Preventative Maintenance VS Reactionary Prayers

In the Marine Corps, I learned a valuable lesson. It was a simple practice, but we did it every single day. The concept is called Preventative Maintenance. This basically means you go over your equipment and your vehicles. You look for potential problems with mechanics and replace the deteriorating part. It is a regularly scheduled event. Not something you just do when you get around to it.

When you practice Preventative Maintenance you prevent breakdowns during operations because you have had a regular inspection routine. An example of preventative maintenance. You periodically (I hope you do anyway!) get an oil change for your car. That is called preventative maintenance. It prevents wear and tears on your engine in a very powerful way.

Reactionary prayer is when we pray because someone is in crisis. It is our "help save us now!" button. I have learned that people who do not practice a daily ritual of prayer and meditation have a difficult time in a crisis. They do not see the calm in the storm. Mostly because they have not taken the time to practice preventative maintenance. With a daily ritual of prayer and meditation, One can center and ground themselves in such a way that they can react to the world in peace.

Recently I started doing the Monday and Friday meditation sessions as a daily live stream event. Granted I am not always present for the program that is streamed twice a day. But I am tuning in on a daily basis with that very still small voice. It helps me to find my way when I am troubled. It is Preventative Maintenance.

In the story of the Gospels. Jesus told his disciples to stay and keep watch in prayer. He went off to pray, he came back a little while later finding them fast asleep, and said to them "could you not stay awake for one hour?" It is true, many find that an hour or even a half-hour session is too long. Consider doing various activities in an hour's time. Then before long, you will have seen that you have reached longer periods of time.

I use various visualization techniques in the prayer and meditation sessions too. Such as centering and lighting the peace candle. Then allowing peace and everything to be still. Then we focus on the fact that it is a daily anchor, a daily ritual of working the vessel. Centering with the breath, bringing deep breaths in and exhaling. Doing this several times invokes peace. Then the focus switches to the prayer and affirmation possibilities. Gravitating to visualizing world peace. That right there is ten minutes of ritual! I do it daily as part of the meditation sessions and it has truly become preventative maintenance for me.

Some simple techniques for a daily practice can include:

Prayer Walking - You walk while communicating with God
Gratitude Prayer Moments - Thankful for all that you have and will be doing
Sacred Text Or Favorite Written Word - Reading and praying texts can do a lot for a person
Breathing Techniques - Don't overcomplicate it, just keep it simple
Prayer Journaling - Write down your thoughts and let things wander.
Sitting In The Silence - Allowing the self to process with the Divine
Visualize world peace starting with your community, Then expounding it with the inclusion of the entire nation and world.
Prayers for people you know dealing with turbulence in their lives.
Prayers for revealing what is yours to do and that which no longer serves you

Once you have established yourself in a routine of daily ritual and centering. You will find that it is much easier to avoid allowing people to pull them into their storm, but the methods give you the ability to pull them into your peace! You learn to be more assertive with your needs concerning others. It also gives you the strength to walk away when something no longer serves you.

I encourage you to adopt a regular consistent prayer and meditation time. That you connect with yourself and find your daily anchor every day. Wake up with gratitude and carry that on throughout the day. These are Preventative Maintenance techniques for discovering your own peace of mind. My mental state use to be so incredibly full of chaos. It was a constant problem. Through the constant practice involved with the daily event of ritual involved with prayer and meditation. I have been able to adjust the neurotransmitters and cleanse my mind. Connecting myself with my true self for the first time. It happened over time as a result of this preventative maintenance technique that I have grabbed onto and do daily.

Find your daily anchor, you will feel so alive and centered.

A Ho