Mystically Balanced Spirituality
My Experience with Centering Prayer and Whole-Body Mystical Awakening
This week we are pleased to share a guest writing from Patty Forsberg. Patty is in one of our WeSpace groups and is a spiritual director in Nebraska. She also facilitates workshops and retreats on Centering Prayer, Welcoming Prayer, Bio-Spiritual Focusing, Boundless Compassion, Enneagram, and deep listening.
Greetings to everyone. This has certainly been a year like no other and one I am sure we will long remember. However, in the midst of such global uncertainty, this year has brought two beautiful new things in my life I could not have anticipated. First is WeSpace the Whole-Body Mystical Awakening practice. And second, appreciation for creating community via an online platform such as Zoom. I could not have guessed how important these would be in my life yet is obvious to me as I look back on these last months and prepare to close the year.
Coming into the WeSpace and the Whole-Body Mystical Awakening practice has brought much appreciated fresh air and balance into my spiritual life. I come from having practiced Centering Prayer for over 10+ years and am a certified presenter, as well as a former state chapter coordinator. CP has been my mainstay practice for a long time and has carried me through some difficult seasons in my life. During health crises and multiple eye surgeries, which had me laying with ice packs on my face for long chunks of time - CP carried me. During work crises, my CP practice often felt like the only time I was actually breathing during those days. And as someone in the 5-6-7 third (head triad) of the enneagram, it was a much needed spiritual practice. As many of you will know, CP encouraged and allowed me to learn I am more than my thoughts, and my thoughts do not define me.
I started practicing WBMA after a weekend with Paul and Luke at Contemplate Lincoln in Nebraska during the fall of 2019. I had read Paul’s book ‘Integral Christianity’ years before and was looking forward to a refresher, but the weekend opened multiple doors for me. First, Paul is an excellent and enthusiastic teacher and endearing human being. I have shared portions of what I remember from Paul’s teaching - as well as his books - with many others. He is a true beacon of light in the darkness. Toward the end of our weekend, we practiced as a WeSpace group and I was hooked. Something big shifted for me that weekend, and I am still feeling the after-shocks.
Luke led us in the Whole-Body Mystical Awakening practice on Saturday afternoon. I was intrigued by the name of the practice and a bit leery. But I was also very curious and I allowed myself to put aside nagging judgments and listen to that small voice inside me that wanted to know what this was all about. Paul and Luke talked about a very personal and intimate relationship with Jesus and other spiritual guides. I wanted that as much as I wanted the Divine Therapist I had learned about from Father Thomas Keating with CP. So we took a deep breath together and I dove into the center of the WBMA pool.
First, I noticed it was not comfortable for me to pay attention to the rest of my body. I had spent years learning to quiet my mind, and I was very happy to discard and disregard any body sensations that came up. But Luke was encouraging me to notice what was happening in my heart space and my womb space. This from a man who is aware of a spiritual womb! And as a woman who has been so disconnected from my own body - the invitation was gentle and somehow welcome. I allowed myself to follow this gentleness. Then he invited us to bring our awareness to our feet and feel the energy of connection with the earth - and I really felt that connection - to others, the cosmos, the energy that gives me life. And maybe felt it for the first time.
During the last period of our WeSpace practice, we brought our attention to one person at a time and offered any words, images, or insights we had for them. When we came to the woman next to me, Luke mentioned feeling tightness in his shoulder, and I immediately felt the same tightness. That encouraged me to offer the words that came into my head for her. When I spoke those words out loud, she gasped and explained what they meant to her. She had been thinking the exact same two words! I was amazed too because I did not know where the words came from but had a feeling or sense - as best I can describe it - to offer them to her. Her response encouraged me to pay attention to those types of feelings more often.
It has been a year since that first practice and joining an online WeSpace group. Our group began as I imagine most do, as we slowly grew into a place of comfort and safety with one another. Each time one of us dared speak from our own vulnerable heart, we were able to consistently meet one another in love and compassion. We shared a deep desire to touch this place of reality and acceptance and beauty. Little by little, even with a new a face on the screen now and then, we have lived into a sacred reality that perhaps was only hoped for until now.
I still practice Centering Prayer when I need to have quiet or peaceful time with God - or just to listen. However, the WBMA practice has given me many new relationships. First, I have a new relationship and appreciation for my own physicality and blend of matter and spirit. After disregarding my body for most all my life, this practice offers grounding and a way to tap into the deep wisdom of my body. It has also offered new ways of relationship with others in this amazing body of Christ in the WeSpace. I did not realize I needed the relationships of my WeSpace group and never expected to know such love. Each time I have come away with a renewed knowing of our connectedness and non-separation and beauty.
The practice has also opened up my relationship with God with vibrant color and affect and joy. God is so much more for me these days - no longer limited by my grasping at understanding or my fears. God is now feminine and masculine, lightness and darkness; God is energy and light and love and sadness and possibility and mystery. The mystery keeps growing and drawing me in and I am enraptured. God Is Relationship and every spiritual guide or knowing or feeling that is expressed now feels like pure delight with my divine lover. And that feeling part of me knows God is even more delighted than I am! My new and favorite name for God is now With.
The beautiful people in my WeSpace group are an oasis in my life. I have rarely enjoyed the closeness and richness of relationship in a group as we do in our WeSpace. I enjoy beautiful intimacy with people who live across the globe from me, and these are some of the most important relationships in my life. I seem to have more common ground these days with my beautiful WeSpace group than some people I have known for 50+ years. Such an indescribable blessing during this global time of crises and chaos. I want to say THANK YOU to these beautiful souls - and then I am reminded I know their beauty only because they have shown me. And this beauty exists in each and every one of us. Wow.
These days, I am much more grounded, both physically and spiritually, because of WeSpace and WBMA. I live more fully in a balanced way with my mind and body and heart. I am living more into my connection with others and with God. For me, I needed a feminine connection to the divine, and two beautiful men have helped me find her. CP was necessary for me to let go of so much of what I thought was important about me and about who God was. I needed a way to welcome the beauty of my own humanity and physicality. I needed these deep and intimate relationships we have created in a safe and sacred container of the WeSpace. Opening to the WBMA practice has allowed me to live in a much more balanced way. Mind - body - heart. God - others - self. Beautiful. Beautiful!
If you would like to join a WeSpace group and practice Whole-Body Mystical Awakening with others, new groups are starting in January. Click on the button below to sign up!