Resources

What is “embodied spirituality” and what does it mean to embody your spiritual experience? How do we bring our bodies to our prayer, worship and other spiritual practices? These are great questions! There are several resources I want to share with you to help you explore these questions.

I recommend these books:

• Jesus In My Practice: Bringing the Questions of Jesus to My Movement, My Meditation & My Mat by Jody Thomae. Available on Amazon.
• Embodied Prayer: Towards a Wholeness of Body, Mind & Soul by Celeste Snowber Schroeder. You can preview the book here.
• The Wisdom of the Body: a Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women by Christine Valters Paintner. You can find out about both the book and an online course that accompanies it here.
• Dance—the Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice by Cynthia Winton-Henry. You can preview that book here.
• Prayer of Heart & Body by Fr. Thomas Ryan. Find out more here.
• Praying with the Body: Bringing the Psalms to Life by Roy DeLeon. There is also a DVD to accompany this book. Read a review and find out more here.

I recommend the following articles and blog posts:

• an article with touching video about taking time for rest in the midst of chaos
• ideas for praying with play-dough
• a 7-part series on postures of prayer & praise
• Physical Movement in Jewish Prayer  by Joshua Rabin
• Embodied Prayer: Reclaiming the Age-Old Wisdom of the Body Through Movement and Dance by Kathryn Sparks
• Embodied Spirituality, Now and Then by Jorge N. Ferrer
• 3-part series on the body in Quakerism by Madeline Schaefer: Silent Body: My Struggle with an Eating Disorder;  Bringing Our Bodies to the Light;  A Truly Embodied Spirituality
• What Does it Mean to Live a Fully Embodied Spiritual Life? by Jorge N. Ferrer
• Embodied Spirituality by Dr. Joseph A. Kim
• Yoga as a Creative Christian Practice by Jody Thomae
• thoughts on Reclaiming Yoga as a Christian Healing Tool by Jody Thomae
• Poem “She Dances” by Lilly Hope Lucario (how dance helped her survive sexual abuse)

I recommend the following videos:

• CaraMayan embodied prayer: The Lord’s Prayer
• CaraMayan embodied prayer: Gaelic Blessing
• a Christ-centered grounding practice with scripture
• a Christ-centered breath practice with scripture
• a short prayer to embody your faith

Please check back on occasion as I will add to this list as I discover more resources on my own journey of living a fully-embodied, whole-hearted life! If you’d like to be notified of retreats and future offerings please sign up for the Rooted & Reaching email list.

Stay Rooted and Keep Reaching, Jody

Jody Thomae © 2020 All Rights Reserved

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Jody Thomae is the author of Jesus In My Practice: Bringing the Questions of Jesus to My Movement, My Meditation & My Mat, as well as God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You and The Creator’s Healing Power—Restoring the Broken to Beautiful, both in-depth, interactive devotional books that are part of the Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series and serve as resources for creative Christians, artists, and lovers of beauty and worship. Jody is a guest lecturer on creativity, embodiment, and spirituality with Healing Care Ministries. She is passionate about the use of creativity in formational and healing ministry, and it is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. She is particularly interested in the reclamation of the body in the healing of trauma and works in the area of embodiment with survivors of abuse, addiction, and trauma. Her life verse is Isaiah 50:4.