Holy Yoga

My Sunday school class has been reading Velvet Elvis and watching Rob Bell's Nooma video series. This video, titled "Noise", is a great reminder of the blessings of Holy Yoga as we make room for quiet in our lives and create space to hear the "still small voice."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvo3TBzLu0

Liz Whiston-Dean

Holy Yoga was launched in my church on the 22nd & all Glory to God for its success. We are growing weekly & my Pastor introduced me in our evening service last night. I can only thank God for the boldness, wisdom & confidence through His Holy Spirit that came over me. Had it not been for my Holy Yoga walk & my love for my Father I would have run a mile, but God has prepared me & for the first time I could testify infront of the congregation of what God through Holy Yoga has turned my life around & I have found Love, Peace & acceptance as a child of The Most High. Thank you Brooke, for all your encouragement & motivation in my development. Blessings from Cape Town, South Africa.

I think I came out of the womb a competitive, Type A, hard-driving, ambitious, anxiety-ridden perfectionist. I am the first born daughter of an Air Force Colonel/ WWII Veteran and a Beauty Queen. I have accomplished a lot in my life, but  have paid a high price in terms of a lack of peace, serenity, solitude, and joy.

Last fall, I needed some continuing education credits because I teach fitness classes at another venue, so, I took a Christian Yoga seminar. I fell in "love at first sight" with Yoga. When I called Brooke to tell her that I wanted to become a teacher, I was drawn in by her sweet response of "YAY!!!", as if she had won the Lottery. (Little did I know that she and Alisa had "prayed me in").

I began to hang around the Holy Yoga instructors at Living Streams Church. What an interesting bunch, they were! They were definitely "Jesus lovers", and spoke a lot about GRACE, and BEING, instead of DOING. (What a concept!). They read from and quoted Brennan Manning and talked about the "furious longing of God". They were cool, godly, earthy and tattooed. (Small ones).

 My favorite quote was Brooke's "IT IS WHAT IT IS AND IT'S NOT WHAT IT'S NOT". (Is that in the Bible?) God had used that saying to change my life!

As I participated in Holy Yoga classes, I began to learn to quiet my mind, focus on my breath and meditate on what God might be speaking to me in corpse pose.

I was able to apply these things to my life off my Yoga Mat. I am learning to stay in the moment, not let my mind race ahead of me and walk in a much greater sense of surrender and dependence on God. My anxiety level is much lower as I trust God to do HIS thing instead of ME forcing MY agendas and micromanaging my world according to MY WILL. And guess what? I discovered that I am NOT the glue that keeps my world together! I had never let go long enough to see if God could hold my life together. He proved faithful (of course) and helped me to "chill" and actually experience JOY for the first time in my life. Thank you, Jesus for Holy Yoga!

As an instructor, I love to give a short devotional on a verse of HIS choosing and compile a play list with Christian songs supporting that verse. It is a fabulous creative outlet and I am loving it!

 This is all in addition to how wonderful I feel in my 54 year old body. No more waking up like the Tin man in the Wizard of OZ who needs to be oiled. No more chiropractic visits after I wrench my neck from looking too far over my shoulder in the car.

As you can see, I cannot say enough about Holy Yoga's impact in my life. I have heard it said, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears". I am so grateful for Holy Yoga "APPEARING" to teach me how to walk more intimately with my Lord.

Jennifer Cecil, M.ED, LPC, RYT

9/7/09

I don't kow if you remember the movie "Waiting to Exhale".  It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I really realized what the title really meant.  Because of everything that was going on in the character's life, she didn't think she could exhale.   The other week life was just beating me deown, I finallly took a deep breath, then I realized I hadn't really exhaled in over 6 months.   I went on Bible gateway and found all the scriptures on Breath.  I'm in amazement of how powerful God's breath..  So after that I pulled about 10 songs off Itune  that dealt with the breath of God.  Again in amazement.  Today I am just so thankful for the breath of God.  I'm thankful because He breathed life into man way back in Genesis.  Because of what He did then, I can exhale today.  So I'm mindful today as I was sitting here holding my breath and worrying about my pending court date (Wednesday) of how powerful HIs breath is and how HIs breath restored life into dry bones (Ezekiel 37).  So today, I will get on my mat (often) with my breath songs and scriptures in mind and allow God to brethe on me.

Trina 

As I stand upon this Rock
I view the making of me
Had I not had to climb
From so far below
All of this encompassing
Would yet be unknown

Given you gentle Hand
During struggles, confusing paths
Through wilderness land
You began to guide me
Lead me to understand

King
Sweep me to higher plains
Clear away fear
Drop by drop healing Reign
sooth my awakening
spiritual birth pains

Yet, the beginning
Of this Mountain Range
is no illusion
to where my growing
never, no never
will end
Until, King, you come back
Again.

n Jesus,
Gina