Mind/Body/Spirit in NC

A class , led by an Episcopal deacon in Raleigh, North Carolina, seeks to find mind-body-spirit connections and cultivate a deepened spirituality:


Clergy merge body, mind, soul in class

From the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

It begins much like an exercise class. Participants gather in a circle and take deep breaths. They stretch. They sway from side to side. They bend down to touch their toes.

But this is no warm-up for yoga or aerobics. For one thing, there’s an opening prayer. For another, there’s an exercise known as “babbling” in which two participants are given a nonword: deedlebops. They face each other and babble about it for 30 seconds.

Finally, participants are paired and asked to touch their partner’s palm. Then they are asked to move around while keeping their palms touching.

This class is called InterPlay, and it is an interactive, creative method of movement intended to bridge the spiritual and the physical. Once a month, at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, clergy members and spiritual directors from across the Triangle gather for a series of exercises intended to integrate body, mind and soul.

For two hours, participants reach inside and try to give expression not only to their heads but to their hearts and bodies, too.

“When people involve the whole body, they access information they cannot access through their own thinking,” said Ginny Going, an Episcopal deacon and a certified InterPlay leader.

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