The Scripture ~
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think God will attend to you, take pride in you, do the best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way God works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how God works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Matthew 6:33-34 The Message
The Spiritual Focus ~ “Have patience with all things, but, first of all yourself.” Saint Frances de Sales
The Devotion ~ Yogi and friend of Yogadevotion, Micheal Westbrock, was among the first of our guest teachers to encourage the instructors of Yogadevotion along the path of being spiritually satisfied. Like most westerners practicing yoga, we began the journey through the physical practice of yoga. We were all so anxious to do everything right, correct foot placement, correct head and neck alignment, breathe right. We asked so many questions and most often got the same response, “how does it feel?” Finally, after hearing the response enough we figured out that ‘doing’ it right would not provide us with the satisfaction we were looking for if we could not connect with how it felt! Satisfaction came when we had patience enough to “be” in our bodies, to feel and connect with that which is within us.
Micheal was also one of the first to affirm that from its inception the practice of yoga was intended as one way to connect with the Divine, the Holy Spirit within, God. At the time it was counter intuitive for western yoga practitioners to understand that being in our bodies was to “be” connected to God’s spirit within, the internal teacher.
Yoga and faith practices can share a sense of “fussing” over things when what is really needed is the reminder that we have God’s provision and promise. We strive in our faith journey and sometimes in our yoga practice to achieve a greater sense of God and into that we hear God say, “relax, I got this!” We have nothing to fear, every human concern is met by the Spirit. We are promised spiritually satisfaction! We need to do nothing but step into our breath, be patient with ourselves, relax, connect with God’s spirit within and experience spiritual satisfaction.
Breath Prayer
Inhale ~ I Am
Exhale ~ Spiritually Satisfied
