An Interview with Whitney: With God in Every Breath

Whitney R. Simpson shares her journey of connecting with God through embodied spirituality after experiencing a stroke at age 31, leading to her discovery that peace is not something received instantly but explored throughout life's journey, in each and every breath! 

Special guest and friend, Katie Hall, hosts this interview episode as we discuss Whitney's latest book release, With God in Every Breath. 

With God in Every Breath: A Guide to Drawing Closer to Jesus through Your Senses.

What if the opportunity to connect with God was as close as your next breath? Many of us yearn for a deeper connection with God but struggle to find the time or space to cultivate it in the midst of our busy lives. The daily stress of meeting familial, work, and personal responsibilities leaves us longing to connect with God and find rest for our souls. We crave intimacy with our Creator and the peace that only God’s presence can give.

With God in Every Breath invites you on a journey towards a more embodied and present spiritual life. In this practical book, Whitney R. Simpson offers carefully crafted guided prayers and meditations that provide an accessible way for us to quiet our hearts and a way to enter into God’s presence that engages all of our senses. Whether used alone or in a community, each meditation is rooted in Gospel passages from The Message translation and designed to meet you in your everyday life.

This helpful guide includes:
Guided Meditations: Explore imaginative and sensory-rich meditations that bring you closer to Jesus.
Reflection Questions: Each Scripture-based meditation is followed by a set of questions to help you engage the content more deeply.
Sensory Cues: To incorporate your whole being into that day's invitation. 
Closing Prayers: Each meditation closes with a guided prayer to encourage you to bring gratitude into each of your reflections.

Visit www.ExploringPeace.com and www.WhitneyRSimpson.com for links and information.

Order your copy today, find out more about the book, and grab your bonuses here: 
http://www.whitneyrsimpson.com/withgodineverybreath.html

Follow the Exploring Peace Meditations Podcast for more bonus content from the book: 
https://www.exploringpeace.com/podcast.html

For the video format of this interview visit: https://youtu.be/xtseER27Lnc

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Transcript

Finding Peace After a Health Crisis

Speaker 1 0:00

After that crisis moment in the MRI, after my stroke, and I prayed that prayer of Jesus give me peace. And what I discovered and learned afterwards on my healing journey is this peace is not something that we just receive instantly and we get it once and it's a one and done thing and oh, I have it now. It now, it's good. Exploring this gift of peace is something that has defined my journey with God, and when I gave up on realizing I would ever figure it out, that's when I found the most freedom. Not in the definitive, because I don't think anybody that says God, our, our God is definitive Like really, we can't, god is not definitive. But I do think we get to approach that curiosity with God as an exploration, and it's so much healthier to be an embodied experience than it is to be. I've got it figured out.

Speaker 2 1:08

Hello my friends. Hello, this is Katie Hall. I'm here today with my very good friend Whitney R Simpson. Author, yoga teacher, spiritual director, campus minister. How many titles do you have these days?

Speaker 1 1:23

A few a few, but that's okay.

Speaker 2 1:26

We are excited today because I get to put you on the hot seat, one of those things where, if you have an idea, sometimes you get to make the idea happen, right, yes, great idea you have. Thanks, because I think we really want to hear from you in just a conversational way about this new book.

Speaker 1 1:46

Thank you. So tell me, tell me, what I'm holding yes, you're holding with God in every breath that we just got Talk about God timing, it just arrived and, as we sit here today and you invite me into this seat to share it is a seat that I'm not used to being in, in my own space, right, talking about myself and my own work, um but God has brought us to share with God in every breath and I'm really proud of it.

Speaker 2 2:14

It's absolutely beautiful. I've been so enjoyed um just getting to dip in and out of it already, um, an early coffee. But, um, okay, I want to take you back the first time that you and I crossed paths, so I was about 2014, 2015. I was just realizing that this thing called yoga was becoming more than just something that I went and did for exercise, clearing my mind that, as a Christian, that was where I felt closest to God, and then I started to research you know who else is doing this, who else is in this space? And you were right there, about 20 minutes from my front door, and so I came to see you in the studio in Mount Juliet. Right, Um, I remember it was my birthday and I came for a birthday class, cause I wasn't sure if I wanted to invest in the studio yet.

Speaker 2 3:13

Right, yes, but from there, um just learning more about um, how you embraced this practice right Of, of, of living a with God life right and being being open to all of the ways that that he calls us to use, not only our minds and our hearts, but our bodies to be, to be in, you know, in conversation with Him. Talk about your first book. Talk about Holy Listening.

Speaker 1 3:52

So Holy Listening with Breath, body and the Spirit came as a final project for my yoga teacher training that I was doing at the time, and it invited people to use their body to connect with God, to use their whole self to connect with God in these 40 different prompts, these 40 different themes, to lean in and listen right and listen with scripture and listen with shapes that our body makes and listen with breath, prayer. And so what a privilege. I had no idea when I was also in this world of going. I feel close to God when I'm on my mat. I feel close to God when I'm moving and breathing, but I didn't know. Your birthday story and my birthday story are both Um. Know your birthday story and my birthday story are both um, but my birthday story is in this book and talk to us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 4:50

Talk about how, how yoga found its way to you the first time completely by accident, right.

Speaker 1 4:57

So I never in a million years would have envisioned being a regular meditator or someone who called themselves a yogi. That was far out of my realm of just familiarity. It wasn't that I had anything against it, I just it wasn't something I knew anything about. And then on my 31st birthday about, and then on my 31st birthday almost 20 years ago, I woke up, couldn't move the left side of my body and in that experience of having had a stroke and brain surgery, dealing and living with chronic pain and anxiety, the doctor said, why not try yoga and meditation? And I was like, seriously, is this all you got for me? But I was shocked that when I gave it a chance and I really let go and let God, I met God really close, as close as my breath, and I discovered that everything I do is with God in every breath that I take. And so it was this beautiful opportunity in a season where, because of my health and because of the anxiety and because of the recovery, the place where I had always felt closest to God and been taught and raised and held in good care by the church Didn't feel comfortable to me for a season. I love the church and I love the people of the church and also when you're under severe health issues and anxiety and panic attacks because you've been in the hospital for a month, it's really hard to just jump back in and be around lots of people and have these experiences that you've always had and meet God in the same way.

Speaker 1 6:56

And so my stroke and brain surgery really led me on a path of discovering what does it look to live life with God in every breath, in every moment, in every day, not just in a sanctuary but under a tree outside or on my yoga mat or in the grocery store, as we'll talk about in the book.

Speaker 1 7:21

That every place we go, every place we are in this day-to-day life, that God wants to meet us in that and in the highs and the lows too, we talk about that. So, yes, that's how I discovered the practice of yoga and meditation, because a very caring and genuine doctor put a little seed in my brain that took root and then God allowed it to sprout and I found community and wonderful companionship through just some local fantastic teacher. That was my first yoga teacher, who's now a very, very, very dear friend and so grateful that someone number one took a risk on me to say why don't you try something different? And number two, that I was willing to try it because I'm not always willing to try new things. I mean, I'm getting better, but not always willing.

Speaker 2 8:22

I remember in your story too you talked about during that time your sister put a Bible translation in your hands for the first time.

The Journey From Head to Heart

Speaker 1 8:32

So the message Bible was gifted to me I have it back here on the shelf, the one she wrote in the front of and gave me and she was going through a very difficult medical time at the same time I was. And so she gifted me this message Bible and I just began devouring it. It was so fresh and this was goodness. Okay, that was what. 2005,. All this happened right.

Speaker 1 9:03

So in that 2005, 2006 window, 20 years ago now, I'm devouring this fresh translation from um, the, the, the wise man of Eugene Peterson, and he, he, he has a way, had a way of writing about scripture and telling the stories of Jesus and God that are so embodied, they're so embodied. And so when I um, I just fell in love with the message and I've loved it and that's my most well-worn Bible. I love all my Bibles there's lots on the shelf, but the message just has a special place in my heart. And so when I got a call from NavPress, who is the publisher of this book, I knew they were the message holders. They're the ones that put the message into the world, put the message into the world. And, um, they were like hey, we would love to talk to you about a book of guided meditations and embodied spirituality. And, and I said, can we use the message bible?

Speaker 2 10:18

yes, yes, which is so perfect. Yes, it's so perfect. So so talk about the structure of this book and how somebody who listens to your podcast on a regular basis and enjoys those short snippets of meditations, why this book? Why is this something that they are going to love?

Speaker 1 10:40

Well, it's different, right? It's not like any book that you're going to walk into a bookstore and pick up, and it is in true Whitney style. It is an experiential book. As a trained spiritual director, I ask lots of questions, and so, whether it's in a setting of talking to young adults or my seniors in chair yoga class or my friends, I ask a lot of questions, and so that true Whitney style is carried forth in this book.

Speaker 1 11:15

So, with God in Every Breath has 30 meditations, and each one uses a message, scripture passage to kind of set the tone and set the theme. They're all gospel, they're all Jesus passages. If you remember, my second book, fully Human, fully Divine, is all about this reminder that Jesus, in a body, lived and breathed and journeyed with us, and so that inspired me to really base these guided meditations on gospel passages where Jesus used senses, where those being with Jesus use their senses, and how we can engage our senses to meet Jesus today. And so there are 30 guided meditations. I hope that the listeners, who are typical podcast fans, are going to see this as really different and also very relatable, small chunks that they can do themselves. And, even more fun, each page of the book has a QR code and if they want to sit with a passage and there's some sensory cues, there's reflection questions, all of that's in the book. But if they really want to have an audio guide, they scan the QR code and my voice will read the guided meditation to them.

Speaker 2 12:37

So perfect. So I know when I opened that I was like so this is the book, but it's also an audio book, right, it's all in one, it's all in one and there's an audiobook.

Speaker 2 12:46

Yes, it's, it's the coolest. I love that, um, I just love that format because it feels, um, it feels like you, it feels like walking into a studio and experiencing. Um, you know, kind of how you have laid out the scope of a class, right Of kind of setting the tone and then giving us some tools to use as we work our way through the practice, and then you are there with us as a guide to help us to experience without the effort of having to come out of that communion with God, right, that we can just sit and experience it as you read that over us, which is so precious.

Speaker 1 13:29

Yes, I just love that. I was so thrilled when, as we were brainstorming the book and talking about the different ways and sharing with my editor, well, what if we did this? Or what if we did that? And I thought there's no way this will fly? And we all loved it if we did that and I thought there's no way this will fly and we all loved it, and we made it happen.

Speaker 1 13:53

Um, it's, it's a lot. I will say I've worked really hard on this content. I've poured a lot into. I want it to feel safe for people. I want anybody to feel like they can approach it. Um, you know, they tell us as writers, we've got a audience and I have to pinpoint who I'm writing to, which I see you, because you were one of my first encouragers right To be like hey, but there's so many people that I feel like this book can connect with and while there may be a target audience, there isn't for this invitation, because if you have breath and you long to draw closer to God, this book is for you. I love that.

Speaker 2 14:41

Okay, I'm going to read this little passage here. You said in one of the interludes so there's these interludes in between each of the weeks right when you're able to kind of explore something, something about your seminary journey, something about your, your own personal spiritual journey and the connection to this with God life and what that looks like. But in one of the interludes you say that your spiritual director often reminds you of the words that you once said to her that my life is a with God life. I have moments and days when I forget this, but the deep longing in my heart is to live a with God life in every day and every breath. What is your first clue that you have slipped out of that place?

Speaker 1 15:26

Oh, which one do you want?

Speaker 2 15:28

What's the? What's the first thing that you talking about? An embodied life. What do you, what do you feel in your body when you know that you've slipped out of that place?

Speaker 1 15:37

I have a tendency, as many of us do, to get in my head.

Speaker 1 15:43

I talk about in the books, um, that I contend to be my own worst critic, and I find that, as a listener for others, I find that to be true for a lot of people.

Whitney's Path to Embodied Faith

Speaker 1 15:54

And so when I get in my head and I find my place in that, ruminating or second guessing or obsessing or, um, obsessing, or worrying, god wants me to shift back into my body, to find my breath, to connect with my heart space, to feel grounded in the moment and to recognize that God is with me, no matter what, no matter if I made, you know, a mistake or I dropped the ball, or I'm too overwhelmed or I'm juggling too many things in a certain day, and there's this reminder to step back, take a breath, find my groundedness, the breath work, the mindfulness, the presence and the awareness. It doesn't matter I could have any job in the whole wide world, and that is going to be the most foundational piece of living into what God has for me. And if that's, you know, the role of spouse or the role of friend or the role of mom, it's not about vocation, it's about living life in a present, embodied and whole way.

Speaker 2 17:22

You say early in the book, as you're introducing this to readers, that it's an introduction to embodied spirituality, a companion to help you meet God in the quiet with your whole self. Not a study of God's word, but an exploration of it. Why is this so difficult for some people? Why is it counterintuitive to to explore instead of study?

Speaker 1 17:46

I really do believe. You know, exploring peace is the name of the podcast, but what began as my blog in like 2010, way back when people were still writing blogs and so exploring peace was what I felt. My invitation was after that crisis moment in in the MRI, after my stroke, and I prayed that prayer of Jesus, give me peace. And what I discovered and learned afterwards on my healing journey is this peace is not something that we just receive instantly and we get it once and it's a one and done thing and oh, I have it now. It's good. The word that best came to me when I was thinking about the gift that God gave me of peace was that I get to explore what that looks like. I get to explore what that looks like in every season of life, and so exploring this gift of peace is something that has defined my journey with God, and when I gave up on realizing I would ever figure it out, that's when I found the most freedom. And I do believe that on the spiritual formation journey, um, exploring is so much more healthy than I figured it out. And all the teachers that I follow and my spiritual director and spiritual mentors and friends and peers none of them, the ones that I trust, have ever said this is the answer. They say what does it look like to consider this or to think about that or to be curious? And that's where I felt closest to God. Not in the definitive, because I don't think anybody that says God, our God, is definitive, like really we can't. God is not definitive. And so I love studies. I still love Bible studies. I'm taking more seminary coursework now.

Speaker 1 19:56

I will always, forever, be a student who wants to learn and grow and go deeper, but I do think we get to approach that curiosity with God as an exploration, and it's so much healthier to be an embodied experience than it is to be.

Speaker 1 20:16

I've got it figured out, so that's my reason. The other piece of that is what's true for me and my body isn't necessarily true for you and your body, or our kids' bodies, or our spouse's bodies, or our parents' bodies, or our spouse's bodies or our parents' bodies, and so every person who wants to lean into what is this embodied spirituality? If you have a breath and you have body, then you have an invitation to be with God in that that God made of you. But it's not going to look the same for me, as it does for you and, I think, as a trauma informed yogi. That is one of the pieces that makes my work a little different and unique is that I do write with that lens and I say I think there's too many warnings at the beginning of the book, like if, if something isn't right, adjust. If you need to change, change, shift, but that's because we're all different.

With God in Every Breath Book Introduction

Speaker 2 21:14

Yes, and God made us like that, yes, and that's the, that's the uh, the holding um of space that you do, right, as a teacher. Um, we share Anna Gascelli, as she was my first teacher trainer, um that I did my my initial um, you know 200 hour with, and anytime that I've recorded practices with her, she always has a start with hi there and welcome to your practice. Just as a reminder that this is not what I'm bringing to the table, it's I'm holding the space, I've done the work to prepare. I'm holding the space, I've done the work to prepare, but what this practice is about is where God's going to meet you in your posture of peace, right, like you're open to experiencing that in your own body, in your community, in that room. And so, yes, welcome to your practice.

Speaker 1 22:18

And I love that, because that is what this invitation is. Welcome to your with God life. And yes, yoga has shaped and molded my own presence journey, the practice of it, um, and molded my own presence journey, the practice of it. It is a spiritual practice for me and that's just how I connect and I want to welcome other people into their own practices. But you don't have to make any shapes or even lay on the floor if you don't want to in this book.

Speaker 2 22:50

So everything is accessible, hopefully in a way that people do feel welcome and kind of yes, experiencing spiritual teachers, spiritual writers, who were so different from anything else that you might have heard. Okay. So, matthew 26, 41, stay alert, be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God, but there's another part of you that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire. So, regarding the body, right, I feel like this is something that I hear a lot. As a yoga teacher, I attract students who share some of my faith background, right, or some of my body journey or whatever that might be, and so they have this kind of common, like foothold.

Speaker 2 24:01

But there's almost this fear about the body, right? Isn't the body where the sin happens? Right? How can I trust my body? As you know, that's the part that fell away from God, right? How can I trust the experience on my mat, in my own body? You know this passage is, you know this is Jesus saying like stay alert. I know that your spirit is willing, right, but the flesh is so weak, how can we trust the body?

Speaker 1 24:38

so weak, how can we trust the body? In both the Old Testament and New Testament, the word spirit is interchangeable for the word breath, and in the Hebrew Bible well, in both Hebrew and Greek we've got this ruach and we have this pneuma and these words, when you look at them, used over and over and over again throughout scripture, and you see that it's used as wind and it's used as spirit and it's used as a breath. I'm reminded that if we can trust that God is as close as our breath, we can recognize that God is as close as our breath. We can recognize that God is within us Even when we're tired, even when we're pulled away, even when we're not centered Right.

Speaker 1 25:24

So a moment ago I said ah, how do I know? I'm out of my well, I'm, I'm all up in my head, but is God still with me in that? Absolutely? All up in my head, but is God still with me in that Absolutely? And so I think for me and this is not anything that's researched or proven, this is Whitney's little moment that keeps her going If there's breath in my lungs, then that means the spirit of God is with me and I don't have to be afraid because God is as close as my breath, that God is here. And so, yes, do I have days where I think, oh, what am I doing?

Speaker 1 26:06

Why did I say that? What you know? Why did I treat that person that way? Why didn't I this or why didn't I that? That's humanness, okay. If we were perfect, we would be Jesus. We're not perfect and we do live an imperfect life, with plenty of things that try to separate us and get us apart and take us away from the one who made us. But as long as we have breath in our lungs, we can be close. Yes, we can be close. It doesn't mean we always will be, but we can be close.

Speaker 2 26:49

Who is it who said that if you feel far apart from God, it's not because he moved, it's because you did, it's because of this distance between the head and the heart that's so hard sometimes to traverse. Talk to me a little about in different roles. If a listener is hearing this and thinking, how do I share this practice with my family? How do I share this practice with a young child? Um, what does it mean?

Speaker 2 27:25

Right, it's like I'm thinking about right, I'm thinking about my toddler and how, um, you know we we talk a lot. Um, my husband and I have this. You know we we talk a lot. My husband and I have this, you know. Hey, come here a minute, I want to give you something. It's my calm. I want to put it in your hand, right Like I, and to me that's part of that is is I want her to know that she, that she has an option right To to grab hold of of. You know, feel how you feel, but you know we say feelings are wonderful indicators and terrible dictators. How do we start to create that embodied life experience? Um, you know, offering that to our young children.

Speaker 1 28:09

So good. So my very first teaching experience. Before I was brave enough to teach adults yoga, I was crazy enough to teach kids yoga, do you remember that? And oh, I loved that season. They taught me so much.

Speaker 1 28:26

Yes, and I it was a all are welcome, not um, it was a public studio class, so it wasn't necessarily like a Christ centered focus class but, of course, being who I am, that's the space I hold. And so, as we would enter in and it was taught on a Friday afternoon and I tell you what, like Valentine's week and Halloween week no joke, sugar's real and they come in wild Right. And so my son was young, growing through this season with us he's 21 now and so he would be in those classes a lot of times and to to invite boys and girls, younger and a little bit older, all of them, whether it's a sugar high week or not. This class was on a Friday afternoon and they would come in just like hyped up and the studio didn't have a ton of space, so moms and dads would drop the kids off and and then leave, and every time they joked with me like they came back and picked up a different child and they had dropped off, because what we did was ground and breathe and become present within ourselves.

Speaker 1 29:39

And so for my family that's something I try to model. I don't my husband and son are going to. They're not the ones that I use guided meditations for right. Like my husband hears people tell me all the time we'll be out in public and someone will be like. Like my husband hears people tell me all the time we'll be out in public and someone will be like my husband and I go to sleep with you at night, you and your podcast.

Speaker 1 29:59

And my husband's like, okay, okay, so they honor and respect what I do and they see it.

Speaker 1 30:07

But also, I think it's modeling, I think it's what you said for for your little girl is that we can share our calm, we can model our calm.

Speaker 1 30:17

I can invite the people I'm with, in whatever ministry setting I'm leaning into, to be present and be connected to God and take some deep breaths. I don't ever do anything, hardly make an announcement from the pulpit without either taking a deep breath really visibly or inviting them to take one with me. And so this invitation of being in the, the capsules, the, the element, the, the, the body that God created for each of us um, the body that God created for each of us is an invitation that we can learn from a very early age, and sadly, we live in a culture that teaches us to have certain feelings or thoughts about our body, or that it should look a certain way or behave a certain way or act a certain way or have a certain level of stamina or whatever. And one of the things that I'm really passionate about and have worked on so it's not that Whitney's a master, it's that Whitney shares what Whitney needs yes, that's right, right.

Speaker 2 31:29

We're yoga teachers, not because we have it figured out, but because we need it. We need the practice.

Speaker 1 31:40

Yeah, yeah. So my meditations exist because I need this practice. This book exists because I wanted something like this that could help me use the senses, the breath, the eyes, the taste, the touch all of it to be present in the body God gave me, without the messages of the external world telling me what it's supposed to look like. And what if we used what God gave us instead of what the commercials tell us right or social media tells us? And so that's pushback, right, like counterintuitive, but this is just a practical invitation to do that. And so I think all those years ago, I got really immersed in seeing what it looked like to help people who hadn't yet been tainted necessarily, cause our kids are, so they're at a fresh stage of fresher stage of life than many of us that have been hurt or told we're not right or right, and so that immersive experience of teaching kids yoga on a Friday afternoon for all those years was some of the best on the ground training I've ever had.

The Power of Lectio Divina Practice

Speaker 2 32:53

Yeah, yes, I believe it. So story time for me. The first time that I think I practiced um both prayer of examine and left your Divina um was on a silent retreat with you, so we were at what's the name of the monastery.

Speaker 1 33:11

Sisters of Mercy, Probably the convent in Nashville Um.

Speaker 2 33:20

And it was, oh that was a powerful weekend for so many reasons, for so many reasons. Being quiet, being intentionally quiet in a space like that is, it's a lot of things. I'll be honest, I think my first inclination was I'm just going to go to sleep, because, you know, I can silence my mouth. I can't silence my head. My thoughts are still going a mile a minute. But talk to me about Lectio Divina, that practice. I think in Holy Listening you said something along the lines of it's reading not for information, but reading for formation, inviting the word to shape you right. It's like a posture of I'm here to receive what you have for me, lord, that this is a living, breathing word that changes, you know, as God sees fit in the moment. Right, and so talk to me about Lectio Divina and maybe share an anecdote of something that you've experienced or something that a student has shared with you about that practice.

Speaker 1 34:21

I love practicing Lectio Divina. When I wrote Holy Listening, it was new to me. It was not new, it is ancient. It is an ancient practice and so, 10 years ago now probably, I was just discovering what it meant to sit with scripture in this way and what it meant to just hold God's word and listen for how it connected in the silence and this beautiful invitation to walk through the passage. Right, you hear it the first time, and then you hear it again, and then you hear it again, and then you hear it again, and then you hear it again. And it's so different from because I may look that up in seven different Bibles to figure out what it means. And right, like I, that that's what I had always done and I still love knowing that a word is translated, these seven different ways, that different people have taken it and let us see it in different ways. So I even like practicing Lectio with different versions of the Bible, so I might read it in one version and then read it another version, and then read it in another version, and just listen for what God has, listen for what God has, but I think it's the silence in between, and then not rushing it, that started to really transform me when I sat with it.

Speaker 1 35:48

My very first spiritual director introduced me to so many of these practices. And this is when I was not able to go to church and it was a sweet friend who said to me hey, I know you're having a lot of anxiety being around other people and I know that you want new ways to connect with God. Have you thought about spiritual direction? And I was like spiritual what? I've never heard of this before. I don't know what it is and I still get lots of people who say that to me. Often, especially in the South. It's less known in the South than it is in the North. It's less known in the Protestant world than it is in the Catholic world, and so lots of people still don't know or understand the ministry of spiritual direction.

Speaker 1 36:31

But it was my spiritual director who took me into the waters and um sat me through both Lectio Divina and guided imagery and meditation, sat me in the boat with Jesus and when I for the first time went from trying to figure it out to sitting in the boat with Jesus, why are you afraid? Why are you afraid? And holding that and being in the silence and hearing Jesus ask me. That question was so different than it had ever been. Studying what Jesus told me in those stories, and I feel like that was a transformative place for me. It invited me to really discover well, why am I afraid? What, what, what is Jesus wanting me to sit with in this quiet and to really peel back some layers and deal with my healing and, rather than brush it over and move on to the next thing, to peel back and to say what's beneath that, god, what's beneath that that you want me to see and what's beneath that that you want me to work on? And so I think, um Casey hit, who was my first spiritual director, and again, it was just, and I had no idea what I was getting into. I had no idea what I was getting into, I had no idea what I was saying yes to, and it changed my life so much that I knew I have to not just have this for myself, but I need to share this with other people. And so then I got to.

Speaker 1 38:15

It was funny because that experience came before the yoga ever did. It was funny because that experience came before the yoga ever did, and it was driving to her house. Um, the studio I practiced at was on the way to her house and if I could manage it just right on the perfect week, I could get a studio yoga class in and then go to spiritual direction. And I figured it out after doing that two or three times that my body was so much more receptive and open and alive when I had already breathed and practiced than if I had been just doing chores that day or cleaning the house and not paying attention to God or my body, and then rushed into spiritual direction and sat down. It was like where are you? But on those days that I moved and breathed and opened myself up to the embodiment of God within me and then I sat down and listened wow, and that's where this whole, that's how this all started.

Speaker 2 39:21

I'm going to. I'm going to put you on the hot seat again with some of your own questions. Right that you've asked, right. So I love this one. How do you think the disciples felt when Jesus offered them the bread and the cup? How might you have reacted if you'd been sitting at the table and didn't know the rest of the story, as you do today?

Speaker 1 39:41

I did ask that question.

Speaker 2 39:42

Yes, yes, it's such a good one, it's such a good one.

Speaker 1 39:46

I, if I did not know the end of the story, I think I would be really skeptical. Yeah, like what? Your flesh, your blood? I don't. What are we talking about? I ask clarifying questions. Jesus, could you clarify for me, Say more about this? I don't understand. I'm not great. Oh, and so that I think the reason I asked that question in that way in the book is to help us remember we we don't have it all figured out. But also, what if this whole invitation is a matter of trust? What if this whole journey with God and this whole opportunity for living close to God and with God is just the ability to trust that God has our best interest at heart, that Jesus wants to be our companion, that Jesus? Jesus really didn't know the end of the story either. I mean, he was like, do I really have to do this?

Speaker 1 41:06

So I mean, yes, he knew we could talk about that a whole nother hour but you know my point is, those disciples were clueless and so, on those days that we feel really clueless, it gives me comfort that the ones who walked closest to Jesus on this earth, they were clueless. It gives me comfort that the ones who walked closest to Jesus on this earth, they were clueless.

Speaker 2 41:27

They spent more time with him than anyone else.

Living a With God Life in All Seasons

Speaker 1 41:30

Yeah, yeah and they yes, yes, and, and yet they trusted and they followed and they gave it all up. And so some days I feel like that. It makes me feel better to say why am I still sitting in my closet every Friday recording a meditation for people whose faces I will never see? Why, what am I doing? I'm trusting that God has called me to do this. Why did I just pour all these hours into writing an imperfect invitation that I hope is the perfect companion for someone that I may never know or meet? I hope I'm trusting that I'm living the with God life, like the disciples did, even when they didn't know, they didn't understand.

Speaker 2 42:21

Jesus is here, right? So it's not. It's not just a gift for um for those who know him already, right, it's a gift for um the doubters and the uncertain and the unknowing.

Speaker 1 42:34

Jesus is here for all of us.

Speaker 2 42:36

Yeah, I love that. That's so beautiful Ponder a scent that reminds you of God's love. I had to sit with this for a minute, um, cause I yeah, I have, I have a handful right and I um sent to me. I think, if, if I had to pull a feeling that that I can immediately evoke just by thinking about a scent, it's, it's my anxiety, right, like those are the things that I can test so easily to send, but a scent that reminds you of God's love.

Speaker 1 43:05

Okay, okay, this one. I wrote a blog post about this years ago. Do you remember the original Juergens lotion? Yes, Almond, cherry, cherry, almond, cherry, cherry, almond, cherry, almond original Jergens is what my grandmother used every single day. She would sit in her chair and she would hold her Bible or one of my devotions, which was so precious later in her life to see her reading my devotionals and she smelled like almond, cherry, cherry, almond, cherry, almond, jergens.

Speaker 1 43:46

And I believe that my grandmother emanated God's love. She was the first female deacon in her church. She prayed for me every single day of her life. She was this huge spiritual mentor and amazing woman who was a social worker and was making a difference, had her master's degree like a woman who went against all odds. I think her dad gave her a few bucks and a bus ticket and told her to make her life, and she did. She was from a large family in South Georgia and they had nothing, and so she made her life and she did. She was from a large family in South Georgia and they had nothing, and so she made her life and she made a difference. She worked in a children's home when she was little.

Speaker 1 44:29

Um, anyway, she did lots of things I could talk about her for an hour, and so my grandmother would was so consistent in her prayer time and in her communion with God and her conversations with God and she modeled for that, modeled that for me in a just, a really beautiful way, and so I, to this day, when I smell that original Juergen scent, it takes me to my grandmother and it takes me to God's love, and that's so unconventional and not at all anything that's represented in the beauty of the gorgeous flower on the cover of the front of the book. But it is, yes, and so it's through this memory of scent and the way scent connects us to people and places, that scent is one of the most powerful receptors we have in our bodies, and I love essential oils, which you know, and so that's one reason I use them a lot in meditation or in yoga, that they can help ground me and take my body to a place. But it is the non-traditional Juergens lotion that I will forever say reminds me of God's love.

Speaker 2 45:39

Full of forever chemicals. I'm sorry, yes, I didn't want you to say drug and lotion. Sorry, exactly.

Speaker 1 45:45

But I am grateful that my grandmother did all those years.

Speaker 2 45:50

You talk about having to be reminded over and over that the rest that you received in the season after your stroke was a gift and that you know we were just talking about Jesus saying you know, god, if there's any other way, let's find that and and yes, I mean no one chooses a health scare right, and you and I have walked through a similar one in the last few years, um, and that that forced rest, that forced slowdown is, um feels like anything but a gift.

Speaker 2 46:25

That forced slowdown is, um feels like anything but a gift. Um, it, it feels, it feels very far off to say you know what a, what a wonderful season to just be able to sit around and it. But we, we can't right Like that. That isn't how our minds and our bodies, um, you know, speak to each other. What, what would change in your life, um, if you could allow others to help right and to trust that in seasons when we're called away from doing that, god has not abandoned that situation either, right, like he's still working in me and through me. What would it look like to allow others to help?

Speaker 1 47:07

Well, here we are. Yes, You're helping me share this book with people I have recognized in this really full season that I'm in, that my own words have been, oh, really hard to hear lately and, as I've been working on this for three years I guess, and in that three years there have been some shifts and changes, not only in my body but in my vocation and my life, and it's really hard to step back and say what is mine and what is not mine right, especially when you feel like God is in so much and there's an invitation to do and be both. I think when I look back at that season and recognize in hindsight it was so hard for me then to simply be. I felt like I was not doing enough for our family. I needed to be helping in other ways beyond what I was able of doing, which was healing. And my husband told me often in that time period he would say things like I would rather have you healed slowly than us turn the cable back on next week, because we don't make enough money to have cable right now. And that was when you had cable.

Speaker 1 48:35

Now it's streaming, and so it's really really hard to yield to saying, okay, god, here I am. I don't know, I have not mastered it, and I'm learning to ask for help. I'm learning to say, okay, god has called me to this and I have no idea how it's going to come to fruition. But what if I invited other people along? And what if I wasn't supposed to do everything by myself? And what if, what if, what, if, what, if? And so I think part of that just comes with age. I mean, I just passed the big five zero mark and there's something that starts to happen in this midlife season that helps you recognize, if it's not your body telling you you can't do it all, um, then something is going to tell you you can't do it all, then something is going to tell you you can't do it all.

Speaker 1 49:50

So currently I've been in a season of really having to be more purposeful again in my healing journey, because I have had some health issues that we've shared, and to step back and say, okay, god, I hear you, I recognize, I see that in this season, what does it look like? I mean, maybe it's a different doctor or a different friend, a new friend or a helper on a book launch. And so here we are and we say what does it look like to be in community together? And what does it look like to also say we don't have to do that. We are human beings, we are not human doings. And again, I write what I need. I am not the master of having it all figured out. I'm the one that says, well, if I have this question, I bet somebody else does too.

Speaker 2 50:37

One of the things that I love about the practices of Lectio Divina, the practice of prayer, of examen. They are, they're calling me out of my own experience long enough to say what do I know about you, god, that I didn't before? Now, instead of just what do you want me to learn about me, god? So good, right. So what do you know about God on the other side of writing this book that you didn't know before? That God is?

Speaker 1 51:15

so much. Well, I don't want to say bigger, god cares. God cares about the big, big, big and God cares about the tiny little details, because Whitney has stressed over some tiny little details in this book and I've had an experience because I want my words to be right and I want people to feel safe and I want people to, when they go through this journey, um, recognize that a whole team of people worked on this book. And so when you take a piece and a part of you and then you say, okay, I don't have to do it myself, I'm going to hand it off, but then it gets shaped in better ways and new ways and in different ways, and you have to level up that trust factor. I think I've really had to level up that trust factor that the reader taking this book in their hands is going to get what they need and that there's no amount of time.

Speaker 1 52:16

I could have spent the next 20 years editing this book. Editing this book, I could have rephrased the questions 15,000 more times, because I'm a recovering perfectionist or perfectionist who's trying to go into recovery, however you want to look at it. And so what I recognize on the other side of publishing this book about God is that God cares. God cares about all of it and I know God cares about me, but God cares about my work in the world and God cares about the artifacts that I've left in this world. And so I'm creating artifacts now. I'm living into the mission of what God's called me to by being a creative and by sharing and by taking a little bit of my heart and putting on a piece of paper which feels really vulnerable, and then letting other people make it prettier and better.

Speaker 1 53:02

And then here we are, and in that emotional I'm an Enneagram four, in that emotional high low of launching this third book, which feels like a lot deeper work than I've ever put out before. Um, it feels like God cares about the details and God cares about the artifact. And so I can hold this book and look at this book and see you holding this book and really, really, really know that what you put in the world and what I put in the world, it matters and our world needs good work right now. Our world needs God's reflection and light shown through our creative efforts, and so the more artifacts we can leave behind and share with others that impact them, I think that's God leaving little pieces and parts of encouragement inspiration all over the world, and so, yeah, I don't know if I answered your question. God cares about it and it's not because it's a book that I wrote. It's because it's an artifact that can forever help. Maybe someone connect with God through their body in a new and different way than they haven't before.

Speaker 2 54:22

Someone connect with God through their body in a new and different way than they haven't before. It's a, it's a testament to your obedience to to follow what you felt like he was calling you to do. Um, and two I love, we share Annie F Downs. That we, we love her.

Speaker 2 54:35

She talks um for a season, about, um, god's kindness, um, and I always think about God's kindness.

Speaker 2 54:44

As you know, god doesn't have to show me the why behind what I'm called to do, but there are always these glimmers of that thin place, right where I get to see a little piece of of the why, um, that I feel like that. Those are moments when I feel closest to God, that that I'm obedient to that call, that I am um, I'm waiting and expectation that's my, my word, my phrase this year, in expectation, um, even if I don't get to see it this side of heaven. So that's my prayer for you, friend, that in this season of the vulnerability and the chaos of a launch, that you would sense God's kindness in showing you some small ways that this is touching other people right where they need it. I just that's my prayer for you, friends, that as we are walking through this season, that you would sense God's kindness that you would get to see a glimpse of what God has for you through this work, through this obedience with God in every breath, so excited for you. It's so beautiful, available everywhere right, yes, everywhere now.

Speaker 1 56:12

Exploringpeacecom and WhitneyRSimpsoncom. Both have links if people need links, but you know how to search it, I love it, I love it.

Speaker 2 56:21

So what if we ended with you sharing one of your meditations?

Guided Meditation Experience

Speaker 1 56:26

Um, I think that'd be great. Find a quiet and comfortable place to sit, with a tall, long spine, and listen Now. Reach your head high and straighten your posture. Hear these words, soften or close your eyes and take a deep breath in as you exhale. Welcome Christ's presence now. Begin by pondering the image of the prophetic Christ. See him standing and breathing on this very earth.

Speaker 1 57:11

Consider that the word breath in scripture is used interchangeably with the word spirit. As you breathe, welcome God's spirit to fill you completely, you completely. Now. Imagine that Jesus is standing beside you. He is fully present with you, filled with breath and life. He is rooted and grounded not only in God but also on the physical earth. He is standing tall and confident, and confident as you continue to breathe deeply and slowly.

Speaker 1 57:48

Visualize and imagine the confidence that Christ is rooted in rising up from the earth and into the soles of your feet, rooting and connecting you to the earth and to God. Allow this rootedness to travel all the way to the top of your head. Welcome this grounded sensation to fill your entire, being Set up tall as you breathe. Say to yourself I breathe and receive Jesus' prophetic presence today. I breathe and receive Jesus' prophetic presence today. Continue to breathe deeply and slowly, basking in the strong and comforting presence of Christ, asking in the strong and comforting presence of Christ Carry this groundedness into your day as you take three closing breaths, lord, help me breathe in your spirit and sense your prophetic presence in and around me today. Amen.