July 24, 2025 • 30 mins
In the chaos of our daily lives, have you ever yearned for a moment of true stillness? A space where you can connect with something greater than yourself? Today, we explore the transformative power of centering prayer with Rich Lewis, author of "Sitting with God: A Journey to Your True Self Through Centering Prayer."Rich shares his personal journey from struggling with silence to embracing a practice that has profoundly changed his life. You'll discover:
About Our Guest
Rich Lewis is an author, speaker, and coach who has been practicing centering prayer for over a decade. His book "Sitting with God" offers a beautiful invitation to step away from the noise and discover the transformative power of silence
.Key Takeaways:
00:00:00
Introduction to Centering Prayer with Rich Lewis
00:03:14
The Basics of Centering Prayer Practice
00:10:10
Transformative Effects of Centering Praye
r00:17:28
Writing "Sitting with God" and Reader Reactions
00:24:26
Discovering Your True Self Through Silence
About Scott
WEB:
Want to connect with Spirit, get a private reading, or attend a live event? Visit mediumscottallan.com for bookings, event updates, and more.
PATREON:
If you love these stories and want to support more episodes, check out my Patreon for behind-the-scenes content, bonus Q&As, and special perks for supporters.
Scott's Patreon
- How to begin a centering prayer practice, even if you've never meditated before
- The surprising benefits of sitting in silence, from reduced anxiety to increased self-awareness
- Why centering prayer isn't about clearing your mind, but gently letting go of thoughts
- How this practice can complement other forms of prayer and spiritual disciplines
- Practical tips for overcoming common obstacles and making silence a daily habit
About Our Guest
Rich Lewis is an author, speaker, and coach who has been practicing centering prayer for over a decade. His book "Sitting with God" offers a beautiful invitation to step away from the noise and discover the transformative power of silence
.Key Takeaways:
- 1. The importance of taking "baby steps" when starting a centering prayer practice
- 2. How centering prayer differs from other forms of meditation
- 3. Practical tips for incorporating moments of silence throughout your day
- 4. The potential for centering prayer to uncover hidden aspects of yourself
- 5. Why God is beyond gender and how this understanding can deepen your practice
00:00:00
Introduction to Centering Prayer with Rich Lewis
00:03:14
The Basics of Centering Prayer Practice
00:10:10
Transformative Effects of Centering Praye
r00:17:28
Writing "Sitting with God" and Reader Reactions
00:24:26
Discovering Your True Self Through Silence
About Scott
WEB:
Want to connect with Spirit, get a private reading, or attend a live event? Visit mediumscottallan.com for bookings, event updates, and more.
PATREON:
If you love these stories and want to support more episodes, check out my Patreon for behind-the-scenes content, bonus Q&As, and special perks for supporters.
Scott's Patreon
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My guest today believes that just a few minutes of
silence each day can change your entire life. Welcome to
the enlightened life. I'm your host, Scott Allen. I want
to thank you for joining me for another soul nourishing conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We're talking about the kind of quiet that doesn't just
calm your mind, it awakens your spirit. Rich Lewis is
here to share his journey into centering prayer, a practice
that helped him slow down, listen deeply, and connect to
his true self, which is an author, speaker, and coach
whose books City with God.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
A Journey to your true self.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
To centering prayer offers a beautiful invitation to step away
from the noise and sit with the sacred. This isn't
just about prayer, It's about presence and it just might
be the reset your soul's been waiting for. Let's get started, Hi,
(00:56):
rich how are you welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Great lands come here, Thanks having Nanks for having me
on and great, great, great introduction looks a lot of it,
different words and thoughts you put in it into it,
so thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, I try to prepare so it looks like I
know what I'm doing what I can get on here.
You know, i'd like to go back to twenty thirteen.
What first drew you to the practice of centering prayer.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I guess I stumbled on it. I was perusing Amazon
looking for a book to read, and I found a
book called Healing the Divide, Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots by
Imus smith So. And then in his book he talked
about a practice he'd been doing. Actually, I think for
about twenty years even up to that point, so he's
been at it for a long time. But I think
(01:44):
I was looking for a practice. I didn't know how
to sit in the silence. So prior to finding centering prayer,
I had heard and read by other people that you know,
silence is powerful, and just sitting in silence is powerful.
But I didn't know what I was doing. So I
was just sitting in silence, and I set a timer
(02:04):
for one minute or two minutes or three minutes, and
I remember being brutal, but I would persist. I just
I guess I sensed there was there was a lack
of depth in my prayer life. There was more to
the way I was doing prayer, and that silence was powerful.
I just didn't know how to sit in silence, you
know the right way to note that there's the right way,
(02:24):
a way that would resonate with me. So I was exploring,
how do I sit in silence? How can I encounter
this powerfulness? How can I have more depth to my
relationship with God in prayer life? And I found it
in this practice in the book that I discovered by
MSS Smith in the fourth quarter twenty thirteen. So I
began trying it for myself and for me, it worked.
(02:47):
It resonated and it worked, and I've been at it
for ten years at this point.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
For you, yeah, you know when you talk about sitting
in silence that you know, it reminds me a lot
about meditation too, because people say I can't meditate because
I can't be silent. My brain is never silent thinking
about dinner. I'm thinking about my kids, I'm thinking about
whatever it is that's coming into your head. Is that
some of what was happening to you when you talk
about it being difficult, is that some of what was
happening or were you just uncomfortable with just the quiet?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah? And I would say that definitely was some of
what was happening. I didn't know what to do in
the silence. I felt it felt like an eternity. It
felt like even two or three minutes felt like forever,
even though it really wasn't. So and we'll talk about it.
So the Center of Prayer was for me. It was
a practice that showed me, how can I sit in
the silence? How can I make it not feel like
(03:38):
an eternity? How can I let go of racing thoughts
and open to something beyond the racing thoughts?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, So you know that takes me to the next step.
So what do you think is the first small step
to someone who who feels like silence can be intimidating.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Well, I I guess one thing. I guess find a practice.
So for me it was center and prayer. But find
a practice that teaches you how to sit in the
silence first, and then I would also say, definitely take
baby steps. I don't feel like I have to sit
for thirty minutes or one hour, so I would just
challenge them. You find a practice so a way of
(04:21):
opening to the silence instead of just sitting there. Find
some type of contemporar practice that teaches you how to
open to the silence, and then maybe commit to trying
it for thirty days, make it the first thing you
do before you begin your day, and maybe even just
commit to five no more than five minutes, because five
minutes is not as long as you think. And I've
(04:43):
done a bunch of Zoom sessions for different church groups
and I've talked to them about center and prayer. Than
we do is sit together. And I always just do
a five minute sit and most of the reactions are,
this wasn't as long and as painful as I thought
it was going to be. So that's what I would
say for thirty day commitment, first thing in the morning,
to start your day, and just try it for five
(05:04):
minutes so that we are taking baby steps.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Well, you know it's funny too.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And when I think of prayer, I think of conversation.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Right, it's a conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I have to say something and then you wait, you know,
are you saying that that's not what you have to do?
You really just have to sit and be one with God?
Is that your yes?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So centering and so I'll explain what the centering prayer is.
The center and prayer has been around for about fifty years.
It was created in the early nineteen seventies really by
three Trappist months that wanted something for the Christian community.
They saw a lot of other forms of meditation happening,
and they wanted something for the Christian community, and they
created this practice called centering prayer, which is meditation, but
(05:50):
we consider it or a center and prayer practitioners consider
it two things. One sitting with God and opening to
the presence and actions of God within, and it is meditation,
and I can share how you do it because we're
kind of letting go of our thoughts and just sitting
with God beyond our thoughts. So I think of center
(06:10):
and prayer, and I think most center and prayer practitioners
think of it as deepening our relationship with God, a
different way of praying instead of us verbally praying, us
just sitting with God and letting God act in us
beyond words and images. And then of course it is
meditation because we're silent and we're coming back to the
present moment where we believe God is.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
With us, right, and it's all kind of in connected, interconnected,
you know, you talk about people who meditate, they'll they'll
sometimes refer to it as sitting in the power. But
it's really sitting with God. I mean, that's what it is.
That's it's just how you you know what you call it.
So were there any surprises? Did anything surprise you when
you started doing it?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Well, I guess once I had a practice, it made
it easier for me. So you want me to share,
So it made it easier for me. Yeah, And suddenly
I could sit in silence for five minutes, ten minutes,
twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and it was and it was nice,
and it was pleasant, and it wasn't something that I
dreaded and thought, oh my god, when is this going
(07:12):
to end?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Right? I have so much to do kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, and then and then we can talk about it.
So I'll talk about how you do it, and then
and then and then there's many fruits as a result
of the practice that when I think of myself prior
to centering prayer and now that I've been practicing it
for over ten years, you know, how is it healed
and transformed me? There's it's done a lot of neat things.
(07:37):
So how you do centering prayers, You sit comfortably with
your eyes closed and then interiorly just to begin your time,
you introduce interiorly at what we call it sacred words.
It can usually be one or two or three syllables,
so it could be love, ocean, color, Jesus. You kind
of pick something that resonates with you. So then when
(08:00):
you and that begins your prayer, silence sits. And then
when you're begin engaging your thoughts and begin thinking about
what you're going to do after your sit and the
errands and things you have to do, or if you
think about things happen that happened before your sit, you
realize you're now engaging your thoughts and you're really not
in the present moment anymore. That's when you just reintroduce
(08:21):
that sacred word to come back to the present moment,
let go of your engaged thoughts, and then actually even
let go of the word itself, because the word is
just used to keep returning you to the present moment
where you want to just sit with God. You don't
want it. It's not a mantra, and there are mantra
practices and that's fine too, but in this case, it's
just used to bring you back to the present moment,
(08:42):
and then you let go of it, of be engaged
thoughts and you let go of the sacred word. And
it doesn't have to be a word. Actually, I use
an image, so I think of an interior image of
a Jesus icon, So you can think. You can use
an image. You can use your breath. And some people
are fearful of fall asleep, so they keep their eyes
(09:02):
open and they'll just stare at a spot, you know,
maybe five feet on the ground to keep themselves in
the present moment. So you can use a word, you
can use an image, you can use your breath, you
can you can even just keep your eyes open. And
I know, like Amos, who I learned of it in
his book and I should ask him, but he he
(09:23):
had told me he keeps his eyes open.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, And you've said it's it's it's a marathon, right,
So don't expect this to be all of a sudden
you're going to go in and it's going to be perfect.
But it's the habit that you're building, I would imagine, right.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And and then I mean, there's no such thing as
a bad sit with God. It's even if you had
tons of tons of engaged thoughts, you still have sat.
You still had a sit. So yeah, and even in
my CITs, they're not all the same. Some of them
there they seem to go much quicker, others seem to
be much longer. Some might don't seem to have as
(09:57):
many as thoughts others I have tons of thoughts. So
there's no Our job really is just to show up
and just trust that this is going to this is
a helpful, healing, transforming process that's going to help me
on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, so when did you realize that, Like, what was
that moment when you said, you know what, this is
transforming me. I didn't see it coming and all of
a sudden, here I am.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Yeah, that's a good question, because here I am ten
years later. That's a very good question because if I
think about, you know, all the things I've done that
probably never would have happened because of center and prayer.
But that's things that have happened over the last ten years.
So I think maybe more instantaneously, I probably was calmer.
(10:41):
I began noticing I'm calmer. I don't react to chaos
and anxiety, or I can slow myself down and not
if I become anxious, I can suddenly stop and realize,
you know what, I'm going to be okay. So I
probably initially I noticed I was able to be a
little bit less anxious, or when I became anxious, I
(11:03):
could say, all right, slow down, rich So I think
I actually what it really did is it helps you
observe your thoughts. So outside of the practice, I began
getting better at realizing my thoughts and realizing they're not
who I am. So outside of the practice, I became
worried or I'm confident or scared, I could say, those
(11:23):
are thoughts, that's not who I am. I'm going to
be okay. So that probably was some of the initial
things I began noticing. I could observe my thoughts and realize,
these are just thoughts, these are not who I am, right,
right right, Definitely the initial and then long term just
a lot of the different things I'm doing now, or
because I've got out of my comfort zone and began
(11:45):
doing things that initially probably would have scared me or
we're not even on the radar things that I want
to do, Suddenly things I want to do and accomplish
start coming up from within.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Really, I think that's right, I mean, and I can
understand that it's almost like you know, when you're open
to it, it just sort of presents itself in ways
that you never would have anticipated before. Has as your family, friends,
other people in your life noticed that as well, and
(12:19):
noticed anything with the relationships you have with them, and
noticed it about you specifically.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I would say they were just they just were it
was neat for them. They didn't know I had it
in me. They didn't know I had a book within me.
And even I work at a gay job, and it's
a remote job that I do during the day, so
many of the people are suddenly shocked and surprised and
realize he's rich, is doing his day remote job. And
all of a sudden, we're looking on Amazon and we're
(12:46):
seeing he's got a book, and he has a second
book coming out, or he has a website and he's
got some neat stuff that he does on his website.
What the heck is this all about. It's got a
whole life that we didn't even realize. So I think
people just began realizing that there was a whole side
of me that they didn't know existed. They didn't know
there was an author in there, and a coach in there,
(13:08):
and someone who jumps on tons of podcasts, So they
just I think they saw someone doing some really neat
things and maybe maybe if they tried this practice, maybe
they'll start uncovering things in their lives that they didn't
know they could do.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What if someone what if someone isn't especially religious or
even even spiritually minded, they may believe, you know, but
they're just not there, you know, they're just they're too chaotic.
What would you say to someone like that?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Sure? Or how can you know? How can they bring
this into their life?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
And what I like about this practice is it's really
you come. I like to tell people, come as you are,
wherever you're at. So come to your silence, sit and
sit with if you want to call a higher power,
or sit with the universe, or even if you don't
even believe in God, or you're not sure what you believe,
just sit in the silence and see what happens. You
don't have to you don't have to be a Christian,
(14:11):
you don't have to be of any faith of any denomination.
Just show up and see what happens in the silence.
Just trust, trust, trust the silence. I mean, we say God,
but I like some people call higher power like that
some people call it the universe, which actually are like that.
And I even think I almost think of as I'm
(14:32):
sitting in the quantum field too. I mean, God is energy.
I don't know what God is quite frankly, but God
could certainly be the quantum field and energy. So when
I love to do a lot of different reading, and
I don't feel like I'm a heretic by any means
at all when I read this stuff, because I think
God is bigger than the things we say what God is.
So I think God is the universe. God is a presence.
(14:53):
God is the quantum field. God is a massive energy.
So come as you are with wherever you're at, sit
in the silence and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, I like that. I like that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And for people who are doing this and they're new
at it, is the goal to clear your mind completely?
Or are we simply noticing what comes up and dismissing.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It the latter. We're really just when we engage our thoughts,
we're noticing them and we're just gently letting go of
them and returning to the present moment. So sometimes we
use our sacred word to come back to the present moment.
Other times we catch ourselves without the sacred words, say oh,
there I go again. So the goal isn't really to
(15:37):
clear your mind, because you're not going to clear your mind.
The goals just to show up and when you have
your thoughts, let go of notice them and let them
go and don't hone it and focus on them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, you've mentioned that centering prayer compliments other forms of prayer.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
How is that so?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
I guess I would just simply say, don't give up
your if you if you have if you do verbal prayer,
or you do chanting, or you do where you're just
reciting certain liturgy, don't give that up. Just compliment it
with silent prayer. So it's just a different way of praying.
I think of, you know, I pray for other people.
Some people like to read the psalms, but I still
(16:23):
I continue to pray for people. But then I also think, well,
maybe I need God to pray. I think if centering prayers,
God is praying in me. So it's just a different
way to pray. Instead of I'm praying for somebody else,
I'm sitting with God and I'm letting God pray in me,
and I'm just trusting God during this process that God
will fill me or filming with what God knows I need,
(16:47):
and then outside of my center and prayer sit hopefully
take action on some of these nudges maybe from God
during my center and prayer sits.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Yeah, yeah, I I think that it's it's your personal
at least that's how it feels to be like your
personal time as opposed to sitting there and asking please,
please please.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
This is the time just to be you know, you
can talk, you know, using your parents as an example,
you know, sometimes it's nice just to visit and be there.
We don't have to always ask for something or need something.
It's just having time and that feels right sitting with God.
Your book, let's talk about that for just a second.
What inspired you to write it?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Amos Smith did so. Actually I mentioned I discovered Center
in his book, and then I reached out to him
on his website in late twenty thirteen. Started I started
asking him questions about Center and Prayer and about the
book he had written. We began a back and forth
dialogue and we became friends, and actually to this day
we continue to speak once a month. He lives on
(17:53):
the West Coast. The fact I just had an hour
and a half phone call with him last night. Oh right,
but he had and so he had written that book,
and he was in the midst of writing his second book.
And I began helping him with his website, and I
began before I had Silent Teachers, I had a meditation
going off of his site. So he challenged me, He said,
(18:13):
I think you have a book within you. You've been practicing
centering prayer now for about six or seven months. You're
just an ordinary person going into the office and working.
Why don't you write a book about centering prayer and
how it has helped you and healed you and transformed you.
So actually he nudged me to write it, and I
took him up on his nudge, and he really served
(18:34):
as a nice mentor for that process. So his name
as Paul It wasn't even on the radar screen. If
he hadn't suggested it, there's no way I probably would
have done it. But he said, I think you are
to write a book. So I remember saying, he said,
why don't you just drop down some single set and
statements about centering prayer and about what he in his
(18:57):
Healing and Divide, he talked about the Jesus paradox referred
to it as Jesus being God and human at once.
So he said, just drop down some statements about the
Jesus paradox and about center and prayer. So I did
that and came back to him, and then he said,
all right, that you have like thirteen statements there. Those
are your chapters. Go right. It was kind of what
he said, and so I just picked one of the statements.
(19:19):
I don't even remember which one it was, and I
figured I'll write a chapter and give it back to him.
He'll probably tell me this is awful, and I probably
won't have to worry about this. And instead he said
this was fresh, This was neat. You really need to do.
You need to continue. And I kind of talked to
my wife and I said, what do you think of
me writing a book? I initially thought I would you
(19:40):
give this back to Amos and he would say, oh
my god, I can't write this is I suggested this,
and this dandy said you've got something here. Rich continued writings.
So it was neat how it happened. That's really how
That's how the book came about. It was Amos nudging
me and encouraging me and then just kind of serving
as a nice mentor all along the process.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And I don't think anything happens by accident, you know.
I think it's the way it's supposed to happen. And
I would imagine that in some way, writing the book
deepened your own understanding of your journey, you know, and
kind of pushed you in a little deeper than maybe
you were even before.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I would think, yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I mean, the book writing process was the root was
just really a neat spiritual practice I enjoyed. There's a
lot of it. I didn't know what I was going
to write until I kind of sat down and wrote.
Most of the book got written on Saturday mornings. I
didn't even take time away from the family, so I
actually wrote it at the local Starbucks. This was pre
COVID about from about actually six to nine or ten
(20:36):
am on a Saturday morning, is what I did. Most
of the writing. I did some outside of that time,
but most of it was then. And it was a
really neat spiritual practice because I just sort of just trusted,
you know, I had I had the single set and
statements that were really the chapters, and now it was Okay,
what do I want to say about that singletle statement
for this chapter? And it was it was a neat
(20:57):
spiritual practice, and I just let it loan out of me.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So have readers shared with you anything about how the
book may have impacted them.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, I think a lot of neat things were. You know,
it was it was a nice introduction for them. It
spawned them to try the practice. And then a few
people at the beginning of the book, I referred to
God as I said, I might use pronouns he or she,
So there was a few people that were a little
bit taken back by hearing God is she when when
(21:31):
I was really just trying to say that God really
has male and female characteristics, mothers and fatherly characteristics, but
God is kind of beyond it. So actually it was
kind of I got a few emails where as soon
as I saw she, I can't read your book anymore,
I had to put it down. And then I had
one one person that said that, and then it was
(21:53):
kind of neat. About three weeks later they said, you
know what, I got over it, and I continued and
I finished your book out over So I think that
was maybe one of the for some people, not for
very few people, but a few people when they saw
that she mentioned because and I alternated it. And to
be honest with you, I don't even remember. I think
(22:14):
the publisher even threw a couple more she's in there,
and I didn't notice it, and and that was and
it didn't bother me. So that was one. I did
get a few emails where God is not as she,
God is a he and and and I didn't want
to have a battle with them. I just simply said
God is beyond gender and it's a pronoun and God
(22:37):
beyond it, and I'm sorry you feel that way. And
so maybe one or two people probably did stop reading
the book. But then the one person that that that
was need where they said, you know what, I got
over it. I finished the book. I loved it, so
because that's great, and I think that you know that,
and I think it's okay that that that the publisher
took a little maybe even more liberties to throw a
(22:59):
couple more she. Because God is God is not a
he or she. God is beyond all that, beyond pronoun.
It's just a pronoun.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Well, because we don't have anything else to use, you know,
we're humans.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
We don't. We don't have another word, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
But some people, you know, it's very hard for them,
it is. They saw that, and I thought, and I
even I've even seen what one gentleman keep christis. He'll
sometimes say the queendom of God. Well you can imagine
some people like that. Yeah, And I'm okay with it
because I get where he's coming from. He's just he's
just saying kingdom of God and queen of God. I mean,
(23:34):
God is just God is much bigger than the pronouns
that we give.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It's we can't think past our human existence. We really can't.
And you know, we have words, they all come from
our human experience. We don't have that experience to recall
on how to refer to God in any way. And
you know, since Jesus was a male at least, you
know that's what they tell. So you know, we tend
(24:01):
to go that way. You know, we kind of go
with it. But I think it's I think that's I
love the perspective on that because and I understand it,
and I think once people do understand what you're doing
with it and why you're referring to God that way.
Masculine and feminine. It's completely understandable. Do you think everyone
(24:22):
has true self waiting to be discovered in the silence?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I do, so I do. I like that's at least
that's what how the practice has helped me because I've
let go of engage thoughts, and some of the engaged
thoughts are you know, lack of lack of confidence or
anxiety or wary or fear. So underneath all that is
really your true self. So hence the title of the book.
(24:51):
I mean, when I think of myself pre and post
center and prayer, who really was my true self that
came out because of this practice? It was author of
this book, it was it was a website Silence Teaches.
It was one online coaching that I do. It was
jumping on podcasts. Its just sharing the idea of sitting
(25:11):
in silence with God with people on podcasts in case
it can help them. So it was a lot of
a lot of that type of stuff that never would
have happened without the as centerat in prayer and practice,
and even in my own life. We moved from Pennsylvania
to North Carolina, and maybe I wouldn't have done something
like that and move, you know, ten hours south to
(25:33):
being a car and I even changed jobs. I'm in
my late fifties. Well I'm going to turn fifty nine
later this week, so I'm approaching.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Some congratulations, congratulations approaching sixty.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
But I changed jobs. I had worked for a company
for about thirty years, and then the company outsourced kind
of the division that I worked for to another company.
So I ended up working for another company for two years.
And that was just by default because they outsourced the
work to them, and I became an employee of them.
And then on my own, I decided I need I
(26:07):
need a change, I need to work for someone else.
So at fifty six or so, I was updating my
link in profile, I was updating my resume and thinking,
oh my God, is anybody gonna want me? Am I
too old? And those were all thoughts. So centering prayer
helped me realize, these are thoughts, knock it off, you're
very employable and low behold. In about three months, I
(26:28):
found a nice remote job that I've been working for
this company for almost two years now. But I don't
think if I hadn't practiced center in prayer and just
trusted sitting with God and letting go of anxiety, worry
I'm too old, I don't have enough confidence, I can't
work remotely for a company and navigate a whole company remotely,
(26:49):
that I'm not even going to ever step a foot
in their office. These are all the thoughts I had,
and finally I had to go of all these thoughts
that I'm not too old. I can update my resume,
i can interview, I can do that is I can
land a good job that's going to help me and
my family.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And it happened.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
But I don't think if I hadn't practice centering prayer,
I probably would still be working at that other company
because I would have been afraid to let go of
my thoughts and connect to the true self underneath the thoughts,
which in this instance where it's time to find a
new job with another company.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You know, I know there are people listening who are
probably thinking this sounds great, but I'm hesitant. What is
one simple thing they can do to start today?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Kind of going back to what I said, I would say,
commit to trying it for thirty days. So make it
the first thing you do in the morning. Try it
for thirty days, and just take five no more than
five minutes. One to five minutes, and then at the
end of that thirty day period, look back and just
reevaluate how is it going. Do I like this? Does
(27:56):
it resonate with me? Do I want to continue it?
And the answer hopefully is yes, then you continue it,
and then you kind of extend them and make the
sits a little bit longer, and then you even start
adding a second sit. I usually do two sits a
day because the first sit starts my day and gets
me going, and then the second sit is a reset
(28:18):
and it helps me finish the day as strongly as
I started the day. But just commit to thirty days.
As I said, five minutes, and make it the first
thing you do in the morning. Otherwise you're probably not
going to do it. If you don't make it the
first thing in the morning, you're probably not going to
do it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Right, Yeah, you'll get busy with whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Anything else you'd like to leave with our listeners today,
and anything we haven't discussed that you want to make
sure they take with them.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
No, I would just simply encourage people to take a
daily dose of silence, and then actually you can take
pauses throughout the days. You can take at any time
at any moment, you can take a one minute pause
before you react before where you do something, before you
say something, before you react to a situation, and then
the next step might be a better action. I think
(29:08):
the next step either will be a better action. The
next step might be no action because you realize, you
know what, I don't need to do anything, or the
next step could be somebody else's better suited for this
and I just need to let them do it. So
I would just encourage people to take a daily dose
of silence in the morning, but also throughout the day.
Just take a quick dose of silence and pause before
(29:31):
you react. Back in, the whole world would be much
better if if everybody didn't react right away, we probably
would have a lot of less wars and fighting and
crime going on if we alternate right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
On, Yeah, I think you're probably right all right on. Rich,
Thank you so much for joining me today, and thank
you all my listeners for tuning into the enlightened life.
I hope this conversation with Rich has inspired you to
embrace the quiet, to find the stillness, and perhaps even
to begin your own journey with centering prayer. And if
(30:05):
you'd like to learn more about rich and more and
dive deeper into his teachings. I encourage you to visit
his website, it's Silent teaches dot com. You'll find his blog,
coaching information and details about his powerful books Sitting with God,
a Journey to your True Self, to Centering Prayer, and
in today's episode, Spoke to your Heart. I'd love for
you to connect with me as well. Visit www dot
(30:27):
Mediumscott Allen dot com to explore more episodes, events and
resources to help you livel a life aligned with purpose,
spirit and transformation. So next time, stay curious, stay open,
and keep walking your path to a truly enlightened life.
Be well, my friends will see you next time
My guest today believes that just a few minutes of
silence each day can change your entire life. Welcome to
the enlightened life. I'm your host, Scott Allen. I want
to thank you for joining me for another soul nourishing conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We're talking about the kind of quiet that doesn't just
calm your mind, it awakens your spirit. Rich Lewis is
here to share his journey into centering prayer, a practice
that helped him slow down, listen deeply, and connect to
his true self, which is an author, speaker, and coach
whose books City with God.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
A Journey to your true self.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
To centering prayer offers a beautiful invitation to step away
from the noise and sit with the sacred. This isn't
just about prayer, It's about presence and it just might
be the reset your soul's been waiting for. Let's get started, Hi,
(00:56):
rich how are you welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Great lands come here, Thanks having Nanks for having me
on and great, great, great introduction looks a lot of it,
different words and thoughts you put in it into it,
so thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, I try to prepare so it looks like I
know what I'm doing what I can get on here.
You know, i'd like to go back to twenty thirteen.
What first drew you to the practice of centering prayer.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I guess I stumbled on it. I was perusing Amazon
looking for a book to read, and I found a
book called Healing the Divide, Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots by
Imus smith So. And then in his book he talked
about a practice he'd been doing. Actually, I think for
about twenty years even up to that point, so he's
been at it for a long time. But I think
(01:44):
I was looking for a practice. I didn't know how
to sit in the silence. So prior to finding centering prayer,
I had heard and read by other people that you know,
silence is powerful, and just sitting in silence is powerful.
But I didn't know what I was doing. So I
was just sitting in silence, and I set a timer
(02:04):
for one minute or two minutes or three minutes, and
I remember being brutal, but I would persist. I just
I guess I sensed there was there was a lack
of depth in my prayer life. There was more to
the way I was doing prayer, and that silence was powerful.
I just didn't know how to sit in silence, you
know the right way to note that there's the right way,
(02:24):
a way that would resonate with me. So I was exploring,
how do I sit in silence? How can I encounter
this powerfulness? How can I have more depth to my
relationship with God in prayer life? And I found it
in this practice in the book that I discovered by
MSS Smith in the fourth quarter twenty thirteen. So I
began trying it for myself and for me, it worked.
(02:47):
It resonated and it worked, and I've been at it
for ten years at this point.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
For you, yeah, you know when you talk about sitting
in silence that you know, it reminds me a lot
about meditation too, because people say I can't meditate because
I can't be silent. My brain is never silent thinking
about dinner. I'm thinking about my kids, I'm thinking about
whatever it is that's coming into your head. Is that
some of what was happening to you when you talk
about it being difficult, is that some of what was
happening or were you just uncomfortable with just the quiet?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah? And I would say that definitely was some of
what was happening. I didn't know what to do in
the silence. I felt it felt like an eternity. It
felt like even two or three minutes felt like forever,
even though it really wasn't. So and we'll talk about it.
So the Center of Prayer was for me. It was
a practice that showed me, how can I sit in
the silence? How can I make it not feel like
(03:38):
an eternity? How can I let go of racing thoughts
and open to something beyond the racing thoughts?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, So you know that takes me to the next step.
So what do you think is the first small step
to someone who who feels like silence can be intimidating.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Well, I I guess one thing. I guess find a practice.
So for me it was center and prayer. But find
a practice that teaches you how to sit in the
silence first, and then I would also say, definitely take
baby steps. I don't feel like I have to sit
for thirty minutes or one hour, so I would just
challenge them. You find a practice so a way of
(04:21):
opening to the silence instead of just sitting there. Find
some type of contemporar practice that teaches you how to
open to the silence, and then maybe commit to trying
it for thirty days, make it the first thing you
do before you begin your day, and maybe even just
commit to five no more than five minutes, because five
minutes is not as long as you think. And I've
(04:43):
done a bunch of Zoom sessions for different church groups
and I've talked to them about center and prayer. Than
we do is sit together. And I always just do
a five minute sit and most of the reactions are,
this wasn't as long and as painful as I thought
it was going to be. So that's what I would
say for thirty day commitment, first thing in the morning,
to start your day, and just try it for five
(05:04):
minutes so that we are taking baby steps.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Well, you know it's funny too.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And when I think of prayer, I think of conversation.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Right, it's a conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I have to say something and then you wait, you know,
are you saying that that's not what you have to do?
You really just have to sit and be one with God?
Is that your yes?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So centering and so I'll explain what the centering prayer is.
The center and prayer has been around for about fifty years.
It was created in the early nineteen seventies really by
three Trappist months that wanted something for the Christian community.
They saw a lot of other forms of meditation happening,
and they wanted something for the Christian community, and they
created this practice called centering prayer, which is meditation, but
(05:50):
we consider it or a center and prayer practitioners consider
it two things. One sitting with God and opening to
the presence and actions of God within, and it is meditation,
and I can share how you do it because we're
kind of letting go of our thoughts and just sitting
with God beyond our thoughts. So I think of center
(06:10):
and prayer, and I think most center and prayer practitioners
think of it as deepening our relationship with God, a
different way of praying instead of us verbally praying, us
just sitting with God and letting God act in us
beyond words and images. And then of course it is
meditation because we're silent and we're coming back to the
present moment where we believe God is.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
With us, right, and it's all kind of in connected, interconnected,
you know, you talk about people who meditate, they'll they'll
sometimes refer to it as sitting in the power. But
it's really sitting with God. I mean, that's what it is.
That's it's just how you you know what you call it.
So were there any surprises? Did anything surprise you when
you started doing it?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Well, I guess once I had a practice, it made
it easier for me. So you want me to share,
So it made it easier for me. Yeah, And suddenly
I could sit in silence for five minutes, ten minutes,
twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and it was and it was nice,
and it was pleasant, and it wasn't something that I
dreaded and thought, oh my god, when is this going
(07:12):
to end?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Right? I have so much to do kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, and then and then we can talk about it.
So I'll talk about how you do it, and then
and then and then there's many fruits as a result
of the practice that when I think of myself prior
to centering prayer and now that I've been practicing it
for over ten years, you know, how is it healed
and transformed me? There's it's done a lot of neat things.
(07:37):
So how you do centering prayers, You sit comfortably with
your eyes closed and then interiorly just to begin your time,
you introduce interiorly at what we call it sacred words.
It can usually be one or two or three syllables,
so it could be love, ocean, color, Jesus. You kind
of pick something that resonates with you. So then when
(08:00):
you and that begins your prayer, silence sits. And then
when you're begin engaging your thoughts and begin thinking about
what you're going to do after your sit and the
errands and things you have to do, or if you
think about things happen that happened before your sit, you
realize you're now engaging your thoughts and you're really not
in the present moment anymore. That's when you just reintroduce
(08:21):
that sacred word to come back to the present moment,
let go of your engaged thoughts, and then actually even
let go of the word itself, because the word is
just used to keep returning you to the present moment
where you want to just sit with God. You don't
want it. It's not a mantra, and there are mantra
practices and that's fine too, but in this case, it's
just used to bring you back to the present moment,
(08:42):
and then you let go of it, of be engaged
thoughts and you let go of the sacred word. And
it doesn't have to be a word. Actually, I use
an image, so I think of an interior image of
a Jesus icon, So you can think. You can use
an image. You can use your breath. And some people
are fearful of fall asleep, so they keep their eyes
(09:02):
open and they'll just stare at a spot, you know,
maybe five feet on the ground to keep themselves in
the present moment. So you can use a word, you
can use an image, you can use your breath, you
can you can even just keep your eyes open. And
I know, like Amos, who I learned of it in
his book and I should ask him, but he he
(09:23):
had told me he keeps his eyes open.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, And you've said it's it's it's a marathon, right,
So don't expect this to be all of a sudden
you're going to go in and it's going to be perfect.
But it's the habit that you're building, I would imagine, right.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And and then I mean, there's no such thing as
a bad sit with God. It's even if you had
tons of tons of engaged thoughts, you still have sat.
You still had a sit. So yeah, and even in
my CITs, they're not all the same. Some of them
there they seem to go much quicker, others seem to
be much longer. Some might don't seem to have as
(09:57):
many as thoughts others I have tons of thoughts. So
there's no Our job really is just to show up
and just trust that this is going to this is
a helpful, healing, transforming process that's going to help me
on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, so when did you realize that, Like, what was
that moment when you said, you know what, this is
transforming me. I didn't see it coming and all of
a sudden, here I am.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Yeah, that's a good question, because here I am ten
years later. That's a very good question because if I
think about, you know, all the things I've done that
probably never would have happened because of center and prayer.
But that's things that have happened over the last ten years.
So I think maybe more instantaneously, I probably was calmer.
(10:41):
I began noticing I'm calmer. I don't react to chaos
and anxiety, or I can slow myself down and not
if I become anxious, I can suddenly stop and realize,
you know what, I'm going to be okay. So I
probably initially I noticed I was able to be a
little bit less anxious, or when I became anxious, I
(11:03):
could say, all right, slow down, rich So I think
I actually what it really did is it helps you
observe your thoughts. So outside of the practice, I began
getting better at realizing my thoughts and realizing they're not
who I am. So outside of the practice, I became
worried or I'm confident or scared, I could say, those
(11:23):
are thoughts, that's not who I am. I'm going to
be okay. So that probably was some of the initial
things I began noticing. I could observe my thoughts and realize,
these are just thoughts, these are not who I am, right,
right right, Definitely the initial and then long term just
a lot of the different things I'm doing now, or
because I've got out of my comfort zone and began
(11:45):
doing things that initially probably would have scared me or
we're not even on the radar things that I want
to do, Suddenly things I want to do and accomplish
start coming up from within.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Really, I think that's right, I mean, and I can
understand that it's almost like you know, when you're open
to it, it just sort of presents itself in ways
that you never would have anticipated before. Has as your family, friends,
other people in your life noticed that as well, and
(12:19):
noticed anything with the relationships you have with them, and
noticed it about you specifically.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I would say they were just they just were it
was neat for them. They didn't know I had it
in me. They didn't know I had a book within me.
And even I work at a gay job, and it's
a remote job that I do during the day, so
many of the people are suddenly shocked and surprised and
realize he's rich, is doing his day remote job. And
all of a sudden, we're looking on Amazon and we're
(12:46):
seeing he's got a book, and he has a second
book coming out, or he has a website and he's
got some neat stuff that he does on his website.
What the heck is this all about. It's got a
whole life that we didn't even realize. So I think
people just began realizing that there was a whole side
of me that they didn't know existed. They didn't know
there was an author in there, and a coach in there,
(13:08):
and someone who jumps on tons of podcasts, So they
just I think they saw someone doing some really neat
things and maybe maybe if they tried this practice, maybe
they'll start uncovering things in their lives that they didn't
know they could do.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What if someone what if someone isn't especially religious or
even even spiritually minded, they may believe, you know, but
they're just not there, you know, they're just they're too chaotic.
What would you say to someone like that?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Sure? Or how can you know? How can they bring
this into their life?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
And what I like about this practice is it's really
you come. I like to tell people, come as you are,
wherever you're at. So come to your silence, sit and
sit with if you want to call a higher power,
or sit with the universe, or even if you don't
even believe in God, or you're not sure what you believe,
just sit in the silence and see what happens. You
don't have to you don't have to be a Christian,
(14:11):
you don't have to be of any faith of any denomination.
Just show up and see what happens in the silence.
Just trust, trust, trust the silence. I mean, we say God,
but I like some people call higher power like that
some people call it the universe, which actually are like that.
And I even think I almost think of as I'm
(14:32):
sitting in the quantum field too. I mean, God is energy.
I don't know what God is quite frankly, but God
could certainly be the quantum field and energy. So when
I love to do a lot of different reading, and
I don't feel like I'm a heretic by any means
at all when I read this stuff, because I think
God is bigger than the things we say what God is.
So I think God is the universe. God is a presence.
(14:53):
God is the quantum field. God is a massive energy.
So come as you are with wherever you're at, sit
in the silence and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, I like that. I like that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And for people who are doing this and they're new
at it, is the goal to clear your mind completely?
Or are we simply noticing what comes up and dismissing.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It the latter. We're really just when we engage our thoughts,
we're noticing them and we're just gently letting go of
them and returning to the present moment. So sometimes we
use our sacred word to come back to the present moment.
Other times we catch ourselves without the sacred words, say oh,
there I go again. So the goal isn't really to
(15:37):
clear your mind, because you're not going to clear your mind.
The goals just to show up and when you have
your thoughts, let go of notice them and let them
go and don't hone it and focus on them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, you've mentioned that centering prayer compliments other forms of prayer.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
How is that so?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
I guess I would just simply say, don't give up
your if you if you have if you do verbal prayer,
or you do chanting, or you do where you're just
reciting certain liturgy, don't give that up. Just compliment it
with silent prayer. So it's just a different way of praying.
I think of, you know, I pray for other people.
Some people like to read the psalms, but I still
(16:23):
I continue to pray for people. But then I also think, well,
maybe I need God to pray. I think if centering prayers,
God is praying in me. So it's just a different
way to pray. Instead of I'm praying for somebody else,
I'm sitting with God and I'm letting God pray in me,
and I'm just trusting God during this process that God
will fill me or filming with what God knows I need,
(16:47):
and then outside of my center and prayer sit hopefully
take action on some of these nudges maybe from God
during my center and prayer sits.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Yeah, yeah, I I think that it's it's your personal
at least that's how it feels to be like your
personal time as opposed to sitting there and asking please,
please please.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
This is the time just to be you know, you
can talk, you know, using your parents as an example,
you know, sometimes it's nice just to visit and be there.
We don't have to always ask for something or need something.
It's just having time and that feels right sitting with God.
Your book, let's talk about that for just a second.
What inspired you to write it?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Amos Smith did so. Actually I mentioned I discovered Center
in his book, and then I reached out to him
on his website in late twenty thirteen. Started I started
asking him questions about Center and Prayer and about the
book he had written. We began a back and forth
dialogue and we became friends, and actually to this day
we continue to speak once a month. He lives on
(17:53):
the West Coast. The fact I just had an hour
and a half phone call with him last night. Oh right,
but he had and so he had written that book,
and he was in the midst of writing his second book.
And I began helping him with his website, and I
began before I had Silent Teachers, I had a meditation
going off of his site. So he challenged me, He said,
(18:13):
I think you have a book within you. You've been practicing
centering prayer now for about six or seven months. You're
just an ordinary person going into the office and working.
Why don't you write a book about centering prayer and
how it has helped you and healed you and transformed you.
So actually he nudged me to write it, and I
took him up on his nudge, and he really served
(18:34):
as a nice mentor for that process. So his name
as Paul It wasn't even on the radar screen. If
he hadn't suggested it, there's no way I probably would
have done it. But he said, I think you are
to write a book. So I remember saying, he said,
why don't you just drop down some single set and
statements about centering prayer and about what he in his
(18:57):
Healing and Divide, he talked about the Jesus paradox referred
to it as Jesus being God and human at once.
So he said, just drop down some statements about the
Jesus paradox and about center and prayer. So I did
that and came back to him, and then he said,
all right, that you have like thirteen statements there. Those
are your chapters. Go right. It was kind of what
he said, and so I just picked one of the statements.
(19:19):
I don't even remember which one it was, and I
figured I'll write a chapter and give it back to him.
He'll probably tell me this is awful, and I probably
won't have to worry about this. And instead he said
this was fresh, This was neat. You really need to do.
You need to continue. And I kind of talked to
my wife and I said, what do you think of
me writing a book? I initially thought I would you
(19:40):
give this back to Amos and he would say, oh
my god, I can't write this is I suggested this,
and this dandy said you've got something here. Rich continued writings.
So it was neat how it happened. That's really how
That's how the book came about. It was Amos nudging
me and encouraging me and then just kind of serving
as a nice mentor all along the process.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And I don't think anything happens by accident, you know.
I think it's the way it's supposed to happen. And
I would imagine that in some way, writing the book
deepened your own understanding of your journey, you know, and
kind of pushed you in a little deeper than maybe
you were even before.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I would think, yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I mean, the book writing process was the root was
just really a neat spiritual practice I enjoyed. There's a
lot of it. I didn't know what I was going
to write until I kind of sat down and wrote.
Most of the book got written on Saturday mornings. I
didn't even take time away from the family, so I
actually wrote it at the local Starbucks. This was pre
COVID about from about actually six to nine or ten
(20:36):
am on a Saturday morning, is what I did. Most
of the writing. I did some outside of that time,
but most of it was then. And it was a
really neat spiritual practice because I just sort of just trusted,
you know, I had I had the single set and
statements that were really the chapters, and now it was Okay,
what do I want to say about that singletle statement
for this chapter? And it was it was a neat
(20:57):
spiritual practice, and I just let it loan out of me.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So have readers shared with you anything about how the
book may have impacted them.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, I think a lot of neat things were. You know,
it was it was a nice introduction for them. It
spawned them to try the practice. And then a few
people at the beginning of the book, I referred to
God as I said, I might use pronouns he or she,
So there was a few people that were a little
bit taken back by hearing God is she when when
(21:31):
I was really just trying to say that God really
has male and female characteristics, mothers and fatherly characteristics, but
God is kind of beyond it. So actually it was
kind of I got a few emails where as soon
as I saw she, I can't read your book anymore,
I had to put it down. And then I had
one one person that said that, and then it was
(21:53):
kind of neat. About three weeks later they said, you
know what, I got over it, and I continued and
I finished your book out over So I think that
was maybe one of the for some people, not for
very few people, but a few people when they saw
that she mentioned because and I alternated it. And to
be honest with you, I don't even remember. I think
(22:14):
the publisher even threw a couple more she's in there,
and I didn't notice it, and and that was and
it didn't bother me. So that was one. I did
get a few emails where God is not as she,
God is a he and and and I didn't want
to have a battle with them. I just simply said
God is beyond gender and it's a pronoun and God
(22:37):
beyond it, and I'm sorry you feel that way. And
so maybe one or two people probably did stop reading
the book. But then the one person that that that
was need where they said, you know what, I got
over it. I finished the book. I loved it, so
because that's great, and I think that you know that,
and I think it's okay that that that the publisher
took a little maybe even more liberties to throw a
(22:59):
couple more she. Because God is God is not a
he or she. God is beyond all that, beyond pronoun.
It's just a pronoun.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Well, because we don't have anything else to use, you know,
we're humans.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
We don't. We don't have another word, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
But some people, you know, it's very hard for them,
it is. They saw that, and I thought, and I
even I've even seen what one gentleman keep christis. He'll
sometimes say the queendom of God. Well you can imagine
some people like that. Yeah, And I'm okay with it
because I get where he's coming from. He's just he's
just saying kingdom of God and queen of God. I mean,
(23:34):
God is just God is much bigger than the pronouns
that we give.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It's we can't think past our human existence. We really can't.
And you know, we have words, they all come from
our human experience. We don't have that experience to recall
on how to refer to God in any way. And
you know, since Jesus was a male at least, you
know that's what they tell. So you know, we tend
(24:01):
to go that way. You know, we kind of go
with it. But I think it's I think that's I
love the perspective on that because and I understand it,
and I think once people do understand what you're doing
with it and why you're referring to God that way.
Masculine and feminine. It's completely understandable. Do you think everyone
(24:22):
has true self waiting to be discovered in the silence?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I do, so I do. I like that's at least
that's what how the practice has helped me because I've
let go of engage thoughts, and some of the engaged
thoughts are you know, lack of lack of confidence or
anxiety or wary or fear. So underneath all that is
really your true self. So hence the title of the book.
(24:51):
I mean, when I think of myself pre and post
center and prayer, who really was my true self that
came out because of this practice? It was author of
this book, it was it was a website Silence Teaches.
It was one online coaching that I do. It was
jumping on podcasts. Its just sharing the idea of sitting
(25:11):
in silence with God with people on podcasts in case
it can help them. So it was a lot of
a lot of that type of stuff that never would
have happened without the as centerat in prayer and practice,
and even in my own life. We moved from Pennsylvania
to North Carolina, and maybe I wouldn't have done something
like that and move, you know, ten hours south to
(25:33):
being a car and I even changed jobs. I'm in
my late fifties. Well I'm going to turn fifty nine
later this week, so I'm approaching.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Some congratulations, congratulations approaching sixty.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
But I changed jobs. I had worked for a company
for about thirty years, and then the company outsourced kind
of the division that I worked for to another company.
So I ended up working for another company for two years.
And that was just by default because they outsourced the
work to them, and I became an employee of them.
And then on my own, I decided I need I
(26:07):
need a change, I need to work for someone else.
So at fifty six or so, I was updating my
link in profile, I was updating my resume and thinking,
oh my God, is anybody gonna want me? Am I
too old? And those were all thoughts. So centering prayer
helped me realize, these are thoughts, knock it off, you're
very employable and low behold. In about three months, I
(26:28):
found a nice remote job that I've been working for
this company for almost two years now. But I don't
think if I hadn't practiced center in prayer and just
trusted sitting with God and letting go of anxiety, worry
I'm too old, I don't have enough confidence, I can't
work remotely for a company and navigate a whole company remotely,
(26:49):
that I'm not even going to ever step a foot
in their office. These are all the thoughts I had,
and finally I had to go of all these thoughts
that I'm not too old. I can update my resume,
i can interview, I can do that is I can
land a good job that's going to help me and
my family.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And it happened.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
But I don't think if I hadn't practice centering prayer,
I probably would still be working at that other company
because I would have been afraid to let go of
my thoughts and connect to the true self underneath the thoughts,
which in this instance where it's time to find a
new job with another company.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You know, I know there are people listening who are
probably thinking this sounds great, but I'm hesitant. What is
one simple thing they can do to start today?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Kind of going back to what I said, I would say,
commit to trying it for thirty days. So make it
the first thing you do in the morning. Try it
for thirty days, and just take five no more than
five minutes. One to five minutes, and then at the
end of that thirty day period, look back and just
reevaluate how is it going. Do I like this? Does
(27:56):
it resonate with me? Do I want to continue it?
And the answer hopefully is yes, then you continue it,
and then you kind of extend them and make the
sits a little bit longer, and then you even start
adding a second sit. I usually do two sits a
day because the first sit starts my day and gets
me going, and then the second sit is a reset
(28:18):
and it helps me finish the day as strongly as
I started the day. But just commit to thirty days.
As I said, five minutes, and make it the first
thing you do in the morning. Otherwise you're probably not
going to do it. If you don't make it the
first thing in the morning, you're probably not going to
do it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Right, Yeah, you'll get busy with whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Anything else you'd like to leave with our listeners today,
and anything we haven't discussed that you want to make
sure they take with them.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
No, I would just simply encourage people to take a
daily dose of silence, and then actually you can take
pauses throughout the days. You can take at any time
at any moment, you can take a one minute pause
before you react before where you do something, before you
say something, before you react to a situation, and then
the next step might be a better action. I think
(29:08):
the next step either will be a better action. The
next step might be no action because you realize, you
know what, I don't need to do anything, or the
next step could be somebody else's better suited for this
and I just need to let them do it. So
I would just encourage people to take a daily dose
of silence in the morning, but also throughout the day.
Just take a quick dose of silence and pause before
(29:31):
you react. Back in, the whole world would be much
better if if everybody didn't react right away, we probably
would have a lot of less wars and fighting and
crime going on if we alternate right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
On, Yeah, I think you're probably right all right on. Rich,
Thank you so much for joining me today, and thank
you all my listeners for tuning into the enlightened life.
I hope this conversation with Rich has inspired you to
embrace the quiet, to find the stillness, and perhaps even
to begin your own journey with centering prayer. And if
(30:05):
you'd like to learn more about rich and more and
dive deeper into his teachings. I encourage you to visit
his website, it's Silent teaches dot com. You'll find his blog,
coaching information and details about his powerful books Sitting with God,
a Journey to your True Self, to Centering Prayer, and
in today's episode, Spoke to your Heart. I'd love for
you to connect with me as well. Visit www dot
(30:27):
Mediumscott Allen dot com to explore more episodes, events and
resources to help you livel a life aligned with purpose,
spirit and transformation. So next time, stay curious, stay open,
and keep walking your path to a truly enlightened life.
Be well, my friends will see you next time
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