Embodiment
Move
Moving Our Bodies
Our bodies are a gift from the Creator -- in fact, we are created in the image and likeness of God, according the Genesis. Our bodies are created to move -- dance, walk, make love. hike, play music, cook, paint. Movement, like all things, is sacred when we move with intention, purpose, mindfulness.
And yet, we rarely take time to notice or even plan our movements. Mostly, we go from place to place with little thought of what our bodies need or how we might be pulled to move in creative ways. What would it be like if two or three times a day we asked the simple question, "How does my body want to move today?" or "How might God be calling me to move in my body?"
Movement is easy for many of us. We do it every day, even if it's just a walk to the bathroom or a shaking of the hand. But movement often feels intimidating to many of us because we are so self-conscious of our bodies and the ways we move and live in our bodies. The voices of judgement -- either internal or external -- keep us from moving with freedom, delight, and abandon. Many of us are afraid that we don't move "right" or that movement only means dancing and "I don't dance."
Movement with attention to the sacred, however, is life-giving, liberating, and opening. When we pray with our bodies - in yoga, or body prayer, or swimming - we offer our full selves to the universe and to God. It's our way of saying, "Here I am. All of me" so that we may have deep and true intimacy with the divine.
And yet, we rarely take time to notice or even plan our movements. Mostly, we go from place to place with little thought of what our bodies need or how we might be pulled to move in creative ways. What would it be like if two or three times a day we asked the simple question, "How does my body want to move today?" or "How might God be calling me to move in my body?"
Movement is easy for many of us. We do it every day, even if it's just a walk to the bathroom or a shaking of the hand. But movement often feels intimidating to many of us because we are so self-conscious of our bodies and the ways we move and live in our bodies. The voices of judgement -- either internal or external -- keep us from moving with freedom, delight, and abandon. Many of us are afraid that we don't move "right" or that movement only means dancing and "I don't dance."
Movement with attention to the sacred, however, is life-giving, liberating, and opening. When we pray with our bodies - in yoga, or body prayer, or swimming - we offer our full selves to the universe and to God. It's our way of saying, "Here I am. All of me" so that we may have deep and true intimacy with the divine.
Movement Practices
Using the tools of InterPlay, Illuminating Paths teaches ways to attend to the sacred by moving our bodies. We engage in such movements as hand dances, movement on behalf of issues or loved ones, shape and stillness, and body prayer. We start gentley and slowly and move incrementally.
Consider the following simple body prayer which includes movements of the hands to head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, heart, belly, buttocks, feet:
Consider the following simple body prayer which includes movements of the hands to head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, heart, belly, buttocks, feet:
Anoint me this day
That I may see
That I may hear
That I may be your fragrance
That I may speak your truth and my truth
That I may love
That I may know
That I may sit in your presence
And walk in your paths.
Amen.
That I may see
That I may hear
That I may be your fragrance
That I may speak your truth and my truth
That I may love
That I may know
That I may sit in your presence
And walk in your paths.
Amen.
If you would like to host a workshop, attend a retreat, or work one-on-one with body movement, please contact us.