outward journey

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Outward journey in british english.

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Mindfulness is an outward journey

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What’s your idea of mindfulness? A person sitting cross-legged with eyes closed? Peaceful bamboo trees? A serene zen garden? In spite of much research to illustrate the difference between mindfulness and relaxation , mindfulness is still perceived by many as a blissful technique, somehow detached, and separate from real life. An oasis we create for ourselves to step out of a frantic world.

I don’t know how things look where you are, but in Palestine the inner and outer landscape tend to be a bit more tense. Serenity is scarce, and bamboos are nowhere to be seen.

It is precisely in these conflictual zones that I value mindfulness, not because of its blissful effects (I have experience none of them), but because  it helps me to remain grounded in a pretty crazy land.

As any authentic inward journey, mindfulness is meant as a way to enrich the ‘outward journey’. It is nothing else but a way to be able to ‘see’ and relate to one another with more clarity, choice, and openness – not by virtue of denial, but by virtue of awareness and  curiosity .

Humanitarian or social change organisations need mindfulness   to build resilience and prevent burnout , and  to be aware of the impact of our good intentions in the outer world.

Here’s a beautiful poem on the ‘inner or outer journey’. Enjoy!

“The Journey” by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice – though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do – determined to save the only life you could save.

Photos by Alessandra Pigni

Photo #1 Zen Garden, London

Photo #2 The separation wall in Bethlehem, Palestine

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Barriers to Faith

We are strengthened to greater authenticity, discovery and growth in our "inner journey" by the spiritual disciplines of daily Bible reading , reflection, prayer, journal writing and regular times of retreat.

Our "outer journey" grows as we focus and give ourselves to specific mission and service that expresses the Gospel, often with particular attention to poor and marginalized people.

Strength for the "outward journey" proceeds from the discipline of our "inner journey" and each enriches the other.

Both the "inward journey" and "outward journey" will be challenged by busyness, over-commitment to leisure and the enemies of God's Kingdom resulting in shallowness or even retreat in both journeys.

For best growth in the adventure of each journey most of us benefit greatly from the community of other Christ-followers. Just one such community which has encouraged many through many decades is the Potter's House in Washington D.C. led by Gordon Cosby, founder of the Church of the Savior.

A book flowing out of this community which has encouraged me over the years was written by Elizabeth O'Connor: I commend it to you also. There are of course others but I would encourage you as you come to value the foundational "both/and" nature of the journey of those who follow Christ, to ask yourself as you read them, "is this mentor/author fully committed to both the "inner journey" and the "outer journey" or does she or he only 'tip the hat' to one journey or the other?" If it's only a 'tip of the hat,' read this book until you find something better. Then when you are firmly established in both aspects of your journeys, read authors who may help you in the journey in which you need the most challenge and encouragement. But make sure you get and keep the balance primary. This balance is one of the most important lessons of life as a Christ follower. An image I've appreciated expressing this well hangs in the chapel of Rocky Mountain College in Calgary, Canada. It speaks simply and graphically of this balance and adds an important truth about the relationship of the two. Foundational to fruitfulness is pursuing Christ and being deeply rooted in Him who nourishes and strengthens us whatever the storm (inner journey). Out of relationship with Christ and obedience to Him in the world grows the fruitfulness which brings glory to God (outer journey).

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Definition of outward adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• Mark showed no outward signs of distress.
• She simply observes the outward forms of religion.
• To all outward appearances (= as far as it was possible to judge from the outside) they were perfectly happy.
• There were no outward signs that the house was inhabited.

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Meaning of outward – Learner’s Dictionary

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(Definition of outward from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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two-wheeler

a vehicle with two wheels, usually a bicycle

Keeping up appearances (Talking about how things seem)

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Meaning of "outward journey" in the English dictionary

Pronunciation of outward journey, grammatical category of outward journey, what does outward journey mean in english, definition of outward journey in the english dictionary.

The definition of outward journey in the dictionary is a journey leaving for a particular destination.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH OUTWARD JOURNEY

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TRANSLATION OF OUTWARD JOURNEY

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FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «OUTWARD JOURNEY» OVER TIME

Examples of use in the english literature, quotes and news about outward journey, 10 english books relating to «outward journey», 10 news items which include the term «outward journey».

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Top Podcasts In Education

Nine Books About Aging, Growing, and Changing

Moments of great physical upheaval—pregnancy, puberty, illness, athletic training, weight fluctuations, aging, transition—can be accompanied by great revelations.

Living in a body is an exercise in enduring surprise and accepting change. During our lifetimes, we spring leaks, heal, grow, get sick, and age. We wake up some days and don’t recognize ourselves in the mirror. Some transformations appear on schedule—new rolls of flesh, sudden tufts of hair—and others come upon us suddenly: humbling bruises, unforeseen illnesses. But too frequently, we sanitize the moisture and mess of being alive with bland metaphors.

The best writing about our physical selves acknowledges that our exteriors affect how the world receives us; that we’re shaped and changed by family, friends, and lovers; and that as long as we’re alive, our bodies are always in flux. The nine books below are radically truthful: They explore moments of great change—pregnancy, puberty, illness, athletic training, weight fluctuations, aging, transition—and the revelations that accompany them. Reading them inspires both introspection and sympathetic reaction. You’ll wince in shared pain, sigh in relief, and remember that none of us stays the same for long.

A Very Easy Death , by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Patrick O’Brian

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The Hearing Test , by Eliza Barry Callahan

When a young musician wakes one day with “rolling thunder” thrumming through her head, her life whittles quickly into a case study. Experts are called in; appointments are arranged; doses are prescribed. She learns she’s suffering from encroaching sudden deafness, and she’s told she must enter trials, attempt hypnosis, cut out many of her favorite foods, and avoid too much stimulation, sex included. This engrossing, eccentric novel ties together our ideas about time and sensation, revealing how illness alters both. Then it untangles that knot and weaves a linguistic fabric unlike any you’re likely to have felt before. After losing her hearing, the narrator reaches outward, reflecting on the uncanny coincidences in her life and the lives of those she loves. She writes obsessively about artists who greeted bodily change with grace, and burrows deep into their projects. She finds inspiration in an internet forum for people who have also been abandoned by their senses, where members make earnest attempts to understand their new worlds. The novel finds succor in the shared experiences of shifted perception: Loss of one sensation inspires journeys through others, or leads to the solace of discovering others with similar struggles.

King Kong Theory , by Virginie Despentes, translated by Stéphanie Benson

This polemic unfurls in vitriolic vignettes that inspire righteous fury. Despentes, a feminist French filmmaker and writer, takes on beauty ideals, rape, and aging, invoking the figure of King Kong—something “on the link between man and beast, adult and child, good and bad”—to imagine a kind of womanhood that claws back at cruel, unfair patriarchal standards. She begins by defending “the loser in the femininity stakes,” attempting to rescue girls from the wreckage of a society that measures their bodies against impossible ideals. In livid but conversational prose, she unveils the way beauty standards and sexual violence are parallel exercises of power, and argues that patriarchy not only wants women in pain but also demands that they hide that pain––teaching women to feel shame rather than rage when hurt. Despentes details how her own sexual assault was a process of disempowerment; she learned to resist that feeling through speaking about her pain, and through decorating and dressing herself according to her own tastes. And as she ages, she sees how society demands that older women not draw “too much attention”—and gleefully refuses, calling for all women to take pride in their changing forms. In a world that tells women to “conceal your wounds, ladies, lest they upset the torturer,” Despentes wants us to wear our scarred skin with pride, as evidence of our animal persistence.

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Easy Beauty , by Chloé Cooper Jones

This memoir combines aesthetic theory, philosophy, and personal writing to create a story of self-discovery, predicated on reconceptualizing “beauty.” Cooper Jones was born with a rare disability that renders her physical form surprising to most observers, so she’s locked out of what she calls “easy beauty”: symmetrical, simple, and legible according to entrenched standards. Her condition also means she experiences near-constant pain, which “plays a note I hear in all my waking moments,” she writes. But in her book, Cooper Jones opens up to new sensations and startling epiphanies as she teaches herself to take up space without shame and to stare back at those who dare to judge her. In turn, she finds unexpected possibilities for and sources of beauty—in crowded concerts and people moving through a museum, in watching her son’s skeleton and organs develop during her pregnancy. Seeing him in a sonogram, she writes that she is “pulsing around him, my blood, my skin, wrapped around a void” of pure potential. Through her writing, beauty becomes a moving, muscled, amorphous thing. It's a body that loves and is loved, that builds other bodies and is unafraid to bend into the unknown.

The Undying , by Anne Boyer

Boyer’s book on breast cancer is at once a group memoir, a history of a personal tragedy, and a story of violence masquerading as medicine. At age 41, Boyer was diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer, and embarked on an excruciating, financially draining, and devastating treatment journey—but found herself in a sorority of other women who’d been through the same thing. A litany of breast-cancer survival stories miscast healing as an individualistic fable “blood pink with respectability politics,” she explains, but her memoir of diagnosis and treatment resists this framing. Instead, Boyer directs her anger toward the polluting systems that can cause cancer and the medical establishment that treats it expensively and painfully. She argues that people cannot be solo actors in pursuit of health when our world is full of carcinogens, and she rejects medical narratives that inspire shame in the ill while draining their bank accounts. In one rousing moment, she and her patient-peers reject toxic positivity in a chemotherapy room, speaking up about the pain of their treatments rather than enduring it in silence. This is part of her attempt to use her body, and her story, to change our understanding of cancer from an individual struggle to a collective one, and to forge solidarity among those it touches.

The Wind at My Back , by Misty Copeland with Susan Fales-Hill

Copeland’s memoir is a tale of endurance and athleticism, awe-inducing feats of motion and perseverance through mental and emotional pain. The world-famous ballerina, and the first Black principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre history, makes her book a love letter to her mentor Raven Wilkinson, another Black ballerina, who died in 2018. In the 1940s, Wilkinson decided she would be willing to “die to dance,” which she almost did––performing across the country despite violently enforced segregation laws in the South. By the time she and Copeland embarked on a friendship, Wilkinson had retired and fallen into obscurity; Copeland was furious to learn that a fellow Black ballerina had been erased from the discipline’s history. Learning from her “was that missing piece that helped me to connect the power I felt onstage to the power I held off it,” she writes. Copeland wrings meaning from the toll that dance takes, recalling “wrecked” muscles and toes “cemented in my pointe shoes.” Dance influences how she writes about physical transformations, including pregnancy—she calls her son’s kicks “grands battements.” Wilkinson’s wisdom about dance, aging, exhaustion, and exertion puts Copeland’s own struggle against ballet’s racism into historical relief. Ultimately, their pas de deux underscores the power of the art their bodies forge.

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

A Drag Queen’s Journey Toward Self-Discovery and Stardom

I n the world of drag where outward flamboyance masks inner complexity, we find a young performer’s quest for identity amidst the shimmering chaos. Sophie Dupuis’ insightful film, Solo , offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a drag artist who uses performance as a platform for self-expression, even as he battles to carve out his own space both on stage and in life.

We are introduced to Simon, who performs as Glory Gore (portrayed by Théodore Pellerin), bursting onto the Montreal drag circuit, oozing charisma and vulnerability in equal measure. Drag serves as Simon’s expression and escape, amplifying a confidence that seems more tentative when he isn’t donned in his splendid array of costumes and makeup. Glory Gore’s allure attracts Olivier, also known as La Dragona (Félix Maritaud), who sees in Simon the prospect of a lover and a muse.

Their relationship blossoms both on and off the stage, as Simon risks being overshadowed by the more experienced Oli’s punk-style drag. Simon’s life becomes entwined with Oli’s both artistically and personally, to the point where his own identity, family ties, and drag persona are all eclipsed. The film also delves into Simon’s complicated emotions towards his absent opera singer mother (Anne-Marie Cadieux).

The heart of Solo beats in its drag sequences set to music such as “Work it” by Marie Davidson and “Amazing” by Hi Fashion, which mirror Simon/Glory Gore’s self-exploration. He and Oli dazzle audiences with their palpable chemistry on stage, but their intense connection brings forth issues of jealousy, insecurity, and ownership.

The crucial question Solo examines is what Simon, as an individual separate from Glory Gore, aspires to achieve by himself. As Oli aggravates Simon’s insecurities, we’re compelled to question whether their relationship is symbiotic or toxic. Despite its lively start, the film’s intensity cannot be consistently maintained, leaving viewers to ponder if the narrative’s climax reaches a satisfying conclusion.

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The Winter 2023 issue of Callings is packed with thrilling updates from the community. It kicks off   Recovery Cafe DC celebrating “Bridging the Gap”. Ann Moczydlowski shares highlights from Wellspring’s 50 year celebration, and other noteworthy topics.

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Church of the Saviour lives out its call to the inward/outward journey together in different communities. Each has a distinct charism and style, but all share the tradition of deep commitment, listening for God’s leading, and servant ministry in the nation’s capital.

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