The Big Adventure of Faith

Have you been trying to push through difficulties on your own? I believe it is a tendency for all of us as human beings to solve the situations, issues, and scenarios in our lives with our brains on our own. Many men and women know that God is their strength, but tapping into that strength often creates a war in our thought life. For example: we have a skirmish in our thought realm as our mind thinks different thoughts between good and bad, happy and sad, worried and peaceful, weak and strong, and so on. In the Bible, it is often referred to as a double mind; in yoga it has been called the "monkey mind." Scientists often say that 80% of what we think today, we thought yesterday. I personally just refer to it as "the battle of the mind." So, the tendency is for our thoughts to go round and round almost like trying to climb a mountain, but making a trench from retracing our steps as we rethink the same drama. We don't move very far up the mountain, but we sure spend a lot of time traveling.

The theme of several of our final relaxation moments lately has been faith. Many people already know that I pray before our classes that the words that I say will be helpful, clear, concise, and that everyone who leaves our yoga practice will have experienced peace and feel rested/rejuvenated. My goal since the very beginning of teaching yoga was to provide an excellent workout, teach breathing techniques to help with calming and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, and to inspire the wonderful people in my classes to practice yoga off the mat as well as on. You might think of practice as just the physical postures, but my concept of yoga is living a peaceful life even through a battle in our mind, a difficult situation with a friend, co-worker, boss, relative, or significant other. Tranquility really isn't peace only when you are alone; it is lived out in the real world through real life events.

David said, "My God, my Rock, in Him will I take refuge, my Shield and the Horn of my salvation, my Stronghold and My Refuge, my Savior. God is my strong Fortress." I know that I need that strength to tap into through my everyday events. I try to store it up like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter, but I "leak" it out during the day. My solution is to regather my strength to stay peaceful and out of the monkeymindedness by relying on God's strength. I receive this strength by believing His promise and asking for God's help to do whatever is before me. God's strength is readily available to us, and we receive it through believing the promise He has made to give it to us. What is the promise? "Let the weak say, I am strong (like a Warrior)!" Joel 3:10

Through trusting God in my circumstances of my big adventure of taking a year off school to return to NSU and become a reading specialist. Through trusting God that He will be our Jehovah Jireh and provide our financial needs through the yoga studio despite no paycheck from school teaching, I hope to become one of the men and women who knows that God is my strength and thus becomes a living example to encourage others to trust in God's strength. Therefore, my mantra or meditation is, "I am strong! God is my strength." I receive that strength deep within me to believe by faith that no matter what is happening on the outside; God is in control on the inside.

Each person who walks through the door to experience yoga with us I pray for so that he or she, too, will experience that faith in God's strength and find that peace that passes all human understanding. All of our battles vary. Some may have physical challenges where they need healing or restoration. Others may have work/family situations or emotional issues. But, all of us are on the journey to let go and let God be our inner sanctuary, our fortress, our shield, and the refuge that we run to through the stresses of everyday life.

David also said, "For by You I run through a troop; by my God I leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried. He is a shield to all those who trust and take refuge in Him...He makes my feet like the hinds' feet firm and able. He sets me secure and confident upon the heights of the mountain."

All we need to say is "Yes, I need Your help." No condemnation, no arrows of punishment, no guilt. Just, "Help!" And He is there right where we need Him to be.
So, climb that mountain along with me. Let us let go our trench of doubting and wavering that goes with the monkey mind, and move up! This is our great adventure!