Posts Tagged ‘power’

Yoga and Prayer: Strength

September 25th, 2008

Life has felt really overwhelming to me this week. I didn’t even realize until last night how truly overwhelmed I had become. I had felt all week a sort of off centeredness and I antsy agitation. I felt stressed and eager to do something. But, there was something else I was feeling all week that I couldn’t put my finger on… until last night. Overwhelmed. That’s what I’ve really been feeling and I’ve tried to dive into stuff and distract myself from it but in my heart I felt incredibly overwhelmed and helpless, out of control and powerless. But, I didn’t want to admit it to anyone, not even myself.

So, this morning knew that I needed to remember with my mind and my body that there is a power greater than myself. I needed to remember that God is in control even when I’m not, that God is powerful even when I am not. I needed to remember that God is not helpless and that he is with me. And I needed to remember that he had given and will give me strength for each day and the circumstances of each day. I needed to call on that truth and that strength.

So, for yoga today those are the things we focused on and drew our attention to. We did a lot of strong warrior poses, remembering that God does and will fight for us. We spent a lot of time coming back to and staying in Mountain Pose remembering that our God is a strong mountain and grounding ourselves in that truth. And we prayed together – prayed for God to be powerful over the situations of our lives that overwhelmed and scared us.

We used a few songs from the Four Tet album Rounds again today for music and each time we came into mountain pose I said Deuteronomy 31:6. So, here’s what we did:

Sun Salutations – 2 sets

Mountain Pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Standing Forward bend

Lunge with right foot back

Warrior I right foot back

Downward facing dog

Lunge with left foot back

Warrior I left food back

Down dog with leg lifts (do both legs)

Plank pose

Four Limbed Staff Pose

Upward facing dog

Downward facing dog

Standing Forward bend

Mountain Pose -  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Standing Forward bend

Lunge with left foot back

Warrior II with left foot back

Reversed Warrior II with left foot back

Extended side angle pose

Downward facing dog

Lunge with right foot back

Warrior II with right foot back

Reversed Warrior II with left foot back

Extended side angle pose

Downward facing dog

Plank pose

Four-Limbed staff pose

Upward facing dog

Downward facing dog

Standing Forward bend

Mountain pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Warrior II with right leg back

Triangle Pose with right leg back

Mountain Pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Chair Pose

Mountain pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Warrior II with left leg back

Triangle pose with left leg back

Mountain Pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Warrior I right leg back

Warrior III right leg up

Mountain pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Warrior I left leg back

Warrior III left leg up

Mountain pose - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Standing Forward Bend

Downward facing dog

Child’s Pose

Hero Pose

Lion Pose

Child’s Pose

Bharadvaja’s Twist to the right

Staff Pose

Bharadvaja’s Twist to the left

Seated forward bend

Half Boat Pose

Bridge pose

Reclining Twists

Corpse Pose

Peace and strength yours today.

Rejoicing in the Journey -
Bethany

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Lessons from Yoga: Warrior Poses

August 1st, 2008

Ok, so the other day I realized that I almost never do Warrior poses in my personal yoga practice and I asked myself why. Why do I avoid Warrior Poses? So, I started thinking about this and it was really revealing for me. Here’s what I came up with…

First, I don’t do these poses, or when I do them I don’t hold them for very long, because my legs are actually fairly weak. I don’t do these poses often (I haven’t actually done many standing poses in general lately) so these muscles haven’t had a chance to build strength.

My second reason for not doing these poses often, or not holding them for long, is much more mental and emotional and it is really the thing that was revealing for me. Basically Warrior poses are very assertive poses. They are strong, powerful poses. They are very much “warrior” poses and there is a feeling of assertive warriorness that comes to me when I do them. And I don’t like that. I don’t like being or seeming assertive. I don’t feel that I should be powerful. I think there is a very real internal feeling in me that feels that it is not right to be powerful and assertive. I think there is a part of me that feels that being assertive or powerful shows pride and arrogance instead of submissive humility. I value humility but I don’t value assertiveness. So, I don’t like doing warrior poses. They feel too powerful and that scares me.

But, as I’ve been thinking about this I’ve been realizing some things. For starters God is a warrior God and a powerful God. And He calls his people to fight powerfully for truth and justice. There is a time for asserting ourselves on behalf of others. There is a time for powerfully standing up for another. I think that fighting for justice is something that I have very little experience in, but it is something I have felt God challenging me on and in a strange way I think the first step He is asking me to take is to start incorporating Warrior pose into my yoga practice. Maybe it sounds weird but I think the first step for me is to experience God’s warrior strength and power and heart for justice in my body and then to take that out into my everyday life.

The other thing that I have been thinking about is that humility and submissiveness really can be taken to an unhealthy place. I used to not like when people said that. I thought aren’t we suppose to completely die to self and thus not care if people walk all over us? But, really I’m realizing that what I often do when I don’t stand up for myself, when I let people walk over me, is that I give into fear. So, often I don’t share what I really think or feel, or I don’t stand up for myself because I am scared of what people will think of me and scared that I will hurt their feelings. But, I don’t think I am really helping them or me when I do that. I think the other thing that I have been realizing is that in cowering and not standing up for myself I am often lying. There is a place for setting your own needs and desires aside in favor of another person’s needs/desires. But, there is also a place for being honest and standing up for yourself as one of God’s beautiful creations. I’m starting to learn that there is a place for asserting yourself.

So, God has been challenging me to start doing warrior poses and to start allowing myself to be strong in my yoga practice and in my daily life – asserting myself on behalf of others and on my own behalf (when appropriate) as well.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Surrendering Sovereignty

July 12th, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about control lately. Power. Authority. Rule. Sovereignty. Lately I have felt very out of control of my life. Like I don’t have the control, the power, the authority, the sovereignty that I once had over my life and what my life would look like. It’s an incredibly scary place to be.

For as much as I say that I believe I am not in control and that God is in control, I like acting like I am in control. I like feeling like I do have the power to determine my own life. I like being sovereign over my own life and will. But, lately I have had to come face to face with my own limitations and lack of control. It’s been uncomfortable at best.

Then there’s another aspect of control that I have been thinking about and that is relational control, power, and sovereignty.

For a long time I have talked about the value of community. I have talked about the importance of open and authentic community. I have dreamed of a place where people could really belong – a place where they could have fellowship with one another not just as saints, but as sinners – a place where they could be themselves and bring the wholeness of who they are, broken and beautiful, to others and receive love and acceptance and forgiveness – a place where people would meet each other’s needs and really love each other in active and living way, with words when words were needed and with tangible help when tangible help was needed. I’ve talked about this and dreamed about this and I’ve tried to be the kind of person that made other people feel comfortable enough around her that they could share of themselves and their lives. But, I think in many of my relationships in the past I have tried to maintain power and control. Not consciously, but I have done things unconsciously that allowed me to keep control and even power in my relationships.

For example the other day Bryan and I went to coffee with some friends, Bryan offered to treat, but they refused, knowing our situation, and offered to treat for us instead, we refused. The whole thing was pretty little but it got me thinking. I really like treating when we go out with people. I like being able to meet others needs and in the past I have thought that this was an appropriate and generous thing to like. But, I started thinking about why I don’t like to let others pay for me when I go out. In my refusal of their love and generosity I maintain a little bit of control and power. Instead of bowing myself to them and acknowledging my neediness and appreciation, I instead maintain a posture of pride and cling to a posture of power.

I also recently realized that I can be very selective in what I share about myself and my life with others. I am quick to talk about the importance of confessing and of sharing brokenness and neediness with others but I am incredibly slow to practice that. I don’t like letting people know the ugliness that is in me. I don’t like letting people know the real neediness that is in my life. I don’t like letting myself need someone else, or letting myself accept help or love from someone else. I will accept people into my life but only on my terms. I was thinking about this and I think that it is largely a defense mechanism and a way for me to allow myself to maintain some control of my life and some control in my relationships.

Yesterday a friend sent me this article about the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. It was a very interesting article (though it is a bit long), but there was this one quote in it that really struck me:

“The surrender of sovereignty to this particular group of people feels like suicide, but any serious reading of the New Testament affirms that is the deal we take on.”

The surrender of sovereignty… the giving up of power, of control…

It is a difficult step to acknowledging that God alone is sovereign – That I am not sovereign and that I do not have control over my life. Acknowledging this and accepting it and giving myself completely over to the control and leading of God is perhaps a life long struggle… but, I got to thinking that maybe giving myself over to God’s sovereignty is just the start… maybe there is another step that needs to be taken in order for me to really surrender myself and learn to live a selfless life… Maybe I must also give myself over, surrender sovereignty, to Christ’s body. Maybe the degree to which I give myself to the people of God is the degree to which I give myself to God…?

This freaks me out. There is something in me which rises up and revolts against this… but, maybe that is the self that needs to be crucified with Christ…?

These are the thoughts that bounce around my head lately…

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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