Embodied: How Connecting with Our Bodies Connects Us With God

"We do not need a new religion or a new bible. We need a new experience - a new feeling of what it is to be 'I'." - Alan Watts

Alan Watts, an English philosopher, teacher, writer, and expert in comparative religious studies, offered this insight into the Western predicament of having much in the way of information, but lacking formation or an embodied new way of being in the world. Watts had spent years of his life contemplating many forms of belief, but found them wanting. He recognized in the myriad ways of expressing religion that what every person is really looking for is a new way to be human.

Switchfoot wrote rock songs about "a new way to be human" in the late 90's and something resonated with their listeners then too:

There's a new way to be human. Where divinity blends With a new way to be human. New way to be human. You're throwing your love across my impossible space. You've created me. Take me out of me into a new way to be human.

NOT Jon Foreman, but pretty sweet hair, am I right?

It really is a beautiful song and connects deeply with the struggle humans have with themselves. This struggle is found in addictions, broken relationships, a tendency toward violence and coercion, scapegoating, among other things, including a disconnection with one's self that carries over to a disconnection with others as well. I think this disconnection, this broken relationship with one's self is an oft-neglected area of healing in the Western Church. I grew up hearing many sermons about treating others well and few about one's relationship with one's self.

So, I might change that last lyric from "take me out of me into a new way to be human" to "take me in to me into a new way to be human." Not as catchy, I know, but I think it points us to where we can actually experience renewal, a "new experience of what it means to be 'I'" as Alan Watts said.

There is an escapism so prevalent in Western culture. We realize the pains and problems of the world we live in and we want out! Many times, in our private lives, this looks like escapism from our own embodied experience as well. We are unable to be present to our own difficult emotions and experiences, and so we hit the eject button and find something that feels better (like using food, drugs, sex, alcohol, relationships, etc. to escape our own experience). The way I'm describing escapism here is akin to addiction.

Jon Snow.

When we begin to habitually use certain things to escape our own experience, we are in the throes of addiction and escapism, not simply enjoying all the beauty and joy that life is full of. When a substance or a relationship begins to disconnect us from ourselves, from God, and from others, we know we've strayed from simply enjoying something to using it to escape our own experience. Ironically, it is sometimes the things that helped us enter life more fully that end up disconnecting us from life. Personal experience: 2 episodes of Game of Thrones in a sitting is awesome; 4 is pushing it; 8 is just egregious. Admittedly, watching Jon Snow in all his epic-ness does not get old quickly.

So, there's got to be a way to enter our experience more fully. The good news of Jesus seems to be different than the escapism so prevalent in our Christianity today. Jesus offers us a way to see where God is at work among us, in our midst, even inside us.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is asked by some of his fellow Jews when the kingdom of God would come:

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (17:20-21, NIV)

Other translations say the kingdom of God is "inside you" or "within you." I think there is a balance to interpreting Jesus' words here. It seems that Jesus' words are often either privatized and spiritualized at the expense of the sociopolitical implications or they are politicized at the expense of a renewing personal experience of God.

It was this issue of misunderstanding Jesus as purely "spiritual" (lacking social and political implications) that prompted Leo Tolstoy to write the book, The Kingdom of God is Within You. However, we should also be careful not to stray from the personal and spiritual depth of the realization that God is experienced within the self. God is not "out there" somewhere, but here, among us.

One of my former theology professors, Bo Sanders, would describe events that were "huge" as having a "surplus of meaning." This means that when we trim down the "huge" events to having only one meaning, we then miss out on the magnitude of that event. Trimming down what Jesus means by the "kingdom of God" is denying the surplus of meaning attached to what he had to say. The kingdom of God is spiritual, political, social, private, and public. It has all sorts of implications; it has a surplus of meaning.

A couple years ago, I read through a book called Rediscovering the Lost Body-Connection within Christian Spirituality (thanks to my former professor, Darla Samuelson). The authors emphasize how "experiencing yourself in the Body of Christ" requires changing the relationship you have with your own body. Those feelings we're avoiding? The conflict we can't face? The pain we're not sure how to deal with? As we avoid, repress, and replace, we are actually blocking ourselves from the renewing experience of being in the Body of Christ, of finding ourselves in the kingdom of God.

The authors propose companioning or presencing with your emotions, like how you'd care for a hurt child or hold a puppy. Finding ways to have empathy for your own experience is key to entering a fuller experience of God's love for you. I have been so touched by this book this semester as I write umpteen papers and feel my stress level rise. It has helped connect dots for me...to have fuller experiences of God's love, of feeling truly connected to my own experience and, consequently I am able to embrace others as well.

We all know when we're trying to talk to someone and they are zoned out, not paying attention. Or when someone asks you how you're doing as they walk quickly past you. I am learning how much this sort of disconnection with others is tied to a disconnection with self. If we are wanting to be the kind of people who love well, are present in the moment and with others, and experience a "life to the full," we need to practice entering our own experiences more fully. Then, we can actually emphasize with others' experiences as well, which can mobilize us to action in the issues that matter most.

If, on the other hand, we are disembodied, unaware of our own experience, we also become unaware of the experiences of those around us. Instead, we find ourselves increasingly disconnected from ourselves, our world, and our God.

In connecting with our inner life, we grow to hear God's voice, leading us toward our sisters and brothers in community, and to the work the world needs us to do.