

Just as in the formal sitting practice, as we become aware of being pulled away from the anchor of walking, we simply stop and note the distraction and gently move our attention back to the walking and begin again.

Experiences

View more courses