Breathe In and Out...Breathe In and Out...

Breathe in and out...breathe in and out...breathe in and out...this is how most yoga classes begin. By connecting with rhythm of your breath you begin to to notice things about your body and your mind. You begin to notice where there is tension and where there is an opening for release. This is what keeps me practicing yoga.

When I first began regularly practicing yoga about 9 months ago it was primarily for my physical wellbeing as well as longing for a community where experienced love and belonging. There is no doubt that I am physically stronger and more flexible. In fact when I began yoga I had no idea there were these "crazy" arm balance poses and when I first saw them I thought to myself, "I could never do those!" Yet, today I can do many of them! I am amazed by what my body is capable of.

However, I've also learned that not every pose is there every time you come to your mat. There are days when it takes every ounce of my energy to just get through "my flow" and the rest is really just a crap shoot. On those days, after I curse myself for not being able to to a pose, I then promptly say to myself, "it's okay that it's not there today, maybe tomorrow, or possibly the next day it will be there." I think this is true in life. Some days we can do it and some days we fail. It is on those days that I need to remind myself to love who I am and what I can to that day, not what I could do yesterday or what I might be able to do tomorrow, just who I am TODAY!

What I didn't expect when I began practicing yoga was that I would be challenged and encouraged to be fully present with myself. This practice of being fully present with myself has cultivated an awareness of the connection with mind, body, and spirit. I find the more fully present with myself, the more authentic the connection is between my mind, body, and spirit. Being fully present with yourself requires awareness of the effect that your mind, body and spirt have on one another.  For example, we tend to hold the energy from emotions in our hips, thus when you do a yoga pose that is a hip opener you may suddenly feel a release of an emotion that was stored there. Through the practice of yoga I have become so aware of the these connections and for that I am grateful!

For me the yoga breath...breathing in and out...is where I begin to be fully present with myself. I am reminded that in hebrew the word for "breath" is the same as the word for "spirit." To breathe is to filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus, being fully present with myself is also to be fully present with God.  

Mind, Body & Spirit

The mind, body, spirit connection both baffles and intrigues me.  Being a psychology major the workings of the mind have always fascinated me.  Being brought up in the church the idea of the Holy Spirit has also intrigued me.  Being an athlete the workings of the body also interests me.  However, it is only in the past year or so have I begun to explore the many dimensions of the mind, body, spirt connection.

For years our culture (including much of Christianity) has pitted the mind, body, and spirit against one another. We were told that our bodies and minds were the enemies-the reason for sin. We were told that the only good was The Spirit. We have been told that we are at our core sinful. Now I don’t dispute that we are all sinful, in fact I know we are all sinful. However, I have come to believe that God see us as the spiritually perfect beings we truly are. 

What I have begun to realize is that the mind, body, spirit connection is essential to being human. We can not have one without the others. When one is suffering the others are affected. In other words the whole of who we are (mind, body & sprit) is always in need of God’s transformational and healing love. I was first introduced to this concept of attending to the mind, body, and spirit by my Spiritual Director, Anita Cummings. In our work together we always spend time attending to the mind, spirit and body. Actually, we attend to them concurrently. For Anita, ‘body work’ (attending to the flow of energy in our body in a variety of ways) is an essential aspect of spiritual healing and transformation. 

In the beginning I was skeptical of ‘body work’ as a form of spiritual direction and transformation. I wondered how ‘body work’ could affect spiritual transformation. It just seemed so foreign and it wasn’t part of my Presbyterian theos that said that the Spirit and the body were at odds. As we began attending to my body through this ‘body work‘ I became aware of how this ‘work’ affected my mind and spirit. I began to sense and feel the connection between my body and my mind and spirit. When I attend to my body I am also attending to my mind and my spirit.

There are so many dimensions of the mind, body, spirit connection that I continue to explore-intellectually, physically, and spiritually. What connections do you see? What dimensions and/or connections would you like to explore? What questions do you have about the connection between mind, body and spirit?

For me, the connection between mind, body, and spirit is one of God’s surprising wonders!