Connected with Truth — The Heart
Rooted by the River Yoga aims to connect mind, body, heart, and soul with the truth of Jesus through the tools of yoga and meditation. This is the framework, the basis from which I teach.
Many of us grew up being told by the culture to “follow your heart.” But as we look at Scripture the message is confusing. Our hearts, like Eve’s in the garden of Eden, is easily deceived. We want what we want when we want it. Wisdom does not usually come in the form of emotions. But then what is the purpose of emotions? Emotions, like our thoughts, need to be aligned with Truth.
Connect the HEART with Truth
What does it mean to connect the body with Truth?
The heart is easily deceived. Jeremiah 17:9 is a common verse regarding the nature of the heart. It says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” It is easy to interpret this to the extreme and proclaim that emotions are misleading and so we should ignore them. Perhaps the emotions themselves are wrong. This line of thinking quickly leads to suppressed emotions, which when bottled up long enough, is like a pressure cooker waiting to release. And just like a pressure cooker, when the pressure builds too much the release is violent, explosive, and to anyone standing nearby, painful.
I think, instead, these verses are really saying that we need to connect the heart with Truth. Emotions themselves are not wrong to experience. But if we allow them to lead us, we will go the wrong way. Deuteronomy 11:16 says it this way, “Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” Our emotions can lead us away from God, so it is important to return to Scripture and prayer, so that we can assess how to respond to our emotions in a way that glorifies Jesus.
The psalms are filled with every emotion. The psalms are prayers and hymns that express emotions of every kind - anger, sadness, vengeance, joy, delight, longing, and so many more. They demonstrate the freedom we have to pour out our hearts to God in prayer. We don’t have to hold back or temper our emotions on God’s behalf. He is willing and able to take them. We can yell and scream and cry to Him. When we spend time dwelling in the truths and emotions of the psalms, we begin to understand how to appropriate our emotions. We feel them and surrender them to God. Then we reflect on who He is and what He’s done, and remember that we can rest in those truths, even when our heart and lives feel tumultuous and overwhelming.
Jesus felt and expressed emotions. At Lazarus' tomb in John 11, Jesus grieved – even knowing that He could and would raise Lazarus from the dead. John tells us, “When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.” He felt sorrow and sadness at the death of His friend. We see Jesus’ anger when He cleanses the temple after His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48). And then in the garden of Gethsemane, we read in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 that “he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, ‘My soul is sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.’” Luke even adds that “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Jesus felt emotions and He felt them deeply. But He aligned them with Truth. He was angry, because there was extortion going on within the temple. He was in anguish because He knew what lay ahead of Him. And He rightly demonstrated the proper response: prayer. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” This is what aligning and connecting our emotions with Truth looks like. It is experiencing genuine emotion but bringing that emotion to God, surrendering to Him and not allowing the emotion to control us.
Instead of reacting, we learn to sit with our emotions. Often when we feel emotions, we react. Whether it is a slow build that eventually erupts or a sudden burst of emotion, we react. Anger is often the emotion that leads to a fierce reactive response; which is why James counsels, “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19).” Knowing this, we often swing the pendulum in the opposite direction and assume all anger is bad and we shouldn’t feel it. Paul tells us to “be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26). We see the emotion itself is not the problem. It is when we sin in our anger, when we allow Satan to use the emotion to draw us away from Truth. Psalm 4:4 says something similar, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.” Once again the emotion is not the sin. It is what we do with that emotion. David says, “to ponder in your own hearts.” Instead of reacting in our emotion and allowing the emotion to be in control, can we learn to “sit with our emotions?” This is a hard thing to do; quite uncomfortable. Emotions, especially strong emotions, are uncomfortable and even painful. Our impulse is to do whatever we can to stop feeling this way. We want to move on to something that feels more pleasant. But if we can learn to sit in the discomfort of our painful emotions, we could start to understand them and ourselves a bit better.
Coming back to the example of anger. Often, anger is a secondary emotion. Think for a minute about the last time you were angry. Why were you angry? Were there any other emotions that accompanied your anger? Was it hurt – physical or emotional? Were you embarrassed or ashamed? Were you hungry or tired (though not emotions, are feelings and often applicable)? Was there a deeper emotion that caused your anger? One of the reasons I believe we react in anger is because we know how to express it. It is a very physical emotion that we can easily release into the world. And it is an emotion we can act upon, unlike say, sadness. It is much harder to “release” sadness or embarrassment or hurt. Instead, we express them with anger.
But when we learn to pause, we can begin to see what lies at the root of the emotion we feel. When we uncover the root of the problem, then we can bring Truth alongside it and see what Jesus has to say about the emotion. We can surrender it to Him and allow Him to show us the next steps, to help us process our emotions rightly.
How do we use the tools of yoga to connect the body with Truth?
Yoga teaches us awareness; we learn to name our emotions. Just as yoga teaches us to be physically aware, we can also become emotionally aware. Learning to pay attention, notice, and be curious about our emotions helps us to name them, identifying each emotion. Emotions are not just intangible feelings. They are literal feelings; your emotions manifest in physical ways. When you are nervous or anxious, you feel “butterflies in your stomach.” When you are sad, you cry. Often yoga teachers will warn their students during hip opening poses that they may feel emotions in those poses. That is because we often carry emotions in our hips. Stress, fear, and anxiety often cause tension in the shoulders, back, and neck. When we can name the emotion and notice where or how it shows up in our body, yoga can also help us release some of the physical manifestation that linger and build. There is yoga to open the hips, release tension from the shoulders and neck, ease back pain, and support mobility along the spine.
We learn to sit with difficult and uncomfortable things. In yoga, there are often poses or transitions that are difficult. We hold poses to build strength or to increase flexibility. In each case, we find that edge of discomfort—not pain, just the place beyond what is easy. We hold that strengthening pose, feeling our muscles tremble, and our instinct is to pull out, to what is easy and comfortable. Yet we know that if we hold steady in that discomfort, we strengthen our muscles. We breathe into a deep stretch, feeling the tension, the resistance, and our instinct is to back off, and release into a more natural position. Yet leaning into that edge of discomfort in a stretch allows our body to find depth in the pose over time. Likewise, as we sit with uncomfortable emotions, our instinct is to push it away or bury it, to not deal with it. But in sitting with the hard emotions, we build resilience — emotional strength and flexibility.
The breath is a tool that helps us sit with hard emotions. Yoga teaches various breathing techniques, many of which help us to regulate our nervous system. We we feel deep, strong emotions, especially negative emotions, our body responds. It feels unsafe and so the sympathetic nervous system — the fight or flight response — turns on. Deepening the breath and lengthening the exhales communicates to our body that we are safe. Our nervous system responds and switches to the parasympathetic nervous system — the rest and digest side. When this switch happens, we are able to think more clearly and begin to process what we are feeling. This is when we can begin to align our emotions with Scripture and respond with grace and truth.
