How to Use a God Jar

When it feels like the world is crashing down upon your head, or you have a worry on your mind that won’t go away, you need not tear out your hair in frustration. You can use a God Jar. A God Jar is simply a jar or other container you dedicate to collecting all your worries on little slips of papers and “giving them to God.” A God Jar can help you deal with everything from large financial disasters to a small spat with the neighbor, whatever is eroding your sanity. You can use a God Jar with a few simple steps and a lot of scraps of paper.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Jar or other container
• Small scraps of paper
• Pen

1. Pick your container. A decorative jar with a lid, old candle jars, ornate wooden boxes or a simple gift bag are all fine choices. The only requirement is that your container be solely used for the God Jar purpose and not emptied out if needed for another use. You can decorate your container by labeling it a “God Jar” or “God Bag” or writing “Worries go here” on it.

2. Identify your woes. Anytime you are obsessed with, plagued by or losing sleep because of a worry, write down the worry on a small piece of paper. The paper can be a small scrap from an envelope or whatever else is lying around on the table, or you can cut small, colorful scraps from note cards and old magazines and leave them by your jar for easy accessibility.

3. Ceremoniously place your woe in the jar. Taking a few moments to sit with the woe before you place it in the jar, and thus in God’s hands, is a good way to really let it go. Fold the scrap of paper containing your woe into a small square and hold it on your forehead. Close your eyes and say something like, “God, I give this to you so I don’t have to worry about it anymore. You can handle it. Thank you.” Place the woe in the jar.

4. Let it go. This is the tough step that gets easier with lots of practice. Once you’ve placed the woe in your God Jar, erase it from your mind. It’s no longer yours to worry about. If a woe continues to nag at you, you can continue to place it in the jar on a daily—or even hourly—basis until it goes away.

5. Empty the God Jar. Once your God Jar is so full you can no longer close the lid or the scraps are piling out onto the floor, have another ceremony to get rid of them. Dump all the scraps into a fire pit, metal bucket or other flameproof surface and light them on fire. Watch all your woes burn with their troublesome nature wafting to the sky as smoke. Bury the ashes.

Tips & Warnings

• It’s important to purge your God Jar when it gets too full.

• Nothing is too silly or simple for a God Jar. Nor is anything too huge.

• For a bit of humor, look through old scraps before you burn them to prove to yourself everything passes.

• Don’t carry your woes with you, like one woman who used to empty her God Jar into boxes and then took the boxes with her even when she moved. You are supposed to get rid of this stuff that worries you, not carry it indefinitely.