127: Benjamin Shalva

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This week we talk to Benjamin Shalva about spiritual cross training

Benjamin Shalva is a rabbi, writer, and yoga instructor, he leads spiritual cross-training seminars and workshops around the world. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and his yoga teacher certification from the Yogic Physical Culture Academy in Los Cabos, Mexico. Shalva serves on the faculty of the Jewish Mindfulness Center of Washington and the 6th & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC, leads musical prayer services for Bet Mishpachah in Washington, DC, and spends his summers as the camp rabbi of Tamarack Camps in Michigan. His writings have been published in the Washington Post, Elephant Journal, and Spirituality & Health magazine. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he lives in Reston, Virginia, with his wife and their children.

In This Interview, Benjamin Shalva and I Discuss:

• The One You Feed parable
• His book, Spiritual Cross-Training: Searching through Silence, Stretch & Song
• How he has been searching all of his life
• That spiritual work produces nothing tangible
• That spiritual growth is slow yet real & discernable in our lives
• Spiritual connection & growth, like friendship, is built through time, energy & attention
• What “spiritual cross-training” is
• His spiritual experience with the 3 modalities of silence, stretch & song
• How sticking to just one spiritual practice, over time becomes hobby
• The importance of “diving deep” into your chosen 2-3 spiritual practices
• How to deal with ego & ambition when it shows up in your spiritual practice
• How inviting the ego voice in his head to join him in his spiritual practice has been a useful tool in his life
• How what you resist, persists
• That, in the spiritual journey “…when we’ve exhausted all other options, we always have one weapon left in our arsenal….laughter”