Five Body Wisdom
Five Body Wisdom is designed to emphasize the deep connection between our five bodies—physical, energy, mental, wisdom, and bliss—and how they work together to promote a life of balance and fulfillment. Inspired by and for women over 55, this podcast delves into the specific challenges and opportunities of this transitional life stage, offering inspiration, guidance, and practical wisdom.
Each episode weaves together personal stories, insightful interviews, and practical techniques to empower listeners to embrace their true selves. The show is hosted by Delia Quigley, an experienced yogi, meditator, intuitive artist, and author with over 40 years of experience in helping women find clarity and purpose in their daily lives. Her compassionate approach and deep understanding of life’s interconnected aspects position her as a trusted voice in navigating change with grace and authenticity.
Listeners of Five Body Wisdom will gain valuable tools to restore balance in their lives, enhance self-awareness, and reignite their sense of purpose. Delia shares her personal journey and expertise, offering techniques for nurturing the body, calming the mind, connecting with intuition, and embracing spiritual growth. The show also features interviews with everyday women who have discovered their inner strength and wisdom, inspiring listeners to do the same.
By tuning in, you’ll join a supportive community of women dedicated to living with intention and joy. Whether you seek practical advice, soulful stories, or a spark of inspiration, Five Body Wisdom provides a roadmap for thriving in the second half of life.
Five Body Wisdom
When Women Pray: The Power of Prayer
Ever noticed how the world keeps getting louder? Headlines scream, social media buzzes, and division seems to amplify daily. Yet beneath this cacophony, a quiet force is rising – one that doesn't demand attention but profoundly shapes our lives: the power of prayer.
This isn't about religion. It's about connection. As our guests reveal, prayer transcends boundaries and belief systems. "You don't need to be religious to pray," one woman shares. "You don't need the right words. You only need a willingness to listen, to ask, and to align with something greater."
Through intimate stories and personal revelations, we journey into the heart of what prayer means in contemporary life.
We explore how prayer affects each of our five bodies: physical, energetic, mental, wisdom, and divine. When we pray, our physical body softens, our energy rebalances, our mental storms calm, our wisdom deepens, and our divine self remembers its connection to everything.
The thread connecting all these experiences? The understanding that prayer isn't about getting what we want, but aligning with what is. As one woman's sister wisely notes, "All prayers are answered, although not always in the way we were hoping for."
Ready to explore your own relationship with this universal force? Join us for an episode that might just transform how you understand the quiet whispers of your heart.
Welcome to the Church of Five-Body Wisdom. Interviews with Our Selves. Really Delia? You've got your own church now? Well, I received a few recordings from women sounding a lot like sermons to me. My gals took this prayer episode seriously and stepped into the pulpit to preach it.
Speaker 2:Something about prayer that leads one to think about God and religion, the self and the vast unknown into which we hurdle our hopes and dreams. Well, are all prayers religious? No, they're universal. They have no boundaries, no particular god. Prayers are putting the force of your intention into the cosmic web, with love, compassion and intention. It has a rhythm and cadence, tells a story and repeats itself over and over again. In a world growing louder by the day headlines, politics, war, division there's a quiet force rising, one that doesn't shout, doesn't demand, it isn't tethered to any single belief system. It's the power, the force of prayer. And when women pray, the heavens listen. In this episode of Five-Body Wisdom, we explore the power of prayer, not as a passive plea but as an active frequency, a subtle energy of connection and intention, one that can shape both our inner lives and the larger field we all share. You don't need to be religious to pray. You don't need the right words. You only need a willingness to listen, to ask and to align with something greater.
Speaker 3:My sister and brother made fun of me when I looked up the English translation of the Byzantine Catholic service we attended from ages 8 to 18. I gave up on the Catholic Church my second year of college. Ten years later, my friend Ingrid Bredenburg introduced me to the Daily Word, which I began reading and have not stopped to the daily word which I began reading and have not stopped. Eventually, I found a local unity church, home of positive prayer and positive thinking. I pray every time an ambulance drives by, for the patient and their family. Nightly I use marianne williamson's prayer. May angels fill their nights and bless their days. May I be a source of happiness in their lives. As I pray for my family and friends, I felt angels walking with me when I was a teen and I definitely know I was protected by angels. When I woke up alive in my stopped car in the middle of the median of I-75 in the heart of Atlanta one late night Parking, angels go with me. Thank you, god is my go-to anytime, every time, prayer that works for me.
Speaker 4:Prayer for me in this state of my life, where I find myself now, is not a prayer to a deity, it's not a prayer to something outside of myself. It's a prayer based on a knowing that everything is the way it is, exactly how it is, and it is perfect. And a prayer is a way that I would express or ask for the best possibility, what can unfold, and if it doesn't, it would also be okay, because there's also no expectation in the prayer. There is just like, if it is allowed to unfold, it was just simply an opening up towards myself, towards that possibility. And then there's also kind of like a playful prayer, you know, like praying for a parking place to unfold simply because why not? You know, it's like make life easier and also no expectation. When there isn't, then it isn't, and then life goes on and I find my way Because it is at this. It happened, it unfolded, or let's say, I experienced it exactly how I felt in my heart would be possible. And this is prayer for me.
Speaker 2:So, Delia, that parking angel seems to be pretty busy. We just heard from Pat Fenda and Anita Peter Hansel, and they both call out pray to the parking angel. Has the church granted a name one can call when invoking for a parking space? Not that I know, you know it could be a squadron of angels directing traffic wherever there's a parking lot, or some bored angel volunteered to do the job. Regardless, I think the parking angel is a good example of when people think you don't pray, but you do it. You do it all the time and you do it in big but also small ways. Expressions, for example, like the Muslim expression bismillah, God willing, Now that's a prayer. Or even shouting the name of Jesus Christ in any situation calls into being the presence of love and miracles. And then there's holy shit. No, Delia, just no, All right. Well, the New Yorker magazine ran a hilarious piece in March called Prayers for Everyday Life by Ian Frazier. Here's a sample. So Prayers for Everyday Life. Oh dear.
Speaker 2:God, may I not have thrown away the top to the sour cream? Oh Jesus, where did all that water in the basement come from? Or at the workplace, dear God Almighty. Why hasn't that idiot Liam been fired? Or at the pharmacy? Oh, for God's sake, you are not next in line. Everyday prayers from the mouth of ordinary people to God's ears.
Speaker 5:My journey with prayer has been complicated at best. What do I mean by that? Well, I was born into a traditional Sikh Punjabi family and we went to the Gurudwara every Sunday. However, as I got older, I noticed that I would always sit in quiet moments and connect with the universe and ask for direction, ask for confirmation, some kind of sign to know which direction I was going in. And so I think a lot of prayer for me is about asking for a source of strength.
Speaker 5:When I sit down and I have those conversations, my intention is to connect with the universe to help me along my journey. I believe the universe, when you have an idea, is here to conspire for you to achieve and succeed. And so my idea of prayer is all entwined in the idea of following one's journey, following one's path. Every day, I light my incense and that is my moment of prayer, my moment of meditation. It's all entwined together, and I like how Joseph Campbell describes it. He viewed prayer, if I can remember, as a way to tap into the fields of consciousness and explore the mystery of the source of one's own being. His quote prayer, like myth, is a symbolic act of connecting with the deeper, more profound reality of existence.
Speaker 2:That was Kuldip Rao, sharing her relationship with prayer with us. So, Delia, what is your prayer resume? Or should I say your history? Well, I did time on my knees every night throughout my childhood praying the rosary. It would happen after dinner, all of us kids with mom and dad reciting the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Usually until one of my brothers, my altar boy brothers, my dad, would make a noise or start laughing and the rest of the session was lost to uncontrolled hysterics until my pop would settle it with a look that put a stop to our shenanigans. And later in life, as a yogi, I was a little confused by the Sanskrit and all the gods and goddesses. You know Catholics have the saints and angels, so keeping track of it all got to be a bit much. I mean, which entity, deity, deity do you trust with your prayers?
Speaker 6:I remember an interview that Oprah did with Ilana Van Zandt and she asked her about prayer and Van Zandt replied there are only two prayers. Thank you and help.
Speaker 6:That really struck me because, as someone who grew up in a Christian home, I was taught that we're praying to Jesus or to Mary or to God, and as I grew older, I began to have a problem with those sort of specific beings because, of course, depending on where you grow up and your culture, that changes. However, I always felt the presence of something. What do you? Maybe you call it a higher power, something higher than me, and I do pray, but I've become more comfortable with a kind of uncertainty of who I'm actually who or what I'm kind of reaching out to. So, thank you, and help really works for me, because that's coming from deep within my gut, my heart, my soul, whatever you call it. That goes beyond the intellect or beyond the concept that we create. But you know, there are times when help is the presiding issue in your life. Years ago, I was living in my apartment and I'd put an offer in on a house and I told my landlords that I was moving and, lo and behold, the house fell through and I realized that in two weeks I would not have a place to live. Well, I was walking down my block with my dog and, very loudly, I found myself saying universe, I need a place to live and I need it now. Within a block I passed a woman who I knew vaguely had a beautiful carriage house and she was standing outside and we waved and I said hi, you don't happen to have an apartment, do you? And she paused for a moment and she looked at me and she said I just happen to have one. And I said I have a dog. And she said I love dogs. Well, there you go.
Speaker 6:Because the cry came from such an authentic place. My wish was granted, my prayer was granted. Most of the time, thank you is my prayer and I've never been one to want to ask for anything in a prayer that's material or that feels selfish. So I reserve help for when I really need it and for those especially the younger ones in my family or someone who I know is struggling. So I do pray, but I've become comfortable with the ambiguity of whoever it is I'm praying to. So I guess for now I'll just stick with thank you and help.
Speaker 2:Delia, do you remember the story in the book Trinity by Leon Uris? Oh, yeah, where? The landlord was a cruel son of a bitch, and one night, 13 women from the village, all named Mary, came together for a night of prayer and by dawn the man was dead. Now that's some serious praying. So, delia, what happens when your prayers aren't answered? Good question.
Speaker 8:Let's find out. In my early 20s I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I started praying, like I did as a child, to help this go away, and I would walk in the middle of the night in the woods and just cry and pray please help this go away. And it didn't. In my 20s and on, I had progressive multiple sclerosis and at times it was more of an anger. I had heard of all these miraculous cures from priests and people worldwide who all of a sudden can walk after not being able to walk.
Speaker 8:But now that I'm in my 60s, prayer to me is meditation. It's love really. It's a feeling rather than a request and ask, and it goes out to. I wouldn't consider it God or the universe, or I'm not really sure where my meditation goes. Maybe I'm asking, I'm going deeper within myself.
Speaker 8:I've noticed, after slowing down and I live in an ashram now and I'm meditating I have noticed that actually my prayers and my meditation throughout my life have been answered. They weren't like something that would strike you as obvious. I'm in a wheelchair and I can go up and get up and run. I was given a million dollars to save myself, cure myself. It was really help, slow help, throughout my years that I realized that my prayers had been answered. I had been given friends that can help me.
Speaker 8:I met a man in my 40s when I was in menopause, which was really kicking my MS and I had to quit work, and he provided a home for me and support. It was after the pandemic when I came to an ashram for a silent retreat and all of a sudden, somebody said you know, there's an accessible house that I could afford in the middle of a beautiful country, that it was just given to me, as if my prayers were answered and I'm able to work in a community and live in a community that provides me love, support, constant companionship as I deal with my disease. So, yes, I would have loved for my prayers to work and I could be jogging as I did in my youth, but I am content now. I'm happy, I'm satisfied.
Speaker 2:And that beautiful story of life and prayer comes to us from Carolyn Green, in the mountains of Virginia, at Yogaville. All right, delia. So how does prayer affect our five bodies? Well, when you pray, your physical body softens, the breath will slow, your heart opens and your whole system begins to relax. As for your energy body, the layer of breath and life force comes into balance. Prayer helps clear stuck energy and realign the flow, while in your mental body, prayer soothes the noise, it brings your thoughts into clarity and focus and it helps to calm any emotional storms. At the level of your wisdom, body or intellectual body, prayer opens space for deep insight. You connect with your inner truth and start to see from a higher perspective. And in your divine body, prayer becomes communion. You remember that you are not separate from the sacred. You are one with it. You are consciousness. So, even if it's just one quiet moment today, let prayer be your channel, your cord back to yourself.
Speaker 9:How do I pray and who I direct my prayers to. It's actually a pretty simple grounding ritual for me. First thing in the morning, before I even leave my room, I take a few minutes to stretch in bed, just waking up slowly and tuning into my body. Then I move into a child's pose on the floor and take a deep breath. That's where my prayers begin. I thank God for another day. I guess you could say I start my mornings with gratitude. Right after that I usually set an intention for the day. The point is to start the day with clarity and purpose. Where do I direct my prayers? I pray to God spirit, really. But I also find myself praying to my mom, my brother, my grandparents, the people I've lost who still feel close.
Speaker 9:I was raised Catholic, so growing up, prayer meant specific words repeated in a certain way. Some of those prayers felt meaningful, others felt more like rituals. I didn't quite understand as a kid. Praying the rosary honestly just felt like a chore. But as I got older, something shifted. It wasn't the words that stuck with me, it was the rhythm, the meditative flow. Later in life, when I started praying with mala beads, I finally understood the power of the rosary. Not in a religious way, but in a deeply calming spiritual way. The repetition creates space to breathe and listen.
Speaker 9:Where do prayers and intentions go? That's really a great question and honestly I don't know for sure. But I do believe they have a ripple effect. When I'm intentional, when I'm grounded in gratitude or kindness, that energy doesn't just stay with me, it moves outward. People feel it the same way people can feel when someone's carrying anger or negativity. That ripples out too. So I choose to live from a positive mindset and over time that choice has changed my life in really powerful ways.
Speaker 9:Do I think prayer actually works? You know I can't really explain it in scientific terms, but I know what it feels like. A consistent prayer or meditation practice works for me. Random moments of praying here and there never really did much, but when I show up every day with intention, with focus, something shifts inside me. There's a sense of peace that comes from that consistency. It's not about fixing everything, it's about coming back to myself and something greater than me. So for me, prayer and meditation absolutely works, not in a wish granted kind of way, but in a deeply personal, steadying way. It helps me stay present, it helps me stay connected and that more than anything brings me peace.
Speaker 2:Delia, it's story time and we've been hearing some pretty amazing stories. I know stories, I know Well. I have a good one, because no one's touched on the power of the novena. So my story begins around 1981. I'm living in New York City, been there about a year. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to stay.
Speaker 2:See, I come from a small town. I was a big fish in a little pond and now here in New York City I found I was a little minnow in a tank of sharks. It was a really tough decision to make. So I did what any young Catholic girl would do I made a novena. So a novena is a series of prayers said within a short period of time to a particular saint or to the Virgin Mother. So I decided to make my novena to the saint of hopeless causes, the saint of the impossible, and that's Saint Jude. And all Saint Jude asks in return is that once he grants your request, then you take out a little ad in the local newspaper thanking St Jude for coming to your aid and answering your prayer. So I made my novena, asking if it was time for me to leave New York City and to give me a sign.
Speaker 2:At the time I was working downtown in the fashion district. I was working for an independent designer and on this one particular day it was just at the end of spring, beginning of summer, beautiful day I was leaving the loft, came downstairs, I bought myself a little cup of coffee in the deli and I came back out onto the street and it was bustling. People were taking clothes racks up and down the street. Cars were going, trucks were pulling up, loading, unloading. As I walked uptown, I was stashing my money into my little wallet while I was holding my coffee, looking down, and then, when I looked up, my eyes met these really intense eyes of a young man walking towards me. I quickly broke the gaze, kept walking, crossed the street at the corner and just as I stepped up on the opposite curb I got pulled backwards and my hand went lifting up in the air and someone grabbed my wallet out of my hand. My coffee spilled. I almost fell over.
Speaker 2:I looked up and saw the dark-haired man tearing across 7th Avenue, running through the traffic, so I took off after him. Well, you know, it's New York, everybody's laughing, shouting, I'm yelling stop that man, he's a thief. He stole my wallet and I'm tearing through traffic. Well, I had my sneakers on and I was in really good shape and so I was just running after him and it's somewhere in the back of my mind. At some point I thought, julia, what are you going to do when you catch him? But in that wallet was my money, was my keys, was my driver's license, was my identification. So I couldn't let him get away with it.
Speaker 2:And then suddenly I saw him take a right turn up a side street and when I took the turn, oh my God, there he was. But he was on the ground and holding him down were five young teenage boys. One was literally sitting on his chest, one had one arm, the other had another. Someone was holding down his feet as he struggled there on the sidewalk. One had one arm, the other had another. Someone was holding down his feet as he struggled there on the sidewalk and I stopped and I said he saw my wallet. And they said, yeah, we know, we saw you. And I'm like who are you guys? They tell me they are a group of break dancers just coming back from the Columbus Day Parade.
Speaker 2:I look down the street and here comes a police officer dressed in a kilt and knee-high socks and he walks right up to us and he says Well, what have we got here? So I explained to him that the guy ripped off my wallet and I chased him and these young men tackled him to the ground and he kind of chuckled to himself and he said Okay, well, I've got one problem here. And we all looked at him expectantly and he says you see, I can't bend over because I'm wearing a kilt, so you're going to have to bring him up on his feet, hold on to him, I'll make the arrest and we'll take him into the station house. And I turned around and we were literally standing right in front of the 7th Avenue police station house. And I turned around and we were literally standing right in front of the 7th Avenue police station house. So we all go in, we give our testimony, come out saying goodbyes, and I head up 7th Avenue thinking, okay, it's time for me to leave New York City.
Speaker 2:And I come to the corner and I look up and right in there in front of me is St Jude's Church and I think oh you, rascal, that's what this is all about. So I went in, I lit a candle, said thanks to St Jude for helping me make that decision. And then I said you know, but I don't know where to go. I know now it's time to leave, but I need to know where to go. And that night I had a dream, and in the dream I saw this beach that I love and I knew very well, and I was told that I needed to go and live there and walk that beach day and night until I could heal myself, until I could come to know myself. And so I placed an ad in the Village Voice thanking St Jude for coming to my aid. And then I bought a Greyhound ticket on the midnight bus going towards Siesta Key Beach, where I walked that beach day and night for 11 years to become the woman that I am today.
Speaker 7:My husband and I were married for almost 10 years when my first daughter was born, and then, four years later, I gave birth to a beautiful boy and so many people told me that we had the million dollar family and what a wonderful complete family we had. But there was always something on my heart that just said that our family was not complete. So, prayed about this a lot and several times we started an adoption process because I know there's so many children in this world that needed a home and I did not feel compelled that I needed to create another child. The world was a little bit in disarray after 9-11. And I just knew that there was a child out there that needed us as much as we needed her. So, as I said, we tried to go down the adoption route. For whatever reason, there was always an obstacle, and the Lord and I had a chat one day and we came to the conclusion that by the end of the year, december 31st, we were either moving forward or it was done. It wasn't meant to be so prayed on this a lot and December 31st was rolling around, so it didn't look like it was going to happen, but for some reason we were home that New Year's Eve Normally we're away with family and my husband suggested we go for pizza. Okay, sounds like a fun thing to do.
Speaker 7:When we walked in, I recognized a lady that I had known casually, so we went over and said hello to her and her family, and when we approached the table she was absolutely beaming and she's like we got the greatest news today we are adopting a little girl from China, and here's her picture.
Speaker 7:We got a referral. We're traveling in about six weeks and my husband and I looked at each other and that was the sign that we were looking forward, that we were looking for, and that was December 31st, january 2nd. I called the adoption agency. They had a meeting set up for us January 11th and 16 months later we were holding our beautiful daughter and actually we got her on Mother's Day and she was the link that we were missing in our family. I now knew our family was complete we actually celebrated her 21st birthday a few days ago and my heart is complete with her and our family. So the timing was not always right, but, as we you know, it's on God's timing, not on ours, and I'm very, very blessed and thankful that the prayer was realized and that we remained, you know, on the course that was set for us.
Speaker 2:While listening to all these women's stories, delia, I'm reminded of how many ways there are to pray right and how powerful they can be in manifesting one's intention From Pat Fender's use of the daily word, anita's prayer of knowing that everything is already perfect as it is, koldip's connection to the universe asking for direction, deborah's two prayers of thank you and help, carolyn's unanswered prayers became her lifesavers, veronica's setting her intention for each day and Lisa's trust and faith that it's God's timing, not hers. These are women who have found guidance from a source they feel is greater than their small ego self, a power that extends through all five bodies into what is called the divine. My sister, marianne, says that prayer is easy because you do all the talking, but the power of prayer comes in the listening. That's the hard part, when the answer comes in a form you didn't anticipate. You need to be open to whatever form it takes. She's a very wise woman and she believes all prayers are answered, although not always in the way we were hoping for. We don't always know what's best for us. We think we do, but we don't always know All right. So, delia, is there a prayer you treasure above all others, one prayer you want to share with your listeners as we end today's episode. You know that's a great idea.
Speaker 2:My favorite prayer is one of peace, and this prayer is the foundation on which I created the Mindful Mandala Cards. And that prayer is the prayer of St Francis of Assisi and I share it here now. Well, in my words, divine Mother, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow. Love when there is injury, pardon when there is doubt, faith when there is despair, hope where there is darkness, light where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Mother, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that I receive, it is in pardoning that I am pardoned, and it is in dying to self that I am born into eternal light.
Speaker 2:I want to thank my guests Pat Fenda, Anita Peter-Hansel, Kuldip Rao, Deborah Fernandez, Carolyn Green, Veronica Rockowitz and Lisa Pagano for so generously sharing their stories and wisdom with us all. I'm Delia Quigley. Thanks so much for listening to Five-Body Wisdom interviews with ourselves, until next time.
