Our January theme: “Living with Intention”
This month’s theme invites us into a space that protects us from the pressure to accomplish, and instead makes room to ask questions of integrity. In this space, you’ll find a new invitation into reflection on our monthly theme every week.
Check-in question: What do you do to stay in touch with your intentions as you go through your days?
“Sacred space” is another way of saying “with intention.” – S. Kelley Harrell
Dear Friends,
At the beginning of a yoga class, more often than not, a teacher will invite the students to “set an intention” for the practice that day. This used to throw me a bit, because I couldn’t think of an intention other than “I need to get stronger and more flexible.”
Little by little, as I got used to the physical practice of paying attention to specific parts of my body during asanas and flows, I began to understand. There’s a feeling of confidence in my body that arises when I can intentionally focus on how strong or flexible specific parts of it feel. And then I became aware of how that strength and confidence was shifting my energy, and I started to notice that I could impact how I felt about something or how I handled things in my life, by becoming more aware of how I felt in my body – and I could actually impact how I feel about something by focusing on increasing strength or flexibility in a particular part of my body.
So the language of intention began to make more sense – and now I use that language to describe sacred space, much like the quote above. I know that not everyone resonates with the word “sacred,” and so I appreciate this connection that offers more everyday language for what I’m trying to describe when I use that word.
In faith and love,
Karen