If you’re unsettled at the start – maybe go for a walk. Sing a song ? what might help you slow down ?
Choose a place that feels comfortable and safe to you, a place that allows you to be open and available to God—a favorite chair at home, your own backyard if it is quiet, or even a nearby chapel if you have access to one.
Settle into a comfortable position in your body and sit quietly for a few moments, breathing deeply,
becoming aware of God’s presence with you and your desire to be present with God.
Sit quietly at the base of the tree that is your life and begin to notice what is true about you these days.
Don’t rush or try to make anything happen.
Let your soul venture out and say something to you that perhaps you have had a hard time acknowledging:
Is there a particular joy you are celebrating?
A loss you are grieving?
Are there tears that have been waiting to be shed?
A question that is stirring?
An emotion that needs expression?
Sit with what comes into your awareness, becoming conscious of God’s presence with you in that awareness.
Don’t try to do anything with what you are knowing except be with it.
(In other words, don’t scare it away.)
Feel the difference between trying to fix it and just being with it.
Feel the difference between doing something with it and resting with it.
Feel the difference between trying to fight it and letting God fight for you.
What does it mean for you to be still and let God fight (or work) for you in this particular area?
Practice this way of entering into solitude regularly until it becomes routine for you to begin your times in solitude by being quiet and letting your soul come out and then rest in God’s presence.
You will likely be surprised at what your soul wants to say to God.
(from Ruth Haley Barton)