Feeling God’s Presence during Christian Yoga Teacher Training

DeAnna shares a candid moment.

Hello Friends, I wanted to share a little story from our recent graduation.

On graduation day, we usually have a special graduation ceremony acknowledging everyone for all their hard work and how hard they pushed themselves and what they achieved.

However, several days prior to this last class graduating, my heart was tugged by God to change the focus of our graduation ceremony.

Words from Him strongly came to my heart. None of this is about you or them…it is about feeling My Presence within them at all times and sharing this peace as they teach so others can feel the same way.

I prayed “What do you want us to do Lord?”

Christian Yoga teacher Lisa O'Quinn

He said, Just wait…I’ll show you. So with full confidence I waited.

Shortly after this awareness, one of our graduates Lisa O’Quinn came up to me while I was on break at my desk and said “Listen to this song, it will move your soul.”

Lisa brings me her IPod and I heard “Your Presence,” by Bethel Live. This song moved my heart and I knew instantly: this is the song to remind our graduates why we choose to teach Christian Yoga.

So, here’s the kicker.

Christian Yoga teacher Tathiana Wan

Now we all know how the Lord works, He never leaves us or forsakes us and always seems to bring home a point to let us know we’re on track and that we’ve heard Him correctly, right?

Our very last teach scheduled was Tathiana Wan, a young snowboarder athlete. As Taty lead the class in her beautiful final teach (which is always kept secret from others until it is actually presented) we learned that her chosen Scripture was revolved around remaining in God’s presence.

Of course, Taty’s final song was the beautiful “Your Presence” by Bethel Live! It seamlessly segued into what was the most moving graduation ceremony that we have ever had. As any of the graduates present can tell you, emotions flowed and boxes of tissue were used!

The moral of this story is that we are always in His presence.

God always with us through character-building times that range from good, bad and just plain painful and gives us fellowship with others to encourage us and uplift our spirits.

Christian yoga allows us the precious time to be quiet on our mats for a few minutes each day with others who love Him. (Remember, Christ went to a quiet place to rest and pray every day.) He speaks in our hearts, and blesses us to move our bodies in health for HIM and to inspire others to do the same.

What an awesome God we serve! How blessed are we to have been chosen to do this for the Kingdom!

Love and Peace,
DeAnna

DeAnna Discusses Self-Discipline and Health

Suggestions to make the new decade your healthiest

We know that being fit and losing weight are typically high on most people’s goals for the New Year. The big question is not “Do you want to lose weight?” but rather, “How do you nurture self-discipline and willpower?”

As God is our witness, we all know that praying to Him for strength, wisdom and obedience on the subject of health is very important and foundational to achieving our goals.

The flipside of this, however, is that God gives each of us the gift of choice. At every moment we have the gift of saying yes or no to every last thing in our life: healthy eating vs. dishonest eating; a loving nature vs. a critical spirit; a fit, strong body vs. a weak, ill vessel.

The key is having the discipline to make the choice that God wants us to.

Based on my own walk with the Lord and my own struggle to regain my health, I have found that the following three activities help keep me healthy and Christ-centered:

Go to a quiet place to pray, rest and listen to God daily.

Scripture says in several places that Jesus routinely went to the mountain where he had a quiet place to rest, pray, and listen for the Father.

To really affect change in our lives and transform it by “the renewing of our minds,” (which then leads to the renewing of body and spirit), I find that several times a day, even if just for five minutes, I need to stop my mind, go within, breathe and remember my goals and pray for strength to overcome temptations.

This regular practice helps me become the observer of my thoughts and choose which ones are honest before I place my belief and actions behind them.

Engage in activities that force you to exercise discipline

Of course, my favorite way to do this is through a yoga class. When you come to a yoga class three times a week, it focuses you and keeps you aware of your health goals; this is crucial to your success. We must remain conscious of what we are doing.

Remember to begin very slowly so that you don’t get too sore. Starting out in “boot camps” and exercise that is too harsh to begin a new lifestyle is a formula for failure. You will get sore when you begin exercising, but if you don’t overdo you can take a nice hot bath and perhaps an ibuprofen and you will be fine to continue. Just don’t quit! Just remember, you’re sore if you do nothing, your sore if you’re an athlete. So which way do you choose to be sore?

With God’s support, make a point to exercise for an hour five to six times per week (I suggest combining yoga three times per week and walking at first; you will be taking steps toward purifying your mind, body and spirit. You will begin to see victory over the enemy who would seek to destroy you and the plans God has for you. Plus, you will feel and look awesome!

Read and reflect on what the Bible says about discipline and health

Proverbs 8:32 (The Message)
So, my dear friends, listen carefully; those who embrace these my ways are most blessed. Mark a life of discipline and live wisely; don’t squander your precious life. Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day’s work. When you find me, you find life, real life, to say nothing of God’s good pleasure. But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul; when you reject me, you’re flirting with death.

Proverbs 12:1 (The Message)
If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it— how shortsighted to refuse correction!

Proverbs 13:18(The Message)
Refuse discipline and end up homeless; embrace correction and live an honored life.

3 John 1:2 (King James Version)
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.

The rest is up to you

The formula for being healthy and fit mind, body and spirit is pure and simple, eat well, exercise, spend time quietly alone to regroup with God (several times a day), and keep pressing on toward the prize our Savior has for you. Being healthy is VERY important to God. Once you get this, then it’s like anything else you choose to be obedient about and the rewards are truly outstanding.

Let’s all pray for each other to have the quiet time, discipline and heart for a serious upgrade and transformation of our lives this decade. Happy 2010!

Love,
DeAnna

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DeAnna Smothers, co-founder of Yahweh Yoga, has been practicing Christ-Centered Yoga for over 25 years. Do you seek answers about Christian Yoga or health? Please email DeAnna with your questions.

Search Me, Lead Me

Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord.
Lamentations 3:40

I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
Psalm 119:59

Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.
Psalm 26:2

October is one of my favorite times of year. Not because of the harvest festivals, brilliant orange pumpkins and the promise of Thanksgiving turkey coming soon. No, I love October because I can finally open my windows. The punishing heat of the Arizona summer has lifted and fresh, desert breezes blow through the rooms of my home. October is like springtime for desert dwellers. We emerge from our dark caves where we have hidden from the sun all summer long and greet our neighbors whom we haven’t seen in six months. We get excited about cleaning closets and sweeping out the nooks and crannies of our homes in anticipation of the holiday season around the corner.

Housekeeping for our souls

Similarly, we need to do a little housekeeping and sweep the cobwebs out of the corners of our soul, throw open the windows and let the Light shine in, bringing in fresh air and fresh perspectives. The yoga principles of self-awareness and self-examination echo the biblical commands to examine our ways, to test ourselves, to search our hearts and to confess our sin and be forgiven. In Christian yoga we not only examine ourselves but we also lay ourselves open before the Lord for his examination of our hearts. Our prayer is that of David in Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Through our meditation on the Bible, we have already opened our hearts and minds for examination by it. When we fill our mind with God’s word it works to probe and search our thoughts.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Allow time for soul-searching

After we have filled ourselves with God’s word, we need to allow time for this soul-searching. Self-examination is not something that we can hurry through. It takes time to carefully consider our ways. It helps to be still and listen.

We listen for God to speak to us in the inner promptings of our heart and conscience. Then we check these promptings against God’s word to discern his voice over our own.

“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything“(1 John 3:18-20, emphasis added).

Are you caught in a debilitating cycle?

Sometimes we are caught in debilitating cycles of guilt and self-recrimination or self-doubt. Have I really loved God? Am I really sorry for my sin? Am I really forgiven? Objective examination of our actions against truth allows us to determine if these feelings or doubts are false or genuine. If they are false, even though we feel them deeply, we find confidence in the fact that God knows us more intimately than ourselves, that He knows everything, yet He freely forgives us anyway.

This is why self-examination must be conducted in the context of Scripture and of listening to God, and asking him to search our hearts. If we do it merely on our own, we are in danger of getting lost in our own navels and mired in the muck of self-loathing, or being deluded in the delight of self-congratulation.

Self-examination has two primary purposes: recognition, confession and repentance of sin, and developing an ordering awareness of our own soul that helps organize our lives around God, resulting in loving him with everything we’ve got.

Examination of Conscience and Confession

In the examination of conscience we search our hearts for sin and weakness for the purpose of confession and repentance. This is the practice encouraged in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29:

“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.”

The thought of shining a light into the dark recesses of our soul can be intimidating and not particularly inviting. It is scary to be vulnerable and open, even within the secrecy of our own hearts. We’d much rather not think about our sins or confront our fears and frailties.

But the exhortation to examination and confession is not for the purpose of punishment or naked exposure. It is an invitation to freedom. When Christ invites us to lay down our burdens in exchange for his yoke, one of those burdens is our sins and failures. When we hold on to sin or ignore it we add weight to the heavy load that is crippling our walk. Our souls groan under the heaviness of this baggage we cling too. When we acknowledge and confess our sins we undo the straps binding us to these deadweights and we experience lightness and freedom and joy.

The initial opening up and shining of the light can be painful like any physical examination of an ailing part of our body. I injured my shoulder recently (not practicing yoga!) and I needed a thorough examination to determine the nature of the injury. It was a very painful process of probing and testing the joint, but very necessary and now the healing can begin with appropriate therapy and care.

When we lay our sins before God and repent of them, the pain is temporary and the healing is promised. We do well to remember that we are not telling him anything he does not already know anyway!

“For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths”
(Proverbs 5:21).

When we open our hearts to His searching and confess our sin,

“he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12).

Secure your own mask first before assisting others

Although we never anticipate a change in cabin pressure, should one occur, four oxygen masks will fall from the compartment above. Place the mask over your nose and mouth and breathe normally. If you are traveling with small children please secure yourself first and then assist the child. Finally sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight!

The flight attendant paused at my seat. We were traveling with our three children and she wanted to be sure that I understood that I must put on my own mask prior to helping the children.

I assured her that we were very familiar with the rules and turned to look into the injured and incredulous eyes of my son and daughter. “That’s not right,” my son said accusingly. “Parents are supposed to look after kids first.” My daughter was deeply perplexed and somewhat anxious, “Why should grownups get the oxygen before kids? Will there be enough for us?”

I reassured them that it was very important for me to make sure that I got the mask on quickly or I might pass out before I could help them and they would not be able to help me. They were relieved once they understood. As we settled into our flight it occurred to me that these instructions would serve us all well in life…

Although you never anticipate that you will crack under pressure, should this occur, there will not be an oxygen mask falling from above. Breathing normally will be impossible. If you are traveling with small children, or anyone else, you will be unable to assist them let alone yourself…

So often we look into the eyes of those depending on us, our families, the PTO, the church, the boss… and we can feel the pressure starting to squeeze the life out of us. We know we are starting to run out of air but somehow we muddle on, asthmatic and wheezing in our increasingly feeble efforts to meet everyone’s needs. Some of us secretly enjoy being martyrs. Some of us are just tyrannized by the urgent and the immediate. But we’re all desperate for someone to give us permission to look after ourselves, for instructions to secure our own mask first.

If there was ever someone relentlessly hounded by the needs of others it was Jesus. The crowds were always chasing Jesus, wanting him to teach them, to touch them, to heal them, to feed them. However, we read that Jesus made a regular habit of rising early and seeking time alone, meeting with his Father in prayer. He modeled the discipline of solitude for his disciples and in Mark 6:31-32 we see a beautiful picture of this:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

What do you need to do to make sure you have enough air to keep going? Are you looking after your body well? Are you eating well, sleeping enough? Exercising? But, most importantly, what about your soul? We all benefit from some solitude for the sake of soul care.

In the frenzy, we need to find a quiet center where we can be still and know that God is God and ask Him to search our hearts and know our anxious thoughts. Our moments of solitude with God may be brief at times but they will sustain us - He will sustain us. The moment you step out of your quiet place, everyone will be clamoring for you, but you will be far better equipped to rise to the challenges before you, with compassion and grace.

So stop a moment. Grab that oxygen mask firmly and secure yourself, body and soul, before you attempt to assist others. Finally sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight!