Episode 88: Meditation, The Sacred Door to Daily Repentance

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When you hear our prophet and apostles talking about the need for daily repentance have you ever thought, what do I need to repent for on a daily basis? Or maybe thought, how do you do that? Do I just need to list a bunch of things in my prayers that I did wrong that day?

Many people do think that. I have even had a few people reach out to me and ask me to put a forgiveness column in my prayer journals so they can list all the things that they need forgiveness for each day. Which is a great concept to be thinking about repentance daily, but I think people are missing the mark when they think about repentance. I want to help you understand what repentance truly means and how you can use meditation to repent daily.

In April 2019 President Nelson gave profound counsel on repentance in general conference. He taught, “Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind,” he also said taught. “Daily repentance is the pathway to purity, and purity brings power.” Then he went on to talk about what power daily repentance can bring from the Savior. “The Savior lifts us above the pull of this fallen world by blessing us with greater charity, humility, generosity, kindness, self-discipline, peace, and rest.”

I love that he says repentance is the key to happiness and a peace of mind. How many days are you laying down at night not able to fall asleep because you are worried about the future and what will happen and mentally exhausted from the stressors of the day? Wouldn’t it be nice to understand how to use repentance in that moment to feel peace in the unpeaceful of life so you can fall asleep and wake up feeling rested the next day?

I also loved how he talked about how repentance is the key that brings power into your life from the Savior. Are you in need of some extra power in your day? How about the power to finally fold that clean laundry on your bed rather than throw it on the floor one more night. Or the power to get those things off the to-do list that have been there for months. Perhaps you need the mental power to finally have those conversations with loved ones you have been meaning to have. Or the patience to deal with another day of the children whining.

That is the type of power that daily repentance can bring into your life. Now you might be thinking, I never really thought of using repentance in that way. A lot of women I work with think of repentance as something that you do when you have sinned. When they think about sin they think about things that would cause them to maybe lose a temple recommend or something big.

The truth is we all need repentance on a daily basis because we aren’t perfect but also because we don’t have the mental perspective to deal with the challenges we are facing. Only God has the perspective we need every day to know where our time is best spent, how to proceed in challenging situations, and what to change in our circumstances to stop the worry and stress. 

Let’s dig a little deeper into the word repentance. The Bible Dictionary talks about the definition of true repentance as “a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. … [It means] a turning of the heart and will to God.” 

When you look at repentance this way as a fresh view about things and being able to align your heart with God’s in that moment, that really opens repentance up to a lot of situations in your day right? For example.

• What if you had a fresh view about which circumstances need to be dealt with first in your day? Helping you focus on what really matters so you’re not getting distracted and can feel peace about the things that aren’t being focused on. 
• What if you had a change of mind about the one person in our life that will never change that you keep complaining about to your friend?
• What if you could be a vessel for the Savior and have confidence that you’re receiving exact answer to help in every situation?
• What if instead of saying to yourself daily, “Why does this happen to me? I’m not good enough, I’ll never figure this out.” Your mind changed and your heart turned to God so you felt like a great mother, wife, friend or confident in who you are as a divine daughter of God. 

Would you want to seek daily repentance then? I bet you would so let’s now talk about how daily meditation can actually help you achieve that change of mind and fresh view. In that same talk in April 2019, President Nelson said,

“The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means “change.” The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean “mind,” “knowledge,” “spirit,” and “breath. Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.”

I absolutely loved this when I started research about the value of meditation in my spiritual life. President Nelson was telling us that if we change the way we breathe then we can change so much about our lives. Most importantly how you spend your time, care for your body and how you think. He is also telling us we can do this through changing our breath.

Did you know that one of the keys to meditation changing your breath to regulate your internal nervous system. Changing the way you breath can actually change how your brain functions. Changing your breath during meditation can shift your physiology to change neurochemistry and perspective to produce a more fertile state of mind for progress. When you don’t change your physiology then your emotional reactions are automatic and over time will dominate your thought process. 

The only way out of this emotional reaction state is to enter the self-reflection and contemplation state. So you must learn to change states to decrease this dominant state. Often we don’t need more information we just need a new mental vantage point or a change of mind a fresh view, repentance.

Meditation can restore the contemplative state by connecting you to your true divine DNA connected to God so you can hear the still small voice, have clarity in your thoughts and yoke to the Savior's enabling power for your day. President David O. McKay is one of the most quoted leaders when it comes to meditation.

“We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. Meditation is one of the most secret, most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord."

There it is, meditation is the sacred door to daily repentance. When you shift your physiology into that contemplative state with a new vantage point you are walking into the presence of the Lord. You are receiving information for your day that can help you align with God in where you need to be spending your time, who you need to be helping, how to help them and receive the Savior's enabling power to mentally and physically tackle what He wants you to do. 

You might be feeling convinced to try meditation or maybe you have tried it in the past and it didn’t work the way I have described it then I have something really exciting for you. I am putting together a Clarity in the Chaos Course.  The course will include revelation meditations for access to Christ’s enabling power of TIME, ENERGY and HELP.

These meditations are different than any type of meditation you have experienced. A lot of meditations try to clear your thoughts or just produce a relaxed state of mind. Not these meditations. These will help you enter a state of clarity in your thoughts then prompt the Spirit to give you a fresh view or change of mind about what you are going to tackle that day.

In the Clarity in the Chaos Course you will Learn a variety of 20 different revelation meditations to connect to a power beyond your own that facilitates:

• Clarity in your thoughts to stop getting distracted and be guided in what’s most important so you can feel at peace with the things that  didn’t get checked off your list.
• Receiving the still small voice to be a vessel for the Savior and have confidence that you’re receiving the exact answer to help in every situation.
• Yoking to the Savior’s enabling power to increase your mental and physical stamina so you can get more done than you can do on your own.

If you want to stop lying awake at night feeling like nothing got done but you are physically exhausted from doing so much.  If you want to stop feeling that you can’t face another day because your load is too heavy to hold by yourself. Or if you want to start hearing the still small voice that gives you the exact answer for their unique circumstances, then jump on the waitlist so you can be notified when these meditations release.