Receive A Fulness of Joy

When I think of Doctrine and Covenants section 93, I think of light, truth, and knowledge. One of my favorite verses and one that has been on my mind lately is verse 33:

"For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy."

It's simple but so powerful. Our element (our bodies) and are spirits are connected and they must be that way to receive a fulness of joy. 

How can they be connected? Is there ways we can align our spirits and our bodies together? 

I've just started Brooke Snow's 40 day challenge meditation course even though I've been meditating the way she prescribes since the beginning of the year. 

She talks in great length of the importance of meditation is bringing the body and spirit in alignment, specifically through breath and a mantra. 

Every day she challenges us to take three inhales and exhales through our nose before we start 5 minutes of meditation. The meditation practice is saying this mantra through every inhale and exhale: "I love and accept you, [state your name]". And we repeat this for 5 minutes. 

Our brains have been so wired to jump from task to task in short circuits that to be present for 5 minutes can sometimes feel like a tall order. She talks about having constant compassion and forgiveness to get right back on track. Imagine you're at a park bench and you see cars driving by. The cars represent thoughts and sometimes you see them float by and other times you hop in the car and go for a ride! But it's all about forgiving ourselves and getting right back to the bench. 

I'll admit that I was practicing this for 40 days previously and it was good but I knew I was lacking in something. 

I never coupled it with preparing my body beforehand. Now I recognize the benefit of finding alignment with my body and spirit by just breathing intentionally. I've also incorporated a few minutes of cat cow pose. My goal is to work up to doing 10-15 minutes of yoga before I start meditating. I love the sun rise one from Yoga with Adriene. 

One way to keep the focus and to make it more meaningful has been visualization. If I really want to bring this alignment of my body and spirit, I need to love and care for both. I've been having some funky issues with different parts of my body lately: leg, back, teeth, to name a few. It can be so frustrating and discouraging and I easily criticize rather than appreciate my body. At times, I'll bring a big inhale and exhale and send some love to those areas of the body that are a struggle. 

But lately, I imagine different parts of my body saying the mantra to me of "I love and accept you, Julia." And I do the same for that part of the body. I know that sounds like of silly but it's been impactful. It's like we're saying to each other, "I'm so grateful you're the one taking care of me". We're a team. We've got this. 

This also goes for taking care of my spirit. I've sort of slipped back into a habit of social media consumption. I know it's not all bad and I don't use it so much as a buffer but it just happens to be a time sucker every time I get on. It's interesting that when we engage in virtual reality of any kind, we're not fully using our senses so it's a form of separation of our spirit and body. 

No wonder my favorite ideas come when I'm on a walk at the park or even in the shower or even when I'm nursing my baby. So much of my senses are fully engaged. 

And I allow for those ideas to flow when I take the time to open myself to receiving them, both in my spirit and my body through meditation. 

I've determined that 2019 will be the year that I show up for myself. I can't wait to see the compound effect this simple habit will have in my life.