Why is Lent 40 days long, why is Passion Week 7 days, and why was Jesus “in the earth” for 3 days? Further, why do we celebrate his birth on the solstice and his resurrection on the equinox?
This essay by Alvin Boyd Kuhn explains it all, and it blew my mind. Good reading for an Easter weekend.
Have you ever had that feeling in your gut when someone close to you is about to tell you bad news? Or what about the pit in your stomach when you know you have to face something that you know you don’t want to face? Well, behind these feelings and physical sensations are thoughts. These thoughts are sometimes conscious and oftentimes subconscious, but they are there.
These feelings and the thoughts behind them demonstrate that thoughts are energy. The thoughts that we hold in our consciousness, and those that lie below the level of consciousness, have an effect on our emotional lives. Through them, we can be lifted up and “energized” or be brought into states of fear and anxiety. Where you end up on this scale depends on the level of spiritual consciousness of the thought itself.
![[Cultural Creative Figure]](/darren109/cultural_creative.jpg)
Along these lines, then, we can find way to achieve relaxation and calm the body through conscious thought. Basically, ask yourself the question, “What does gratefulness feel like?” Now, this is not a question for the intellect, to be mulled over and processed by the thinking mind. No, hand your awareness over to your body as you enter the state of being grateful.
How do you do that? Well, this may be slightly different for every one of you, but I start by thinking about things I am grateful for. That is, I enumerate the wonderful things in my life, from the exceptional to the mundane. But the key is this: I don’t stay at the level of the thinking mind. Instead, as I bring each thing into conscious thought, I start to pay attention to how I feel—in my body. In other words, I shift my attention from the mental image to the sensation in my chest (or in my heart or in my forehead). For me, this immediately shuts off the thinking mind and allows me to enter into the awareness of who I AM—the thinker behind the thought.
Now, as you read this, I encourage you to give it a try. Examine for yourself what gratefulness feels like and where it shows up in your body. How does it differ from the feeling of universal love? Which emotions work best for you as a way to connect with and relax your body?
As you practice and become increasingly familiar with this method of relaxation and meditation, you can start to use it in your daily life to change how you feel in any situation. You can shift your thoughts to what you want to focus on and to the emotional state you wish to achieve in any given moment.