Christ is Born!
Welcome to the new year! If you want some relief from the stress, distraction, and isolation that 2020 (and now 2021) has thrown our way, we invite you to join our PraXis online group on Zoom and MeetUp.
This year, we will begin to discuss and practice embodied forms of prayer as part of our Christian-based approach to Mind-Body-Spirit wellness. These are spiritual practices grounded in evidence-based wellness, and includes mindfulness prayers, biblical fasting and some light exercise.
Our Zoom group meets once a week, Wednesday 6 pm PST/9 pm EST. But we are also considering adding an earlier time on another day for those not on the West Coast.
This week we will begin our exploration of the Body. Over the course of the next few months we talk more about light exercise and how this can affect your mindfulness practice. Towards the spring, we will discuss fasting (which just means restricting what you eat, not giving up food entirely) in the run-up to Great Lent.
Along the way, we will invite members to various challenges— perhaps a 30-day exercise and mindfulness challenge, or a 30-day mindfulness and Daniel Fast challenge.
This Wednesday, we will kick off our New Year session with a short discussion on Interoception. This is our sense of inner awareness. In mindfulness, we become aware of our thoughts as we discern spirits, and humbly sit in the presence of God. Interoception is a way of describing our state of inner perception– how clear in the lens through which we view our inner states. For example, often we jumble physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts all together in one big lump. This lump then propels us to actions that say, “I’m Mad! I’m Want That! I’m Hungry!!!!” Introception describes how aware of the reasons we might be mad, why we might want something, why we might be hungry…even though we just ate.
After our discussion on this we will do a body-scan meditation. This will be a recorded guided meditation by Irene Kraegal. Kregel is a clinical psychologist who “speaks, teaches, and writes about the intersection of mindfulness practice and Christian faith.”
We highly recommend her site. This meditation will just get us oriented to thinking and feeling the bodies we have and how, this body has come to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
Hope to see you there on Wednesday, at 6 pm on Zoom. Follow us on Facebook too.
All times Pacific Standard Time
5:50 – 6:00 pm – Orientation for newcomers
6:00 – 6:05 pm – Chat as people filter in
6:05 – 6:10 pm – Introception
6:10 pm time uncertain- 20- Guided Meditation, body scan
6:30 – Eyes open, sharing, benediction, and depart.
PraXis 