The Scripture ~ The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Isaiah 58:11 NLT
The Spiritual Focus ~ “What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.” Gretchen Rubin
Breath Prayer ~ Inhale, I embody… Exhale, healthy habits
The Devotion ~ A habit is defined as “a settled or regular tendency or practice.” Many times when people talk about a habit they are talking about a bad habit, something they have trouble controlling. However, the truth is we can use that same habitual tendency to create healthy habits. To create healthy habits or change bad ones it takes intention, strategies and practice. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, discovered that while she seemed to have a pretty stable life by most standards, she was not happy. What she did have was a habit of busyness that left her stressed and missing the things in life that really mattered. She wrote, “Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life; about 40% of daily life is shaped by habit, so when we have good habits, it’s much easier to be happier, healthier, productive, and creative.” Having an intention and a strategy sets the stage, so it’s not that hard to make or break our habits when we do it in the way that’s right for us.
In yoga a sankalpa is an intention formed by the heart and mind — a solemn vow, determination, or will. A sankalpa is a tool meant to harness the will, and to focus and harmonize mind and body. Intention is a start to forming a healthy habit. A simple strategy that follows is to practice or attend to the new habit in your life on a daily basis. Gretchen Rubin started simply; for example, she set an intention to not only feed her fish as she was on her way to something else, but to actually take time to enjoy the activity. This behavior translated to other activities in her life that resulted in her being healthier and happier.
Integrating faith and yoga is a beautiful strategy. We set an intention, a sankalpa, toward a healthy habit with the assurance of God’s promise to continually guide us toward a healthy life. We create a healthy habit expecting God to nurture it as God has promised to nurture our life.
