The infamous question this week….yes, you got it! “SO what is your New Year’s resolution?” My response this year is I don’t have one. My hope is that I continue to be more aware, conscious and mostly present in whatever I am doing, from being with my family and friends to eating a meal.
The Apostle Paul shares with us in the letter of Philippians encouragement to set our goals. He expresses, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers and Sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching towards what is ahead. And I press on toward the goal.” Some of us continue pressing the rewind button on the video cameras of our minds, like a horrible scene that doesn’t go away! Some of us fix our eyes of what is to come, “when I have this much in the bank, then I will be happy.” How many of us just press on toward the goal? Or even know what the goal is? First let’s define a goal…“The end toward which effort is directed.” Synonyms for the word goal are, “target; purpose, object, and intention.” Ah HA, now those are familiar words we hear in yoga. Set your intention for this practice. Or is it a practice? Shiva Rea stated in an interview on her DVD of Fluid Power, “I don’t practice yoga any more, practicing yoga is like practicing the violin as if you have to achieve perfection. So, I don’t practice yoga, I live yoga, I am yoga.” So in essence within yoga we yoke or join with the Spirit of Life on and off our mats. The goal is simply to BE present with the I AM. Present within a posture, as we position our bodies to receive the fullness of life. The goal that Paul is talking about is living a life of purpose, BEING in relationship with God. It is not about being perfect; if we were to be perfect then we wouldn’t need Divine intimacy or saving Grace. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit or Prana within our bodies wouldn’t need to be obtained if there was not a goal. So this year perhaps we just continue onward to forget the past, reach toward the future, and press on toward the goal. The goal of yoga is to create harmony with mind, body, and soul. Let’s connect with prayers and poses.
For how to get in and out of the poses go to www.yogajournal.com and there will be links with descriptions and photos of the poses below.
Breathe in and out: “I forget the past”
Our hearts hold on to past wounds, back bends are postures that can release stale and stagnant energy. Postures/Asanas that open the heart and draw the shoulder blades on backside of heart release the past; the heart bolsters forward and is open to the future. Maybe something comes to mind in this pose, acknowledge it and then release it.
Some Back bends to exlpore-Bridge, Wheel, Cobra, Upward facing Dog, Bow
Breathe in and out: “I reach towards what is ahead”
Standing Mountain Pose with arms reaching towards heaven
Child pose reaching arms long with hope
Warrior II reaching arms equally to the back and front symbolizing the balance between faith and action
Breathe in and out: “I press towards the goal”
In Downward Facing Dog press the heel of the hands and feet into the earth, experience the balance and connection with the Creator of the Universe who holds you up. As your head releases below your heart feel your brain being bathed with new vitality; a fresh start. Fix your eyes on the goal, an internal/external positioning of your whole body with purpose and BEING.
May we grow deeper in love with who The Spirit made us to be in this new year.
Set up the Tabernacle on the first day of the new year Exodus 40:2 (NLT)
This the start of a new year. A time to think about how we will approach the year ahead. Many people will make resolutions or set goals. As yogis we can do well to set intentions for the new year instead of goals or resolutions, this makes the process and focus more important than the end.
On the first day of the new year just short of the anniversary of the Exodus, God's people set up the tabernacle. A place to worship and honor God for God saving acts and promises. We no longer have to set up the physical tent, tabernacle or dwelling place for God. God is now with us, among us and can dwell within us.
Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? 1 Corinthians 6:19 (MSG)
Today set an intention to let your body be a tabernacle (dwelling place) for the Divine, a sacred place for God to dwell. Here are 3 things that I will be doing to pursue that intention.
Meditate and journal more regularly to spend more time in quiet reflection with God. The intention behind the physical practice of yoga was and is to prepare the body for extended times of being present with God.
Let go of fear on and off the mat. Because as ouryoga teacher Brooke Boon often says quoting scripture we have not been given a spirit of fear 2 Timothy 1:7. If fear is limiting in my yoga practice and in my faith. letting go allows me to trust God and trust that challenging postures will come when I am ready for them.
Strengthen my core on and off the mat. Physical core strength is essential to so many postures in yoga basic to advanced. Inner core strength, spiritual and emotional, is essential to meeting all the challenges of life with faith and hope.
I hope you will join in this intention and determine your own 3 things that will deepen your practice and make your body a temple for the Divine
Have you ever uttered the words when confronting a tough situation, “Well, part of me wants to … (fill in the blank), but another part of me does not”?
Part of me wants to reach out to a hurting person, but part of me does not.
Part of me wants to start eating right, but part of me does not. And won’t.
Part of me wants to go after the job I really dream of, but the part of me that lives in fear of the unknown absolutely does not.
This list for what we desire to do could go on and on—confront a situation, exercise, get more organized, quit a smoking habit, stop lashing out in anger, stop turning to an addiction, stop running frantically throughout the day, practice a little patience.…
I wonder how you would fill in the part-of-me-wants-to gap.
What is this thing in me—and perhaps in you too—that isn’t quite on the same page with the other parts of me? Some of me wants to, while some of me doesn’t—what is that about? What are these places in us that are broken, fragmented, divided? And is that how we were meant to live? It doesn’t feel right, that’s for sure. I hate the sensation of wanting one thing and doing another. It makes me feel lost, like I’m a mini-me floating above my own out-of-body experience. Likewise, though, when I live and walk in the way my heart longs to do, I feel more alive, more “myself” than at any other time.
I find God’s mission for me clear: “Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love,” says Ephesians 1:3, “to be made whole and holy by his love,” (MSG).
He came to make us whole. Then holiness will follow—I will actually begin to look more like Jesus Christ in my life. I will begin to live the same kind of life he lived. They come as a package, don’t they? The more “whole” are our hearts, lives, minds and souls, the more that holiness or living as God desires us to live will follow.
I think it’s this sort of truth that made the psalmist declare, “I run in the paths of your commands for you have set my heart free!” (Psalm 119:32). Talk about a free man! Someone who runs after God’s commands—a pursuer of holiness—is someone who hides nothing, fears nothing, smiles, laughs, loves, lives. Doesn’t that sound enticing? It certainly does to me.
I have always loved God, but I have not always known wholeness in my life. At times I felt fragmented, disjointed, dis-integrated in some sort of way. I longed for something to unite me further, deeper with God. I knew he lived in me; that I had been united with Christ, one spirit with him. Yet I wanted a deeper understanding and working-out of that truth. I wanted a more substantial integrity—an inward one—to define my life in different ways. I found what I was looking for in an unexpected place; the furthering was found in yoga.
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The word yoga actually means “union; to yoke, to unite.” Of course! Precisely what I was longing for.
Yoga is counter-cultural because it brushes against the grain of what today’s norms drive us to do—to be driven. Rush around, get as much done as you possibly can, take care of everyone and everything, be busy. What’s the first thing someone says when you ask them, “Hey! How are you?” If your sphere of influence is like mine, the response is some variation of, “Oh, I’m sooo busy.” But busy isn’t what God invites us to be.
Running contrary to society’s stream, yoga allows us to stop, breathe, stretch, elongate, stabilize, strengthen … and the list goes on. Not just our bodies, but our hearts, minds, and souls. There are a million wonderful effects from yoga, each as different as the person practicing, but the number one reason I do yoga is to connect, to unite me with the rest of myself, me with my Father above.
Yoga was created in ancient cultures to prepare oneself for meditation. A true yoga practice is done to allow the mind to center on God in a deep way that can only be accomplished from yoga. Ask any yogi: They know this to be true.
God tells us in the Bible that the most important thing, the biggest thing to focus on in all of the Word of God is to love him “with all your heart, with all of your mind, and with all your strength.” Sounds pretty central, pretty important, to me, but how does it actually get done? I think the start is uniting them—heart, mind, strength—so that they then may unite with him.
Lately my attention has been absorbed by a book by Agnes Sanford titled, “The Healing Light.” In it she writes, “In order to fill ourselves with His whole being, let us think of Him, imagining His presence, seeing Him with the yes of the mind, trying to love Him with the heart. Let us beseech Him to come and dwell within us. Let us ask Him to enter into our spirits and fill us with His own consciousness of the fatherhood of God; to enter into our mind and think within us His own thoughts; to enter into our hearts and feel through us His own love, directing it to those who need it most; to enter into our bodies and build them up according to the pattern of His perfect holiness; making us more and more fit channels for the inflow and outflow of His life.”
Agnes’s words are one example of an inner musing, a prayer of the soul, for use in meditation or contemplation. Yoga is a vehicle to intimacy with God in every single facet of our lives. Can we even fathom the truth of being made in the image of God? How complex and wonderful our Creator is! And how complex and wonderful are his creatures … what dignity he bestows upon us. I love having an outlet for thinking on such marvelous things.
This is what this practice of stillness and “being” is truly meant for: uniting us with God. God makes his home inside our heart, and we are one spirit with him. In yoga, we unite and allow his life to flow more fully inside of us. The fruit that comes from simply allowing this to happen is mind-blowing, its effects altogether altering to life.
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Since late 2007 chronic illness has halted my pace of life in a way I never knew was possible. It disrupted my world one day, and I have not been the same since. If I’m honest it hasn’t all been bad. Truly I wouldn’t change the effects I’ve known for anything else in the world, even as the alterations I’ve been asked to make stretch my capacity thin. I have always been one to maintain a measured pace, to nurture the introverted soul inside me that loves people contemplatively and solitude even more. Yet I was destined to learn an even deeper sort of stillness than comes by way of being home, saying “no” to requests, retreating, or reading a good book.
Illness forced me to my knees and then to my back, at which point the couch became my dwelling place. Weakness sapped the last of each day’s energy supply, most of which was spent walking from one waiting room or another into one doctor’s office or another. Who wants to be social when that’s what your life has become? Still, I felt so alone. Alone and afraid and sad.
But then came yoga.
Yoga awakened something in me that I’d never experienced before—simply being with God. I wasn’t speaking, praying, thinking, singing. I was simply being with him. My body was moving in worship, and I was offering a deeper part of myself to him. No words could have been uttered to express what my heart was expressing; in fact, words surely would have cheapened it. My heart was expressing something, conveying something to God, to the One I love and who loves me, and something big was beginning to happen. I started to feel more like myself … the woman God crafted me to be.
My yoga teacher constantly encouraged me during my schooling to become a yoga instructor for whom “the being is the becoming.” What she meant by this was that simply being—not striving, working, planning, projecting—will allow for more transformation than my mere mind could fathom.
Settling down, silence, meditation, quiet. We need these things desperately and yet our jam-packed days balk at the idea. But when we carve out requisite space, oh the power that unfolds! How could God not respond to your cry for more of him? More wholeness, more holiness—he’ll always supply our demand.
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When tragedy happens in a life the common response is to rush to its side and try to evict it as soon as possible. For that matter, whenever anything uncomfortable comes our way, don’t we move swiftly and efficiently in order to thoroughly do away with it? Welcome to the human experience, I suppose, where there is little tolerance for being burdened by things like waiting, frustration, or pain of any sort. Fast and effective and perfect and neat—this is what we aim for, even if God had something altogether different in mind.
The atmosphere most receptive to the life God wants to live in us and through us comes via a different path—the way of waiting, the way of being, the way of yoga, union with God and union with one’s own heart.
Sue Monk Kidd writes in her book, When the Heart Waits, that a monk once said to her: “I hope you’ll hear what I’m about to tell you. I hope you’ll hear it all the way down to your toes. When you’re waiting, you’re not doing nothing. You’re doing the most important something there is. You’re allowing your soul to grow up. If you can’t be still and wait, you can’t become what God created you to be.”
If you are new to the concept of yoga, here is a great place to start: Simply come to the floor and sit on your knees, opening them a comfortable distance apart, your legs tucked underneath you. Fold your torso forward over your legs and rest your forehead gently on the floor, or if it is more pleasant, tilt your head to the side and rest your temple there. Let your arms stretch out in front of your head, or rest them by your sides, palms facing upwards in receptivity to what God has. Rest here for five minutes without moving. Be still here. You are experiencing what is called Child’s Pose. Think about being God’s child as you take several full, deep, slow breaths. See what happens. It’s just five minutes. But better is five minutes in his gates than thousands elsewhere.
“Tis the season to go crazy…. fa la la la la la la la la!” Thanksgiving is over and the lights are on and out everywhere, the rush has started and in the craze of worrying about gifts, cards, family and how to afford the gifts can easily put us in a bad mood. BUT “tis the season to be jolly,” right? YES…despite the anxiety driven commercialism of Christmas, we can slow down and embrace the reason for this season. The reason for the season is to extend abundant love for another and celebrate the birth of Christ who is The Light, Truth and Way. We just started the Advent tradition in my family and we are on day six and it has truly set our days in motion with purpose. Traditionally Advent is celebrated in the evening, but we gather in the morning to center our day, to symbolize the light of Christ overcoming darkness. The wreath is a visual reminder that God’s love is eternal and never ending. There are three purple candles that represent royalty or the coming of the King. For the first three weeks we light the purple candles, the first week we light one purple candle, the second week we light two purple candles and, the third week we light all three purple candles. On the fourth week we light a pink candle that reminds us of God’s love. On Christmas day a white candle is placed in the center of the wreath to signify God’s purity. Every morning we sit around our table and follow this simple reading by St. Andrew’s Church that centers our day. One of us lights the candle and repeats, “May the Light of Jesus Christ come into this house.” We add our minds, hearts, thoughts, and bodies. Then we all say together, “O God whose word all things are made holy, put your blessings on this wreath, and may it remind us to slow down our hectic pace and make our hearts ready for the coming of Christ your son and our Lord.” We take thirty seconds because my kids are four and two, to sit in silence and focus our gaze/drishti on the light. Then together we say the Lord’s the prayer. It has been such an enriching experience for us as a family and myself personally that, I have incorporated the candle meditation into my classes, as each student lights each other’s candle and looks at each other in the eyes and says, “The Light in me, sees the Light in You.” This is the English translation of “Namaste,” a greeting in Sanskrit that literally translates, “I bow to you.” It is a way to not only greet your fellow neighbor but also honor the person’s spirit within. I often end classes with, “I bow to the Divine Truth that has created each and every one of you.” We all are created in the image of God, designed and hand crafted with gifts and talents to offer the world. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). During this season of gift giving, may you find the time slow down and perhaps reflect on the special gift that you are, designed in the image of God. Jesus came to earth in the body to teach us what love looks like and He invites us to go to Him in our bodies with praise and thanksgiving, as we offer our bodies in prayer with poses.
My vivid imagination plagued me as a child - I recall seeing Wild Things dance in my room against the soft glow of my night-light. I also have memories of flying (yes) from couch to couch, undaunted by the reality of gravity. Although I no longer imagine myself performing superhuman tricks, my imagination can sometimes serve as a boon in my spiritual walk.
Living in Harrisburg, PA, I'm not surrounded by a group of Holy Yoga instructors; it's just me - Elijah in the cave style. I have a home practice, but for me, nothing beats taking a nice Vinyasa Flow class at a local studio. My lovely teacher knows how to put together an awesome sequence, but she is also know for her goddess worship and chants for chakra opening.
Initially, I just snuggled the chanting (no thank you on the Shiva devotion) into my own paradigm. My imagination opened up to the idea on based on potentiality. Who am I to limit the ways in which the Lord expresses Himself. I thoughtfully imagined the ways in which Ohm could seamlessly be integrated into my own spiritual walk.
When we began teacher training we talked about vibrational energy. I immediately associated this energy with the groaning of the universe. Romans tells us how the universe waits expectantly for the revelation, subjected by the Father to be patient in hope so that it may one day be delivered from its bondage into the liberty of God, and "we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together" (Romans 8:19-22). Paul goes on in verse 23, "Not only that, but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."
When a yoga class began with a low, tonal Ohm, I joined in - happily. I considered myself lifting up a song of praise with all of creation, vibrating in expectant hope and worship for Him who is to come. The word groan, or stenaz? in the Greek, means to sigh or to groan within our souls, an inwardly groan. Each place the word is used in the New Testament, it's an expression of a deep longing for home - a nostalgia, if you will. The utterance of Ohm, for me, became an outward expression of an inward emotion.
Ohming also reminded me of the creation story - God breathing the entire world into existence. I imagined God hovering over the void Ohming the waters and the skies and the plants and the animals into being. The sound rippled over the vast darkness like an ocean tide, springing forth vibrant, green life as the vibration overwhelmed the void. I especially enjoyed this particular Ohm when a student expressed the invocation in the lowest vocal tone of bass. I sat contentedly listening, and sometimes joining in.
Then, it happened... I Googled it. Yes, to my demise, the search engine turned up all sorts of crazy non-sense that certainly did not edify the Creator God. I felt comfortable with a few of the definitions. Did you know that a crater in the moon is called an ohm? An ohm is also an electrical unit of resistance named after scientist George Ohm? And my favorite, OHM: One Hot Minute, the Red Hot Chili Peppers sixth album. I read over the completely unrelated and platonic classifications, but I had to stop at the religious connotations.
Ohm, or Aum, or OM, is a sacred syllable used in several ancient religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The symbol is of utmost importance to the Hindu belief system, and it is made up of three different Sanskrit letters: aa, au, and ma - which when said together form what we know as OM.
In the Katha Upanishad, one of the many sacred Hindu texts, OM is described this way: "The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which men desire when they lead the life of continence ... is Om. This syllable Om is indeed Brahman. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires. This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma."
Translation: because Brahman, the Absolute, is omnipotent, omnipresent, and incomprehensible, Hindus use the OM symbol as a representation to help followers know the unknowable. In the Christian faith we do something similar by attributing human characteristics to a Holy God whom we can only comprehend on our own terms.
As mentioned above, I have an imagination, but when I read the Hindu definition, I just couldn't swing this one. "Om is indeed Brahman." When I stumbled upon this ancient text, my original understanding of Ohm came under immediate attack. All along had I been engaging in idol worship of a counterfeit God? This question led me to begin thinking about words and whether or not words have inherent meaning. Is Ohm significant because of the meaning we infuse into it? I believe it is. I hope you don't lose me here, but I'm going to get a little theoretical for just a moment. Structuralism (a theory espoused by scholars in the early 1900s allowing for ambiguity and the multiplicity of meaning) breaks things like words into units. Outside of grammar or language, words are meaningless, therefore I choose whether or not I Ohm in worship of God or in worship of a knockoff. Ohm is meaningless until I insert it into a general framework - in my case, worship of God. Ok, we're done with intellectual theories.
Linguistics aside, I have a responsibility as a Christian in the yoga community to make the Invisible God visible and speak the Truth boldly. By joining my classmates in chanting to Brahman, or with the intention to reach a higher level of consciousness, I could hurt my witness to non-believers. I have been clear about my convictions (I teach a Holy Yoga class at this studio); my fellow yogis and yoginis know that I am a Christian. They see it. After reassuring myself that those around me understand that I know The Truth and that I am on the yoga mat to worship Christ and Christ alone, I had to decide for myself whether or not I would continue to chant with the class.
What it comes down to for me: Does chanting Ohm stir my affections for Christ? Yes. It brings warmth to my heart because one, I don't really have it all figured out, and I am not supposed to know! We see through a glass dimly, and it isn't until He returns (that time for which my spirit joins in all of creation, moaning for His redemption) that all will be made clear. If imagining myself lifting up a hopeful utterance, or envisioning the Creator vibrating over the deep, it is ultimately about my heart and my intention. But to me, there is one God, "the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live" (1 Corinthians 8:6).
I'm sure many of you have grappled with similar issues. We are to be in the world, but not of it, right? I think the yoga studio is one of the most difficult places to negotiate life as a Christian living in a non-Christian world. I think that this entire discussion boils down to two points. 1. Are you living out your faith? Do those in your studio know what makes you different than the others? If they don't know, then you need to tell them. Proclaim His light; be a beacon. 2. If chanting Ohm or closing the class does not sit right in your spirit, then don't do it. This is something you have to prayerfully consider - there is no sweeping generalization about the way we should conduct ourselves in our yoga classes. You need to go to God, spend time in the word, and ask yourself hard questions.
Finding my place in the yoga world is a daily battle, but I know that if my heart is right and I'm seeking the Lord, He will guide my path!
