My Journey with God and Yoga, Part I
On a cold January morning with the snow on the ground, I woke up in the hotel close to where I’m working this week. I work all over the UK and Eire so this is just another hotel room wake-up. I stretched my toes to the end of the bed, tensed my legs, hips, stomach, arms and gritted my teeth for about five seconds before relaxing back on my bed. I focused upon my body touching the surface beneath me and performed a body scan, top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I focused upon each of the seven key Chakra points, willing them into life at the start of the day, and when I was done, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat up, feet below my knees and back straight keeping my heart above my pelvis and chin parallel to the ground. I slowly lifted my arms up in a full stretch before relaxing back to a seating position.
Before I stood up I closed my eyes and thanked God and Jesus for giving me another day on this planet and asked them to guide me, ensuring that the works I did would be in their name only.
Anyone who takes part in any level of yoga will recognize these morning practices to prepare your body for the day ahead. However, to some this seemingly innocent morning routine would, I’m sure, receive widespread condemnation from those viewing from a Christian perspective, and a yoga teacher might consider that I was completely wasting my time by acknowledging that any power could come from without rather than within. To many a Christian ‘Expert,’ what I did this morning, and every morning for the last six months, is in direct conflict with both the spiritual teachings of yoga and Christianity. To some I’ve even committed a mortal sin which will ensure I miss the first resurrection and only return on the second to find myself condemned to eternal damnation. To a yogi I would have acted in a way that would block my path to finding peace and reconciliation on earth as I acknowledged and accepted my God as being different and above me. Guess what guys, I think you’re both wrong!
So, what gives me the qualification to make such assertions, disagreeing with vast swathes of ‘Experts’? Well, from what I can see I’m more qualified than a lot of them because I’ve lived through the issues by practical example; and that’s what my blogs are all about. I’ll share my story with you from dedicated atheist to passionate Christian, how I once had the confidence to stand for Parliamentary elections giving speeches in front of hundreds of people, to being at a family wedding full of people I know, sitting in the corner shaking in fear with the world collapsing in around me, before angels were sent to my aid to put me back on the right track. I’ll also talk about work ethics in this so-called modern age and how these had an impact on my personal and family life over the years. My hope is that if I can get just one person to recognize themselves in my writing and to take some corrective action, then it’ll be an exercise worthwhile.
I hope I challenge some of the paradigms that are set in stone in your mind. That’s wonderful imagery actually, let’s take a sledgehammer to those stones and smash them to pieces. Never has the saying, “To divide and conquer” ever had more truth, just look at the news any day of the week in any part of the world. We live in a war zone and have for the last 6,000 years. Satan has us divided like never before. Estimates vary but it’s thought that there are over 4,000 recognized religions in the world, approximately 200 of which call themselves Christian denominations. Each religion claims it is the one true path and all the others are not only wrong, but anyone who varies even the slightest from the dogmatic approaches of religion will be condemned to an everlasting period of punishment. They can’t all be right can they! As they view the world from within their little silos, a war is raging around us as the forces of evil turn us away from ever finding peace.
Open your eyes people, whilst we humans are focused on shedding blood over a few miles of land, the real enemies are rejoicing in their success every day.
It would seem I’m a bit of a paradox, a Christian yoga student who is focused on the approaching end-times, a subject that you’ll never find spoken of in its true biblical fashion in church. I completely love being in that position. I’m at my happiest not fitting into a box. I can feel myself getting a bit carried away here; that does tend to happen, so you’ll just need to ride with me when I’m on a roll, the journey is great fun.
The combination of Christianity and yoga has saved my life
Let me start by introducing myself, telling you what I am and what I’m not. My name is Stuart Adair, I live in England, I’m a dedicated Christian and I’m a complete fan of yoga which I practice constantly throughout the day. The combination of Christianity and yoga has saved my life, and that’s no small claim that I’m making because it sounds dramatic, I really do mean it. I’m sure that by now you’ve ascertained that I’m not a professional writer by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, I’ve had a book published which has sold a few copies and that was the last time I felt this drive to pour out my thoughts about a subject. In that case it was about my realization that Christianity is the way to go, and my writing was the outlet for the sheer joy I felt. Now it’s the next step where I’m exploding to share with you the transformation that combining yoga and Christianity brings.
I’m someone who loves to write at my amateur level, to challenge paradigms and explore divine theories. I don’t confess to ever being a learned expert in every possible facet of the subject, I don’t think anyone on this earth can be. As Baz Luhrmann says in the song Wear Sunscreen, “… the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.”
I am truly blessed that the good people at The Christian Yoga Association have given me a blog platform so I can share my story. I will break this journey down into bite size chunks and share it with you over a series of 3 blogs. Hopefully by the time we get to the end, the central themes will remain intact. I find that the process of writing is in itself meditative and thought provoking, relaxing and inward focusing, which is where I always ask my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to guide me. It was Confucius who said, “Study the past if you would divine the future.” And in Romans 15:4 we are told, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of Scriptures we might have hope.”
Two wise instructions which tell us of the importance of looking to the past, so we improve the future, this is where I’ll begin in this part 2 blog – through a plotted history of me and my life up to the point I finally opened my ears and heart to God. Then I’d like to explore Christianity in the world today, and particularly what might be roadblocks in modern Christianity for those seeking God and where I struggled the most in my faith. It will be in chronological order. In part 2 and 3, I’ll explore how I fell ill and subsequently suffered a mental breakdown, and how angels were sent to save me through the power of yoga. Later, we will explore how yoga became such a vital part of my life and is fully compatible with Christianity, indeed is an essential ingredient that Christians will benefit from if they practice it. We must talk about the different types of yoga and how they can help the world as it most certainly did for me and many I know.
We will also explore Solfeggio frequencies as a complimentary practice to yoga and prayer. It won’t be all ‘sweetness and light,’ I will also explore the dangers that exist, including the risk of idolatry, arrogance and sin that are in direct contradiction of the teaching of our Lord, so we must explore those as a way of ensuring we don’t fall in the traps.
I can tap away on the keyboard for as long as you like but that’ll just be a one-way-street, however, what would be really great is if you, the reader, gave me feedback on what you think about my journey, the conclusions I’ve come to and most importantly any gaps in my logic? I’m opening myself up here to be questioned about my faith in both Christianity and yoga, and I welcome the challenge. I’m hoping that someone will tell me something that’ll help me be an even better Christian and yoga student.
Ok, so let’s get on with it and go back to my beginnings…. (see part 2 in the coming weeks)
God Bless you all Namaste.
Stuart Adair is the author of My Journey to God: Passionate Atheist to Passionate Christian and guest writer for Christian Yoga Association. He lives in England with his wife of 30 years Sharon, two Pugs, four cats and a couple of fish. He has four grown children and three Granddaughters. Stuart has a successful commercial career working in the logistics industry. After spending most of his life searching for a spiritual home, he finally opened his heart to the call of our Lord five years ago, which he describes as a “Life defining moment.” Over the last two years Stuart was hospitalized with Covid and subsequently had a mental breakdown which led him down the path of Psychologists and Psychiatrists. He says that he was left on medication, bereft of feeling and separate from the rest of the world. Stuart was helped back to full health through a very talented yoga practitioner and learned to combine the best of Christian prayer and meditation with yoga to a now enjoy a full recovery. Stuart loves writing and evangelizes about combining Christianity with Yoga.