What is embodied spirituality?

Embodied Spirituality is a way to live that gathers together your body and mind, and connects you with something greater than yourself that gives you strength and resilience in your daily life. Spirituality empowers you from the outside in and from the inside out. Your connection to the earth and nature grounds you so that you walk solidly. Many people have a daily spiritual practice like prayer, meditation, or ritual. Many people feel especially spiritual when they are walking alone in nature. Many people find their embodied spirituality in a physical discipline like yoga, tai chi, or aikido. There are a few people whose spirituality takes over the activities and events in their lives. What makes these practices spiritually embodied is awareness. If you are living in numbness or oblivion, nothing can be spiritually embodied.

 Awareness is attention and focus on what is going on in your body, your world, while connecting to the power greater than yourself. You live in the moment. Your past no longer exists. Anything that you think is the past is really your imagination at work and needs to be let go. Do not let the past prevent you from your present moment because that is really all you have. One type of awareness is mindfulness, when you keep your mind on what is happening moment by moment during the day as you go about your daily affairs. When you get distracted, you simply return to your mindful awareness. When something stressful occurs, you try to stay in the moment.

Another type of awareness is optimism, which means facing the future with wholeness, integrity, coherence, well-being, and resilience. It is realistic; it doesn’t minimize the challenges you face or the obstacles you meet. You, like everyone in the world, are at the mercy of economic, political, and social injustices. Meeting difficulties with optimism is a way of staying grounded in a world where these challenges do not topple you. Your spiritual power and body agency are things you can depend on.

 Embodied spirituality helps you 

find your meaning and purpose in life (integrity)

understand yourself as authentic, resourceful, and creative (wholeness)

determine your values to guide decision-making and problem-solving (coherence)

experience comfort, joy, compassion, and strength in the present moment. (wellbeing)

feel a sense of agency and confidence in stressful situations or adversity (resilience)


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