Exercises – Small steps in everyday life

Do you have the time? Or does time have you?

We all know: We really should take more time. For sports, health, silence. For the divine mystery. For our hobbies. And yet: It all falls by the wayside. Life is pressing, we're stuck in routines and hamster wheels that we've chosen – and from which we often can't escape.

You hear it again and again in courses: Being in a group helps you avoid going it alone. Training provides structure, and new things are taken seriously. But in everyday life? That's when things slip away.

And then we get annoyed because we fail to actually implement our insights. Who hasn't experienced that?

That's why we've come up with something: exercises that fit right into everyday life. Often very short – as Teresa of Avila said: “God is also between the cooking pots.” These are all suggestions – you can expand it at any time – feel and see what fits.

To make it easier for you to find the right one, we have sorted the exercises by time required

From the Book of Monastic Foundations 5, 5-7 by Teresa of Avila:

†I myself was greatly distressed by the lack of time for interior prayer, and I also felt pity for others whom I saw constantly at work, constantly occupied with the tasks assigned to them. I thought to myself and even spoke of how, with such restlessness, it would be impossible for them to progress in their spiritual lives.

O Lord, how different your ways are from our opinions. You ask nothing more of a person who is determined to love you and surrender himself to you than that he should be fully attuned to what you command him to do!

So remember that the Lord also walks among the pots in the kitchen and that he is with you inside and out.

Gott ist zwischen den Kochtöpfen

Volunteers bake bread daily to feed people at the Sikh temple, Delhi

 Exercises that take hardly any time – one breath is enough

  • Become aware of your breathing, breathe in and out deeply 
  • a quick prayer: oh God, be with me or something similar.
  • Pause once an hour and notice yourself (after L. Reddemann)
  • Doing something once an hour – purposeless, as an act of inner freedom: tug your ear, stretch your toes … (after Sabine Bobert)

These impulses last nonly 10 to 30 seconds. If you're awake for 12 hours: 2 to 6 minutes a day for yourself. That sounds doable.

Exercises for every day, with a little more depth – rooted in everyday life

  • Start the day consciously – a morning ritual (5–10 minutes)
  • Table prayers, night prayers, pearls of faith, or rosary (a few seconds to minutes)
  • Meditation (30 minutes daily, some twice daily)
  • End the day in prayer, take in the good, let go of the burdens (approx. 30 minutes)
  • Also helpful can be Meditation apps be – as a gentle reminder to keep going.

The exercises last max. 30 minutes daily.

 Exercises that require a little more time (but not daily) – Give away time, gain depth

  • Church attendance (approx. 1 hour/week)
  • A “desert day” or “oasis day” as a retreat
  • Retreats, faith courses, retreats (1–2 times a year, duration: up to 1 week)

Exercises requiring more time – pilgrimages of the soul – delving deeper

  • Further training or education (e.g. in meditation)
  • Social and charitable commitment
  • Spiritual guidance (approx. 1 hour per meeting, every 4–6 weeks)

constant companion – the heart prayer in everyday life

  • They say: Be conscious, be mindful, be present. Be conscious. That's good and important. If you can manage it for one hour a day, that's wonderful. Don't overexert yourself.
    One help is the so-called “perpetual prayer” or “Heart Prayer”.
verschmitzt lächelnde Engel-Statue

By writing things down, the “problem” of lack of time becomes an invitation to make conscious decisions:
How much time do you want to allow yourself for what is important to you: for yourself, for your path, for the divine mystery?

"You should pray for half an hour every day. Unless you don't have time. Then pray for an hour."
— Augustine

Silence and mindfulness

Return to yourself again and again – to arrive at yourself; to arrive at the divine mystery.
Return to yourself again and again – to hear, to hear the divine mystery
Return to yourself again and again – to be able to go to others, to be able to meet a you
Return to yourself again and again – to breathe a sigh of relief and be able to go out into the world anew.
Always return to yourself.

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