see
Soulwork Toward Sunday: self-guided retreat
Lent 3(B) “the inner temple”
http://www.edgeofenclosure.org
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? – 1 Corinthians 6:19
For the first time in my adult life, I’m not in chronic pain.
I can’t explain why I’m not in pain. I do know, however, that pain warps your world, your viewpoint, your relationships, your sense of self. Not being in pain is like waking up in an unfamiliar but beautiful open field.
Last fall I decided to concentrate not on work, or community, or good works, or even earning money. Sapped of strength, I was desperate after a year and a half of debilitating gut issues, and decided to try to pay attention to my body. Other than the website, and only one retreat, I suspended projects, writing and speaking engagements.
I’ll spare you the list of expensive out-of-provider doctors and alternate therapies. What helps me most is massage, meditation, and yoga.
I’m not a lover of exercise. I live in my head. (If your body is in pain, how else do you manage?) But yoga began so gently, and the teachers made the practice interesting – explaining how muscles work, how certain poses stimulate, say, the nervous system, or lymph system. I began noticing a change right away and so I’ve kept at it, improving week by week. Not that I love to go… I’d still rather be in my head, but I do feel better. I’m utterly amazed how lithe I am already. And strong. Well, stronger.
The body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, Saint Paul says. I keep forgetting.
Not long ago I began having terrible experiences of overwhelming sadness and sometimes despair during my yoga practice. As these feelings come up, I attribute them to healing, and let them go.
I called my daughter Grace who has a long time yoga practice. “You carry old emotions and traumas in your body,” she told me. I’m not a lover of emotions either, but I suppose I’ve stored all kinds of horrors in places atrophied by my sedentary and purposefully un-integrated lifestyle.
This den of thieves is experiencing a shake up. Somebody’s overthrowing tables and freeing the doves. I am so grateful.
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