Last night I had the privilege of being invited to be part
of the Candlemas service at St Micahel’s, Aldershot, it was such a lovely
evening, I left buzzing and I want to share some of what God spoke to me during
the service.
I had been asked if I could find some dancers who could
respond as the felt led to a piece of live piano music based on Psalm 121: I Life
my eyes up, to the Mountain. The lovely Helen Warren joined me as a second
dancer, and our prayer before we danced was that we would reflect some of Jesus’
heart, that people would be drawn in with a desire to explore God more through
our movement.
Recently I recognised that I spend a lot of time teaching
and delivering, and not so much time dancing for myself. Last night gave me the
opportunity to come before God and thank him that I have the ability to move,
but also reinforced that for UC Grace to grow, and share Gods heart, I need to
make sure I am giving God mine, and that in turn requires time set aside for me
to dance, and be lost in his love through movement.
As the service progressed, Alwyn, the Vicar asked if we
would dance again later in the service. By this point me and Helen felt we had ‘warmed
up’, laid the foundations of showing Jesus through movement. So, as Jesus
Christ, I think upon your sacrifice played, our hearts were stirred more by the
spirit and we loved sharing more of that through dance and movement.
Much of the journey I have been on over the past week has
encompassed the desire to draw back to the centre of what and why I do what I
do with UC Grace. There were several things that God drew my attention to last
night, it made me chuckle as the theme seemed to be everywhere I went at the
moment.
In my previous post I mentioned about the interaction between creativity and the heart, and that my desire when I started had always been that it was about the hearts impacted not the numbers. You can read more about it here. It is this theme of people’s hearts and prayer that keep cropping up.
This prayer below reminded me that God places me where I
need to be and with who I need to be, and I need to be willing to serve Him in
what ever way that looks like.
It’s really hard in reality isn’t it to keep that sense of doing what God wants and following his will. This chorus of ‘I the Lord of sea and sky’ (brilliant song, you can listen to here), sums it up very well.
I will hold your
people in my heart. The people that God puts in front of me at events, in
conversations and through dancing. Each one is important.
We did manage to video some of what we did last night. Not
everything is in full view. But it will give you a flavour from our first
dance.
What special services have you danced in? Let me know.
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I don’t know about you, but from the moment you find out you’re
pregnant all the ‘preparation’ that you are told about, explore, look up seems to
centre on most of these topics – how your pregnancy will develop, how the baby
grows, things you need to be aware of at birth, what to remember at birth, breastfeeding,
bottle feeding, what changes the baby goes through and much more. What isn’t spoken
about enough or made aware to mums enough is the reality of how you and your body feels physically post birth.
When I had my daughter, this was the bit I struggled with
the most, since then I’ve spoken with many mums about how they actually felt
post birth and it’s shocking. It’s the one thing they weren’t prepared for,
hadn’t been told or heard about, and it’s the thing that had one of the
greatest impacts on them as they came to grips with being a new mum.
9 hours old – newborn snuggles once I could feel my arm!
I want to share with you two things – my post birth pain
story and how you can help yourself to get out moving after birth that will aid
healing in the right way. I recognise everyone’s story is different, and for
some mums, they may be the lucky few that experience a positive birth, with
minimal visible damage and easy movement after. But sadly, there are a lot of
mums that don’t get that.
The birth of my first child wasn’t what I pictured it would
be. To start with she was 10 days late! I was in slow labour, with sporadic contractions
for 5 days. My waters broke but I didn’t have any regular contractions and I
was scheduled to be induced. A high-powered walk eventually shifted things into
regularity. However, in the final pushing stages it all went wrong… very quickly,
and I ended up in theatre with an episiotomy, forceps and a baby not breathing,
after 6 very long minutes we heard our baby. Thank you, God.
In the hours after the birth I eventually managed to get up,
although I could walk, albeit very slowly, I could not sit. What followed as I
attempted to recover, navigate a very painful breastfeeding journey (a story for
another time), go through all the new mum, baby, family processes. Was the
realisation that whilst I was prepared to ‘become a mum’, I most definitely was
not prepared (nor had I read anywhere) for the immense pain, immovability and
recovery of my body. The hardest part was transitions, once standing, or
sitting in a fixed place I was okay, but moving from one to the other, turning
over in bed, getting baby in the night to do feeds, was excruciating, it was at
least 4 weeks if not longer before I could sit comfortably and transition between
standing and sitting comfortably.
9 days – the tiredness has kicked in.
Mentally I really struggled with this. I’m a doer, some one who likes to keep busy, and realising that I still needed to be on a ‘go slow’ a lot longer than I thought, I struggled with. It was around 4 months post-partum that my friend invited me to try out Buggyfit. What a God send! By this point I had worked out that sleep and my daughter didn’t mix. But the outdoors and buggy produced a small amount of sleep, hallelujah! Over the next 3 or 4 months with Helena at Buggyfit Farnham, I learnt a lot more about our post-partum bodies and rehabbing them in the right way. Plus, the importance of knowing if we have diastasis recti (tummy gap), and how strong our pelvic floor is (let’s be honest, we all mean to do the exercises, but the reality of actually doing them…?!).
I took a lot longer to recover than I thought I would, in
fact it hadn’t crossed my mind that it would take long to recover – I mean
nothing is said in any of the magazines. But think about it, you’ve taken 9
months to grow your baby, allow it time to recoup, recover and regrow as
needed.
4.5 weeks – Frensham Pond walk
Fast forward to now, I’ve been a Buggyfit instructor for 3 years running classes in Odiham, Hook and Alton (more info here), I love it. I’m passionate about ensuring mum’s get moving in a safe, supportive and fun environment and I love being able to encourage them not only in their fitness journey, but also in being a mum.
So what can you do to help your movement post birth? Here’s
3 things that I would make a priority –
Slow and steady wins
the race – giving birth is equivalent to doing a marathon, not only pace
yourself during your labour, but also after it. No consistent* running, high
impact, jumping, HiiT, Boxercise or similar until you are 5-6 months. This
sounds like you must wait an eternity, but although you might look and feel great
on the outside, there are many layers of muscles and healing that need to take
place deep down. Follow the advice of your postnatal trainer but depending on
your recovery some of these can be started sooner. Walking is the best place to
start.
Little and often –
get out for a walk every day. This might mean on day one, you walk to the end
of the driveway or garden and back and that’s it. But firstly, you’ve moved and
secondly you got outside, win win! Fresh air helps you to regroup, blow away a
little bit of tiredness and help you feel like you’ve done something. Moving,
wakes up your muscles to help them to start contracting back to where they
should normally be. Each time you walk, walk as fast as you can, this might be
like a snail to start with, but you will get quicker!
Remember your breathing – just like during labour, breathing is your lifeline. Taking several lots of deep breaths, a day will not only send more oxygen round the body to your muscles, but also help rebuild your pelvic floor and tummy gap.
If you’re keen to get out and get moving soon after birth,
then I’d recommend heading to a local Buggyfit class where you can get your
outside fresh air fix, baby can go to and all the instructors are postnatally
trained, so you will be in the safest of hands to get your body moving and
active post birth.
When looking for classes postnatally, it is really important
that you check (ask to see certificates if need be), that your class instructor
is qualified to teach postnatally. You will do more damage to your body if you
go back into exercise and begin throwing weights around, doing sit ups, running
sprints and more. There are many other exercises that work more effectively to
rebuild your core, tone your muscles and build strength.
Put your body first, let it recover, know that it might be painful and accept you might need to watch a little more tv whilst you recover!
*Running for short bursts
within for example, a set of circuits can be fine, but isn’t recommended before
12 weeks, at the discretion of the instructor depending on the mum’s recovery.
You can’t see God sometimes in the situation you’re in.
On Saturday I had the chance to join Jubilee Church Flourish ladies weekend. A fantastic opportunity to receive and get some refueling for myself. Their theme for the weekend was ‘new wine’, how do you get new wine, wines have different labels depending on what they’re made up of, where they have grown and the soil they are in. To go alongside the theme was the Hillsong Worship song New Wine. This was just one of the things that spoke to me when I joined them for the day.
Have a listen to it –
Powerful hey! What speaks to you first?
For me it’s the chorus. There is such a pull on my heart strings, that I completely want to immerse myself into the words and the music. Let’s break it down into the different sections.
Make me a vessel
God has given us an amazing gift, that can be shared, we are simply a vessel within which this can be done. Say to God that you want to give your whole self over to share His word and His story.
Make me an offering
Ask God to let you know what it is that He wants you to do. How can you use your passion to share with others, how can you build someone up in the work place, how can you use you whole self to share His word and story.
Make me whatever you want me to be
It’s your opportunity to step out 100% and choose to trust God amongst all that is going on. He knows not only what you are capable of but also what your limits are. He won’t give you more than you can handle. Choose to offer your whole self to share His word and story.
I came here with nothing
Jesus took it all away, we are drawn to our knees. All that we have we give. Share His word and story from your knees!
But all you have given me
God gives us more than we can fathom, more than we know. All the little things that go on, God knows about them and He puts them in place. Use your whole self, all your passions, dreams, gifts and life to share His word and story.
Jesus, bring new wine out of me
Wow!! What could God do with you, if you’ve really been pulled down to your knees, you’re offering your whole self, acknowledging that God will give you all that you need to fulfill what He puts before you. What will come out of you?? More than you can imagine!!
This song is definitely a keeper for me, and I am looking forward to finding an opportunity to dance my whole heart out to it!
When you choose to stand up and teach in front of others you need to know that you’re teaching from a point of authority with a firm foundation in what you hold true. These couple of verse provide a fantastic opportunity to remember how and why you choose to teach and share God’s word. Whether that’s through dance and movement or another avenue.
Let’s begin by breaking the verse down into 4 sections.
1.) ‘Pattern of sound teaching’ – rely on the word
God gives His word as a basis to build life from. It’s sound, sturdy and full of amazing values. If we choose to teach his truth it needs to come from a sound basis.
2.) ‘faith and love’ – love doing it through faith and love
Faith is relying on what you don’t see. Rely and trust that God loves you, carries and equips you to share with love.
3.) ‘Guard the good deposit entrusted’ – guard his word
Gods word is the best. He deposits in us a desire to share, and to do so knowing the full assurance of his word.
4.) ‘Help of the holy spirit’ – let the spirit help
There is always someone there to help and guide you. Let his spirit in and let it guide you.
It is such an amazing privilege to share Gods word with others. Enjoy doing it, and let God lead!
“In Him we Live and Move and have our Being.” Acts 17.28
God has given us our amazing bodies to move and dance with in whatever way we can. The other day I came across Chris Tomlins new song ‘HOLY ROAR‘, it took my breath away. It spoke right into my core, about why I move and dance, and the strength, passion and integrity with which I do it. It prompted an opportunity to share at our latest Living Colour workshop how we could explore Dancing with a Holy Roar.
But what does Holy Roar actually mean? It’s best to start by looking at how the dictionary defines each word.
Lets start with Holy – dedicated or consecrated to God, sacred. Which sounds a great way to describe this special word. Participants at the workshop also came up with the following –
Special/ quietness – an awe
Pure, sacred. Set apart and hard to translate
Jesus dying on the cross. What he did for us
In essence, Holy, is something that is indescribable, beyond words, definitely set apart and something special.
Whilst Roar is defined as – a full deep, prolonged cry uttered by a lion or wild animal. That’s pretty intense isn’t it?! Other words came up in discussion such as –
Power
Roaring like a lion
Strong
Loud
Aggressive/ emotive
How can we link these two words together? If I now asked you what you think Holy Roar means as one thing what would you say?
Cry for justice from a place of deep grief or righteous anger
From the belly – it uses your whole being
Confrontation with all your strength but you’re 100% up for it
Freedom
Living Colour October 2018
What do you think it means to have a Holy Roar in dance ministry and life? Massive questions hey! But have a think, how could you move and dance with Holy Roar as your foundation?
My favourite line from the responses above has to be the picture of ‘from the belly’, because actually that’s what it’s all about. When we worship, when we cry out to God, when we battle and declare he is victorious. We are putting our whole heart into it. We’re choosing to be strong, clear, and direct with our movement and what we want to declare.
Think of it like your belt of truth. The belt is something that holds things in place, stabilises your core and carries things. If you have a weak core, your ability to move efficiently will be diminished. The core of moving and dancing comes from knowing the truth in the Bible. I love the imagery of tightening the belt the more you know. It’s like you’re choosing to take a stand point and are notching in ready for the fight!
So when you choose to move and dance. Think about the stand point you are taking, and how you can use a Holy Roar in your movement.
Weaving prayer into our everyday life can sometimes be a challenge can’t it? I love exploring ways to use movement and prayer together, go deeper with God and journey with others.
Amazing Grace Course July 2018
We’ve developed a fantastic resource to enable you to start moving at a pace that you are comfortable with, pausing where needed. It’s completely FREE and you can access it here. We’d love to know how you get on, so please do let us know.
When I connect prayer and movement I find it easier to associate with specific areas. In the FREE download – 5 Ways to use Prayer and Movement together, I identify the following areas –
Walking
Knees
Thanking
Declaring
Revealing
Each area providing an avenue to explore movement in a different way. It can be really daunting choosing to step out and pray using movement. But the thing that God delights most, is not only that you try, but that nothing is EVER WRONG. Any way you choose to move for him, there is a party. PLUS if someone sees you doing prayer movement, you never know the impact that that will have on them.
So go on, go for it and try stepping out! Grab the it here.
