Hi I'm Joy Meade, and I teach yoga during YogaMass at Trinity. When I tell people about YogaMass I'm usually met with a puzzled expression, and people often aren't quite sure how yoga would fit into the context of a church service, so I would like to talk a little bit about yoga, why it makes such a beautiful and effective companion for worship, and also how it might be a little more familiar than you realize.
The word "yoga" means unity. But what are we unifying or bringing together in this practice? We often think of yoga as a series of movements and stretches that help provide relaxation, relieve stress, maybe improve mobility, possibly even build strength and flexibility. This is true, and these are really beneficial things to experience. But at it's core, yoga is a method of bringing our often scattered thinking to stillness, a way of calming our anxious hearts, and quieting the voices and the noise around us that always seem to clamor for our attention. We use our breathing and our movements to bring our minds and our hearts together to deeply experience God's presence, intentionally drawing our thoughts away from our preoccupation with past occurrences and future anxieties to root ourselves in our Sustainer.
Scripture tells us, "Be still, and know that I am God," but if we're being completely honest, a lot of us don't know how to be still, and when we do stumble on stillness, it can be kind of uncomfortable. When I turn off the TV and the podcasts and the radio, and I stop looking at social media, I find myself scrolling through my own endless internal monologue, replaying events from the past and worrying about the future. Stillness is uncomfortable physically and emotionally. My foot falls asleep. My back aches. My nose itches, but I'm also afraid of what I find in the stillness, me, the person I've been running from with all my busyness and covering up with all the noise. When we practice wading through the discomfort and quieting the noise, we begin to be able to listen for that still, small voice, cultivating a sensitivity to the nudging and prompting of the Spirit, and feeling a deep sense of blessed assurance and the fullness of life God promises us! And we get to do all of this surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, a community of people practicing the same thing.
So if all of that sounds a bit far fetched, you might be surprised to learn you are doing it already! A few years ago our rector Andy told us about studies conducted while people were singing together, and their hearts began beating in unison. When we sing together in church, we slow down our breathing, and our hearts begin beating rhythmically as one, one community, one body feeling the presence of God in a tangible way.
I grew up in a church where we didn't make the sign of the cross, but we did do a fair amount of sitting and standing. No matter what tradition we gravitate to for worship, all of the gestures we perform in church aren't just a way of keeping us awake, although they do help us anchor our attention, bringing our wandering minds back to the place where we are standing. They are a physical expression of our inward reality. If you find yourself standing during the Gospel reading, feeling rooted by streams of living water; or kneeling and finding yourself laying down an immense burden at the feet of the one who carries and sustains all things; or crossing yourself, being enveloped by the presence of the One in whom we live and move and have our being; then you have done yoga in church!
Just like our priests invite everyone to the table at communion on Sunday mornings, I want to invite you to YogaMass regardless of your level of physical fitness, physical limitations, or experience with yoga. You are always welcome to modify any of the movements, practice using a chair, or move in any way that feels comfortable. You can make all or part of the practice a seated meditation, or make it a walking meditation in our beautiful space, supported and inspired by the practice of those around you, one body, one community. Faith like yoga is a practice, and none of us has perfected it, and that is why we practice, not because we have already attained our goals(of fitness or Christ-likeness), but to press on together, to open our hearts and our minds to the Author and Finisher of our faith.
I hope you will join us the first Saturday of every month at 10:30am in our beautifully renovated sanctuary. The Christ light in me sees and honors Christ's light in you. I hope to see you soon!
