Illuminating Paths

Learning to pray with body and soul means finding a balanced approach to our embodiment. When we are balanced, we treat our bodies as intimate friends.

Jane E. Vennard

Being in Our Bodies

So often in the living of the spiritual journey, we engage our intellect and our feelings, but rarely our bodies. In the West, we have accepted the notion that our spirits and our bodies are separate and that to “be spiritual” is to deny or ignore the body.
 
A holistic approach to spirituality recognizes that as humans formed in the image of the Creator, all of who we are is indeed good – mind, spirit, heart, and body. The central narrative of the Christian faith is of God becoming enfleshed, incarnate, human. The way we know God most intimately and clearly is through our bodies – sights, sounds, smells, touch, tastes. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” says the Psalmist.
 
The work of embodiment is to heal the artificial rift that has occurred between body and spirit. Rather than deny the body in our spiritual practices, it is critical that we celebrate and engage the body in our spiritual life. We do this by such intentional practices as body prayer, play, creating art, and making music.
 
But all of life can be spiritual practice depending on our intention. How we approach any activity and the intention we give it shapes its meaning and its potential to help us grow ever more human and ever more spiritual. So in fact embodied spirituality can include washing the dishes, horseback riding, walking, cooking, gardening, or making love. The question is how do these embodied practices connect me to myself, to others, and to God.
 

Practicing Embodiment

In Illuminating Paths, we seek to help individuals and groups gently learn a more embodied way of being in the world. We use the tools of movement, play, creativity, and sharing to form a deeper and more whole spiritual life.