Our Bodies and Spirituality
by Susan W. N. Ruach, Ed.D.
In a continuing education event many years ago now, Roy Oswald of the Alban Institute taught us two body prayers—movements one could use to pray without words. I was both fascinated and dumbstruck with this idea that bodies could pray. This idea especially caught my attention at the time because I had just begun to think about the relationship of my body to my spirit and to my mind after ignoring my body as much as possible for years.
Since then I have certainly learned much about what my body can do without any conscious help. When I was pregnant with our first child, I became very anxious because I (in my mind) didn't know how to make a baby. But my body knew. When I was applying for this job, I was dawdling about filling out the application when my body, or so it seemed at the time, got up out of the recliner and went in and sat down at the computer. When I have been ill with the flu or colds, my mind knows some things to do to help, but there are mysterious powers that God has placed in the body that move it toward healing. And scientists now tell us that memory is in many places in the body besides in the brain.
Over the years, the Western Church has often been either negative or at the least, ambivalent, about bodies. Spirit and flesh were separate, and the corporeal was often seen as holding back or getting in the way of the spiritual. Today there seems to be more recognition of the mind, body, and spirit functioning as a whole. Certainly we all know the difficulty of trying either to pray or to concentrate on something when we have pain in our bodies. And when we are really worried about something, our bodies don't function as well.
So what part do our bodies play in our spiritual lives? Just how are body, mind, and spirit connected?
In this issue of Leading from the Center, we explore the body-spirit connection. The main article is an adapted excerpt from Howard Clinebell's Anchoring Your Well Being about the care of one's body as a spiritual discipline. It explores the biblical foundations for self-care and getting around hindrances. A short, thoughtful article by Vanessa Carlisle called "My Body Prays" follows. There is also an excerpt of a conversation Flora Slosson Wuellner had with her body about what a body is from her book, Prayer and Our Bodies, and a review of that book by the Rev. Larry Peacock.
May God who came to us bodily in Jesus fill your mind with Christ's peace, your heart with Christ's love, and your body with Christ's joy.
Susan W. N. Ruach (sruach@gbod.org) is the Director of Conference Spiritual Leadership Development for the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee.
Care of My Body as Spiritual Discipline
| Book Review: Prayer and Our Bodies | My Body Prays