​When was the last time you listened to the wisdom of your body?
 
If you’re like me, you may tend to ignore or put off its signals for rest or even a bathroom break, much less listen to its wisdom! 

This is a lifelong learning for me, but I continue to pursue it because like dreams, the body tells us the truth even as our ego, survival self keeps plowing ahead checking off items on our to do list.
 
When in my ego, survival self, I find my body a distraction.  When not pushing through or ignoring it, I tend to be critiquing and evaluating it instead. 

BUT, when listening from my more compassionate Self, I discover awe and gratitude for my body’s wisdom.  My body becomes a gift from God and in those moments when I receive that gift through attentiveness, a shift happens. I am taken to a deeper, more authentic place where I’m much kinder to myself and others.  A perspective comes that I was not aware of prior to listening to my body.  Or, some expression like a cleansing cry allows for a much needed physical and emotional release.
 
And it can happen in a matter of moments!
 
So here is an easy way to begin to offer a listening ear to your body & hear what wisdom it holds:

1. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your body.  Begin to reconnect through an awareness of your breath, feeling your feet on the floor, listening to the sounds around you, softening your face, or noticing any sensations within you.
2. Without evaluating it, simply experience your body.  Notice what you are becoming aware of.
3. Describe this awareness—Do you sense pain, tension, or discomfort?  A feeling of ease, lightness or peace?  Is there a certain energy present?  Does a color, texture, or image emerge?  
4. Extend deep hospitality to your body, especially the part you are most aware of, and listen with a compassionate curiosity. 
5. What message is your body sending you?  Is there a need or deep cry it wants you to be aware of?  Is there an emotion that rises up, wanting expression, when you become aware of a particular part of your body?  What does it need from you or from God?  What invitation do you sense in this moment?

 
Let yourself stay with and in the moment with your body for as long as you are able or desire.  You might pause for a moment and say, “This is what incarnation feels like” realizing the Spirit of God dwells within you.  Then place a gentle hand on your body or speak some gentle words of gratitude to and for your body before you continue with your day.

Feeling stuck with a looming decision? 

Stuck in or overwhelmed with a feeling? 

Curious to discover the wisdom in your nighttime dream (perhaps about your looming decision!)? 

Or maybe you resonate with my daughter who recently said, "I just can't do words or thinking right now."

No matter how old you are, it's time to get out the playdough!  (or clay or Model Magic, your choice) 

And no, you do not have to be an artistic type of person!  Let that inner kid of yours who knows how to squish, twist, pull, flatten, bend, and roll grab a handful of playdough.

Now pick one of these 3 practices and see what happens: 
Awareness Examen with Playdough
Notice what literally and figuratively emerges as you enter into this 16th century prayerful review of your day or week. 

1. Hold your lump of playdough or clay in your hands (you might hold it close to your heart) as a prayer of openness to God and to God's wisdom within you.
2. Looking over your day or week, when have you experienced heaviness, darkness, being stuck or blocked? How would you image that moment?  Begin to move and shape the playdough in response to the feelings &/or image.  Your eyes can be open or closed. 
3. When you are ready, stop, and let your creation "speak."  What did you notice in the process? What meanings, feelings, connections stir through your shape/image?
4. Either mash and roll it up into a ball or take another handful of playdough or clay.
5. What moment felt light, flowing, open, or effortless today or this week?  How would you image that moment?  Begin to move and shape the playdough in response to the feelings &/or image. 
6. After a bit of time in the silence, stop and let your creation "speak."  Again, notice what you felt in the process. What meanings, feelings, connections are stirring (or being stirred up) through your creation?
7. How do the two images "dance"?  Does the heavy speak to the light (or vice versa)? What wisdom is being offered to you?  Give thanks for whatever you receive.

Moving Through Feelings with Playdough
Rather than trying hard to let go, discover what happens when you move through your emotions.

1. Decide to set a timer or "go with the flow."  
2. Connect with whatever feeling you are stuck in and begin moving the playdough in response (as slow or quickly as you desire).   -Or-  If you are feeling numb, just begin moving the playdough however it feels natural for you to do so.  Maybe you form a shape or simply continue to mold & move, whichever is fine.  
3. After the timer goes off or you come to a natural stopping place, spend a few moments reflecting on the experience.  Compare how you feel now to when you first started.  Looking at your playdough, what do you notice?  Is there an invitation being offered to you through the image &/or process?  You might let it shape your prayer &/or journaling.

Sculpt a Dream Image
Dream images are often metaphors and symbols of different parts of ourselves/our lives.  They offer us wisdom for waking life as we tend to them.

1. Pick an image you are curious about, afraid of, or desire to know more about from your nighttime dream.  Then sculpt it!  If using white clay, you might add color with markers or gel pens or paint it after it dries. 
2. After sculpting, consider how the sculpture reflects your dream image (how is it similar or different?).  What additional information does it hold for you?  What did you notice about yourself during the creative process?
3. Set it in a place where you will see it often, allowing for deeper insight as you continue to rest your gaze and awareness on it throughout the day.

Who knew playdough could be part of our spiritual practice and way of discernment?!  Playdough is not just for kids!  Actually, it's for all of us kids at heart who often get stuck in our heads yet are open to the creative, childlike ways the Spirit offers freedom and wisdom.  

Sometimes I begin my sessions of spiritual direction with a poem. 

Poetry has a way of guiding us into the Deep with its rhythms, words, pauses, and images.

People hear the same poem differently, particular words and phrases catch their attention and "speak" right into the particularities of their lives.  The "deep calls to deep" and they respond with an authenticity that surprises them.  This very much reflects poet David Whyte's definition of poetry-- "Language against which we have no defenses."  
​
The latest poem I have been reading to people who come for Spiritual Direction is one from David Whyte, Just Beyond Yourself.  I offer it to you here to read or listen to.  Slowly read through it a few times or close your eyes and listen to the recording of me reading it twice.  After all, that was the original way of Lectio Divina--hearing the sacred Scriptures being read!

As you read or I read to you, listen for the word or phrase that catches your attention.  Then allow that word or phrase to speak to your heart.  How does it connect with what is going on in your life right now?  Listen for the invitations being offered to you through that word or phrase. Let it shape your prayer &/or journaling (even your next conversation in spiritual direction!).

JUST BEYOND YOURSELF

Just beyond
yourself.

It’s where
you need
to be.

Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.

There is a road
always beckoning.

When you see
the two sides
of it
closing together
at that far horizon
and deep in
the foundations
of your own
heart
at exactly
the same
time,

that’s how
you know
it’s the road
you
have
to follow.

That’s how
you know
it’s where
you
have
to go.

That’s how
you know
you have
to go.

That’s
how you know.

Just beyond
yourself,
it’s
where you
need to be.

-David Whyte,
The Bell and the Blackbird (2018)
     

What do soil, dough, or oysters have to do with reading a text prayerfully?

Meditative or prayerful reading is just one way to read sacred texts like the Bible or the Tao Te Ching. 

From studying the context within the text itself and the cultural context the text was written in to word studies and devotional reading, you could stay with one passage for a very long time, especially if you add Lectio Divina to the mix! 
 
Lectio Divina (Latin for “Divine Reading”) finds its roots in the ancient Jewish practice of meditating on Scripture but was formalized by Saint Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century.  It was a cornerstone for spiritual development for the first sixteen centuries of Christian history and has been in the process of recovery since the Reformation left it in the monasteries. 

And while it has been brought out of the monasteries and even has found its way into apps like Lectio 365, it seems we have to go through a bit of recovery ourselves like letting go of the idea that "more is better"!  As we do so, we are ready to enter into the meditative practice of Lectio Divina. 

By chewing on and resting with a single word or phrase that grabs our attention after slowly reading a short portion 2-3 times, we open to the divine wisdom offered through that word or phrase.  We listen to how God is speaking through it and respond to the invitations and insights through prayer and/or journaling.  As it takes up residence within us, the wisdom becomes embodied in our inner and outer world.    

Truly amazing.  
 
But after years of facilitating groups that practice Lectio Divina, it can still be difficult.  Why?
 
It is hard for us to give up control (even when it comes to prayerfully reading Scripture!). 
It’s much easier to study a text than allow it to study us!  We want it to stay in our heads by looking up the passages before and after the text, by comparing it to other translations, or  looking up what words mean in the original languages…all of these are very good practices, but they can be a way to by-pass the heart.
 
Instead, what if we imagine ourselves to be the soil that a single mustard seed is planted in?  Or the dough that a woman worked a little yeast throughout?  Or the oyster that allowed an irritant to stay within its shell?
 
What do these have in common? 

• They are receptive. (whether planted in, worked through, or living with)
• They receive something small. (whether delightful or irritating)
• They show that transformation takes a while.  (whether it is a growing plant, rising dough, or an irritant becoming a pearl)

        
Lectio Divina invites us to become soil, dough, or oysters. 

Be receptive to the power of a single word or a little phrase (whether it delights or irritates).  Spend some time with it, allowing it to spend time with and in your life.  

In time, you may discover the “pearl of great price” dwells within you! 
In time, you may become the nourishment (or beauty, medicine, wisdom) the world is waiting for!  And all of that through a single word or phrase.