Embodied Prayer
“When body and mind come together the heart opens and the spirit rises.”
- Rachel Michael
Since ancient times human beings have instinctively expressed worship, prayer and praise through the use of gesture and movement. There are many examples of this in the Psalms. Yet in Western culture this instinct has been dulled and, in general, little attention is given to embodied forms of prayer.
Many of us feel uncomfortable with our bodies and this can cause us to shy away from connecting with our body in prayer. At the same time, we long to find ways to draw close to God with the whole of who we are.
Our bodies are the grounding for our being in this life - the means through which we become manifest in time and space. To offer our body to God therefore, is to offer ourselves.
Benefits of embodied prayer:
Fostering awareness and insight
We all need time to slow down and take stock, and in those times, if we give attention to how we feel at a bodily level, we might notice tiredness, numbness, pain or tension as our body holds and processes our experience of life below the everyday level of consciousness……
Furthering wholeness and integration
The experience of wellness and woundedness register in our bodies in many different ways. Even thoughts and feelings resonate at a bodily level, and this is why connecting with our body at a sensory and felt level can be such an effective way to support our wellbeing and journey into wholeness……..