Centering Prayer and Embodied Contemplative Practices – My experience

The article Contemplative Movement on the January 2018 of Contemplative Outreach Ltd. bulletin by Robin Gates, stirred in my mind so many experiences that I observed after few years of my Centering Prayer Practice. I noticed that my body began asking for movement as never before during reading, working on the computer, attending conferences, etc. My body always was asking me to move even in a small way. I did not know what was happening so I decided to have a standing working station, and began doing more physical exercises. When I found a direct correlation of my Centering Prayer Practice, and the growth of my spiritual awareness with all these changes, I began searching for explanations. Finding scientific research papers supporting the cultivation of interoceptive, proprioceptive and kinesthetic awareness at the core of movement-based contemplative practices such as Yoga, Qigong and Tai Chi, my interest to add some of this kind of practices began in order to find a better balance in my daily life.

I began practicing yoga and then I decided to understand this discipline in a deeper form after I found a lot of benefits in my life. I began with yoga studies and yoga training in the Satyananda tradition (Bihar Yoga) where I have been exposed to yoga philosophy and yoga psychology too. My mind opened a 180 degree radio after this studies and training, given me the discipline and strength necessary to keep going forward in my Centering Prayer practice as transformative tool in the Christian Contemplative Heritage.

Movement-based embodied contemplative practices: definitions and paradigms. Front. Hum. Neurosci., 14 April 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00205.

Editorial: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Movement-Based Embodied Contemplative Practices. Front. Hum. Neurosci., 26 April 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00169

Satyananda Yoga/Bihar Yoga http://www.biharyoga.net/yoga-vision/satyananda-yoga/