What is an “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? There are many great resources I want to share with you that 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. On Amazon.
• Voices of Wisdom in the Body: a Christ-Centered & Bible-Based Exploration of Energy by Jody Thomae. On Amazon. Also available in a Group Study Edition.
• 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. NEW!! You can hear more from Fr. Tom Ryan in this video about The Theology of Christian Embodiment.
• 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.
• New!! Body Prayer: the Posture of Intimacy with God by Doug Pagitt & Kathryn Prill. Find out more here.

I recommend the following articles and blog posts:

• NEW!! an article on using prayer ropes and one on my meditative prayer beads
• NEW!! a BEaUtiful BODY prayer: Blessing of the Body by Joyce Rupp
• 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
• thoughts on reclaiming yoga as a Christian healing tool
• Embodied Prayer: Reclaiming the Age-Old Wisdom of the Body Through Movement and Dance by Kathryn Sparks
• EmbodiedSpirituality, Now and Then by Jorge N. Ferrer
• 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
• 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)
• Physical Movement in Jewish Prayer  article by Joshua Rabin
• 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

I recommend the following videos:

• NEW!! let my friend Marlita Hill dance prophetically over your life
• 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

And finally…. If you’d like to learn more about embodying your spiritual life consider joining me at Rooted & Reaching Lakeside studio on the shores of Pleasant Hill Lake in North Central Ohio for a Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care (RREC) REtreat or the newly launched RREC Certificate Training Program — a year-long exploration that includes a 3-day retreat and a 4-day training at my private home studio, Rooted & Reaching Lakeside on Pleasant Hill Lake in North Central Ohio. Sign up HERE to be among the first to know about retreat, workshop, trainings and other gatherings focused on living a fully embodied, whole hearted life!

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! Also, keep scrolling to find other articles and resources and click follow to be notified of future posts!

Jody Thomae © 2019 All Rights Reserved

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Jody Thomae is the author of several books including Jesus In My Practice and Voices of Wisdom in the Body. Jody has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as worship arts ministry pastor, worship leader and creative arts director, and is a lecturer on creativity, embodiment, and spirituality with Healing Care Ministries. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and the use of creativity and embodiment in formational and healing ministry. 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 spiritual journey and leads a series of retreats, workshops and trainings at her private lakeside studio in North Central Ohio through her ministry Rooted & Reaching.