Editor’s note: Prayer is consistently one of the spiritual gifts that is most searched on Google. We ask, How can I pray? Is there a best way to pray? A best time to pray? A best place to pray? Is there a way to connect with God holistically? Today, Jennifer Tucker is answering questions about a simple, whole-self, embodied prayer and we’re featuring her beautiful, new book Prayer in Motion. Enjoy! A few key verses to dwell on: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:1, and Luke 10:27.
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Why did you write it? (What’s the story behind it?)
I wrote this book because it’s the message my own body and soul desperately needed—and it’s what I still need today. This is the third book in my own personal journey with prayer (including Breath as Prayer and Present in Prayer), through embodied prayer practices that have helped me discover what it really means to abide with Christ and experience the profound grace that comes with bringing my whole self before God and resting in His faithful presence.
This prayer journey started for me seven years ago when our daughter’s health declined and our family was plunged into a dark and disorienting season of suffering and pain. What began as a health crisis progressed into months and then years of daily, ongoing struggles that impacted every aspect of our lives. These past seven years have been marked by deeply challenging circumstances and unwanted heartache, years of watching our beautiful girl suffer with pain that she never chose and illnesses that nearly took her life. There were years of hospital stays and treatment centers, of faded dreams and changed plans and hard choices and our lives going in directions we never anticipated, paths we never wanted. There were countless days of overwhelming worry and fear, filled to the brim with so many unknowns and uncertainty.
And I carried every bit of it in my body.
But I didn’t pay attention. I pushed aside my own needs in the name of taking care of my family. I thought I was doing the best thing, the right thing. I thought I was okay. But the stress I avoided addressing began to build up inside me, and the weight of it all was crushing me.
I prayed, desperate for answers and healing, but it felt like all my prayers were worthless, like my words were just hitting the ceiling and going nowhere. My circumstances were not getting any easier, the storm was not slowing down, the pain was not easing, and the darkness only kept getting darker. Every day felt harder than the last. I began to doubt if God even heard my prayers at all.
Anxiety made it hard to breathe. Depression made it hard to hope. The weight of our reality was crushing me, and my whole self was suffering—body, mind, and soul.
It was there at my lowest, when I had no more words left to pray and I had no strength left to pretend that I was ok, my prayers began to transform. I needed prayers that weren’t just words tossed out into the abyss—I needed prayer that I felt in my actual bones. I needed more than just some abstract God who was out there somewhere—I needed to feel God right there with me, as close as my breath. I was desperate for the actual presence of God.
It started with breath prayer. Just inhaling and exhaling while repeating a simple phrase from Scripture, over and over and over again.
My breath was my prayer.
The deep breaths physically calmed my body while the simple prayer tethered me to God’s love.
Over time, that simple breath prayer led me to prayers of meditation. Prayer was silence and stillness as I sat with a small bit of Scripture and slowly learned how listen with the ears of my heart. Or as Brother Lawrence put it, prayer became “practicing the presence of God.” These prayers of presence became an anchor for my soul, rooting me deeply in God’s Word.
And then, I began to move. As stress continued to build in my body, I knew I needed to do more than just slow down and be still—I also needed to get up and move. And so I began to gently move my body as I moved my mind toward God. Not only did movement help me feel physically better in my body by easing the symptoms of stress and depression I was experiencing, but every movement became yet another invitation to pray, to be aware of God’s presence with me and to connect to His abiding love as I moved through my days. Movement fueled me with hope, helping me to keep going even on the hardest days.
Prayer in Motion came out of this part of my journey, discovering the hope and joy that can be found when we move and pray, when we connect our bodily experiences to our spiritual life by inviting God into every moment and movement of our days.
I believe in the power of prayer. But I also believe that prayer can take many forms, and God can use absolutely anything to help us connect to Him and experience His goodness and love—including the movement of our bodies.
Who is Prayer in Motion for?
Prayer in Motion is for you if you:
- are feeling disconnected, stressed, or overwhelmed
- want to experience greater peace, hope, and joy in your everyday life
- don’t know how to pray, or want to connect with God in a new way
- want to move your body from a place of joy instead of judgment
- experience pain, discomfort, or limitations in your body
- feel like your body is your enemy
- are curious about embodied prayer
- want to cultivate practical rhythms of prayer in your everyday life
No matter how much experience you have with prayer, no matter what your level of mobility or movement is, no matter what you think about your body or what your relationship is with God right now, my hope is that Prayer in Motion will meet you right where you are and gently lead you toward a more deeply embodied wholeness—helping you reclaim joy, deepen your faith, and find peace and hope one intentional movement at a time.
What does moving our bodies do for our spirits? (or for our faith/relationship with God?)
We often tend to separate our spiritual life from our physical life, viewing the soul as separate from the body, and our spiritual growth and health as disconnected from our mental or physical health. But the truth is, we are body and soul.
From the very beginning, you were always meant to experience life as a whole, embodied person—with a body, mind, and soul. Our bodies are part of God’s wonderful design, and an integral part of how He intended for us to experience our life and the world He created. From our sensory systems that allow us to feel and taste and smell and see and hear, to our nervous systems that regulate every part of our body and constantly process input from the world around us, our bodies are complex and deeply interconnected. What happens in our body affects our mind and soul, just as our mind and soul can have a significant effect on our body.
Movement in particular is an embodied experience, whether we realize it or not—it has both a physiological and a spiritual impact on us.
Movement can be helpful in calming the body during times of stress. When we move, our body sends sensory messages to the brain that communicate safety, which in turn slows the release of stress hormones and allows the brain to move into a state of calm. Not only that, but any time you contract your muscles (which is any time you move), your muscles release proteins called myokines which travel through your bloodstream and affect every system in your body. These proteins can have a significant impact on how you feel and the way you process the stress, from reducing inflammation and regulating blood sugar to strengthening muscles and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. One of the first scientific papers about myokines called them “hope molecules,” because of the power they have to improve mood and promote emotional well-being.
In other words, hope flows when you move.
This is why movement can be a meaningful time to connect to God in prayer. While physical movement calms your body and gets those hope molecules moving, prayer calms your soul by deepening your connection to God and strengthening your awareness of His presence with you. In this way, movement and prayer together become powerful key to increased hope and peace, both in your body and your soul.
What is one tool you recommend to get moving while praying?
You don’t really need any special products or trendy equipment to get moving while you pray. In fact, the best place to start is where you’re already moving. What are you already doing every day that requires you to move your body in some way? It could be as simple as chores around the house, like washing dishes or folding laundry. It might be walking down the driveway to get the mail out of the mailbox, or even stretching when you first get out of bed in the morning. Pay attention to just one simple movement that is already part of your day, and make that movement into an invitation to pray.
Focus your attention on how you feel in your body as you move. If you’re feeling any pain or tension, tell God about it and ask Him for the grace to treat yourself with compassion in those areas that need extra care. If your emotions are heavy, or you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, share those burdens with God as you focus on His presence with you in that moment. You can also take a minute to thank God for the gift of your body, that you are able to move in this way every day.
You don’t have to have fancy words or special tools. God is already with you. That is enough.
How has your view of (or relationship to) your body been impacted by discovering embodied prayer practices?
I haven’t always had a very kind or healthy relationship with my body. I’ve starved it and picked at it, ignored it and overworked it. I’ve worn it out and cursed it, loathed it and tried to change it. I’ve wished it were different, better, thinner, stronger. I’ve taken my body for granted, I’ve been ashamed of it, and I’ve judged it in the harshest ways.
But through the practice of gentle movements and embodied prayer, I’ve been able to slowly shift the way I view my body. I more easily recognize God’s goodness in how He made me, and I more readily appreciate the incredible gift that it is to be able to see and walk and feel and dance and play and breathe. I now see every movement as an invitation to experience hope and joy in my right-now body. My body is a gift, and God has called it “good.”
Instead of moving in ways to attempt to control or change my body, I am free to move in ways that help me simply enjoy my God-given body as I practice inviting God into all my moments and allowing every movement of my body to move me closer to Him. I’ve found that these embodied prayer practices have increased the gratitude that I feel toward my body and toward the experiences God has given me to feel and touch and taste and see that He really is good. Even in suffering and pain, I am now more likely to be kind to my body when I’m struggling and treat my body with gentle acceptance and compassion, instead of with judgment or resentment.
Anything else you would like share? Anything else you hope readers come away with?
When I wrote this book, I thought a lot about my mom. The last few years have brought her significant physical challenges. From major back surgeries that have left her with limited mobility and daily pain, to a progressive lung disease that is making it more and more difficult for her to breathe, to the loss of her senses of smell and taste—the way she experiences life in her body is not nearly the same as the way I experience life in mine. Movement for her looks very different than it does for me.
So what does this message of Prayer in Motion mean for her and others like her? If your body is confined by limitations you never asked for, disabilities you never wanted, or pain you never chose, I want you to know, this message is still for you. Hope in your right-now body is still available to you. God made your body, and even with all its limitations and imperfections, your body is good body—not because everything that happens in your body is good (because it isn’t), but because God says it’s good, and because your body is your home.
Even the smallest movement—a simple raised hand, a gentle sway, a small stretch—releases a bit of hope into your body. Even the smallest prayer—a simple turning of your attention to the presence of God with you right now—releases a bit peace into your soul.
The truth is, your prayers are never limited by the boundaries of your circumstances or the limitations of your body.
Your life is your prayer.
Every breath you take is your prayer.
Every prayer is a movement toward Christ.
Every movement, however small, is a hymn of hope.
And the rhythm of your life can become a beautiful melody of prayer when you invite God into all the moments and movements of your day.
Written for Devotionals Daily by Jennifer Tucker, author of Prayer in Motion.
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Your Turn
Prayer isn’t complicated! No Google required. Your life is your prayer. You can choose to pray whenever and wherever. Today, try praying whenever you’re moving and see what that does to your prayer walk with Jesus! ~ Devotionals Daily