What if connecting with God has less to do with doing all the “right” things and more to do with becoming aware that He is already right here?

Have you ever wanted to feel closer to God but struggled with the ways you've been told that connection is supposed to look? Maybe you've tried the early-morning quiet time, read the devotional, gone to church, and checked all the boxes—yet still wondered why God sometimes feels distant.

Caroline Williams knows that feeling. After college, Caroline moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue what she thought was her dream career in politics. She wanted to make a difference in the world, but before long, she found herself miserable and questioning whether she'd misunderstood God's calling for her life. For two and a half years, she prayed, journaled, served, went to church, and desperately asked God to tell her what to do next. Instead, she felt what she describes as “radio silence from heaven.”

But there was one unexpected place where Caroline consistently experienced God's presence: on her yoga mat. Slowing down, moving her body, breathing, and becoming present quieted the noise long enough for her to hear what her heart actually needed—not directions for her future, but the reminder that God loved her and was proud of her. Eventually, that unexpected encounter led Caroline away from politics and toward becoming a yoga instructor.

Today, Caroline leads people around the world in Jesus-centered yoga practices designed to help them slow down and become aware of God's presence. She and Willow talk about why we sometimes make connecting with God too narrow, how our faith can become weighed down by a backpack full of “shoulds,” and the freedom of discovering that we can meet with God while moving, walking, creating, sitting with a cup of coffee—or simply breathing and being still.

If you're tired of striving in your faith, wrestling with an unexpected change in direction, or simply longing to experience God's presence in a deeper way, this conversation will invite you to slow down, release the “shoulds,” and discover God right where you are.

Meet Caroline Williams

Caroline Williams is a yoga instructor and founder of Caroline Williams Yoga. After beginning her career in politics in Washington, D.C., Caroline followed an unexpected invitation into yoga teacher training—a decision that ultimately changed the direction of her life.

She later launched her YouTube channel to make Jesus-centered yoga practices accessible to others and founded The Abbey, an online community where people can practice yoga, meditation, and contemplative spiritual practices while also equipping yoga teachers to lead Jesus-centered classes.

Caroline's passion is helping people slow down, become present in their bodies, and recognize the presence of God in and around them.

Key Takeaways

• When God feels silent: Consider whether you're seeking an answer from God more than you're seeking God Himself.
• When your faith feels like a list of “shoulds”: Give yourself permission to discover the ways you personally connect with God—whether through movement, nature, creativity, silence, or something else.
• When you struggle to slow down: Start with five minutes. Put down the distractions, notice your surroundings, breathe, and become aware of God's presence.
• When you're always thinking about what's next: Remember that God is present here and now—and constantly living one step ahead can cause us to miss what He wants to give us today.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

You don't need a perfect quiet time, the right environment, or an elaborate spiritual routine to encounter God.

Sometimes the invitation is simply to stop striving and become present.

Caroline reminds us that God is already with us—in our movement and our stillness, our questions and uncertainty, our bodies and our everyday routines. Instead of carrying around a backpack full of everything you think you should be doing, you can begin noticing how God uniquely invites you to be with Him.

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Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are. So that's what you'll find here.

Walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same. We can't wait to collide with.

That. God is so endlessly patient with us and so desires to heal this part of who we are.

One of the most profound things to me about God is that we don't just worship the concept of God or even the spirit of God, but we worship the person.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director of Collide and today I am more than thrilled to have Caroline Williams jump on the pod.

And the Abbey is a space that we'll get to hear more about, but it's one where you're encouraged and empowered to meet Jesus on your yoga mat. The Abbey provides monthly resources and serves trained yoga teachers, equipping them with the tools to help them lead transformative yoga classes.

And Caroline lives in New York City with her amazing husband Brian and their cute dog Ellie.

And in her past life she worked in politics, but she's now grateful for the chance to step away for a season and pursue world peace by helping cultivate inner peace.

And I have known Caroline since she was a college age student back in the day who came to my house weekly to collide with Jesus along with 20 some other college women at one point. And we would look at the life of Jesus as he collides with wounded people in the New Testament. And as he transformed them, he began to transform us.

And we had such amazing life changing collisions with Jesus back then. And after graduating, most the girls moved away, including Caroline, to do amazing things for God.

And a few stayed back and we did an experiment that birthed what is now called Collide. This ministry that's grown into one that invites thousands of people to collide with Jesus right where they're at and be forever changed.

And Caroline was such an integral part of the birth of this ministry and now she's off doing such cool things. So it's with great support sentimentality that Caroline hops on the podcast to have a conversation with us today. Caroline, thank you for joining us.

I have chills hearing you just say that. Thinking about where we've come.

Oh, man.

I know.

How many years ago were you in college?

10, I think.

Holy cow. Holy cow. And I got to help marry you and Brian, which was a very special moment. But we won't get into all that.

You moved from the world of politics when you left as a college student, from being in our small group and being in Bellingham, Washington, and all that was going on here. You moved to the world of politics in D.C. and now you're cultivating inner peace. How did you fall into this new path?

Good question. Well, when I left college, even when I. When I enrolled in college, I was convinced, like, politics is what I wanted to do.

I felt that way for a long time. Like, you know, some people spend four years trying to figure out what to major in.

But I stepped into a one being very clear that I wanted to study political science and was lucky enough to get to do an internship in D.C. and then right after I graduated, got a job working for a member of Congress. And, like, this was the dream. This was my dream. And yet, very quickly into it, I admitted to myself that I was miserable. It was not.

I don't know that it was not what I expected, but I think I really wanted to make a difference in the world. And D.C. was an influential place.

And I thought if I lived there and I worked there, I could have influence in the world and make a difference and help people.

And in the job that I was in, which was a lowly staffer in a congressional office, one of 435 members of Congress, I had very little power to do anything to make a difference in people's lives. And that just felt really frustrating to me.

And so I spent a good two and a half years praying and seeking God and wrestling with, like, did I miss the call? Is this part of the journey? Like, I just have to suck it up and, you know, like, you know, right out of college, your job's not going to be amazing.

But how much of this is something I just need to get over, or do I need to, like, be redirected entirely and do something different?

And so I would, like, pray and journal and go to church all the time and serve in church and do all the things that I knew how to do to try and hear from God. And what I wanted God to tell me was, like, you know, stay in this job or apply for this job or move here, do this.

And I just felt like radio silence from heaven. And honestly, it wasn't the One space where I felt like I could really hear from God and connect with God was in yoga.

And I've always loved to move my body and just felt like it really helped me get out of my head and connect with God at a deeper level. And so I would just, I would go and I would move and I would sweat and I would lie in Shavasana, which is like this.

You know, you take a nap for five minutes at the end of class and I would just lie there and weep and could hear the voice of God so clearly just say to me, do you know how proud I am of you? Do you know how much I love you? And that was really the message my heart needed to hear. Not, like, apply for law school, blah, blah, blah.

And so it was in the midst of that seeking and trying to figure out what I was meant to do that an opportunity to be part of a yoga teacher training came across my path. And I had zero ambition to be a yoga instructor. Like, honestly, it felt like the dumbest thing in the world.

Especially like a Christian yoga instructor, like Ms. Like D.C. politics career woman had a lot of judgment towards that. But I found it and I was like, I feel like I need to do this.

Like, I don't know why, I have no idea where this is going to lead, but this just feels like something I need to say yes to and do. And that was four and a half years ago. Wow.

It's so interesting to me you talk about, because I think so many people can resonate with that feeling of radio silence from heaven. And I, I. You were kind of describing the back and forth of like, is there something in me that needs to change and I just have to stay put here.

Am I supposed to be doing something else? What is that that I'm supposed to be doing? And God kind of had you in.

I call it sort of like this holy discontentment, almost like, you know, like there's some other place you're supposed to be, but you have no idea what it, what it is. But God almost has to get you to this restlessness and this wrestling for you to begin looking.

And of course, you weren't looking to have it be yoga, you were looking for it to be something else. But it's so interesting to me that God often gets us to that restlessness, that place of restlessness, and him.

You describe it as radio silence from heaven, but it's almost like if you just had God tell you, go do this, you wouldn't have maybe heard what you needed to hear. You were looking to hear something different. I just love that that's how God works.

Even though when we're in the midst of it, it doesn't always feel fun.

Yeah.

And what I wanted from God was I wanted something from God rather than desiring God in the midst of whatever it was he had to offer me in that season.

Right.

Like I was so desperate for an answer and it was almost like that mattered more to me than submitting to the process. Which of course in hindsight it's like, oh, you know, like I made it out the other side. Like, you'll survive in the midst of it.

It's really hard to lay that down and be like God, if this is just what it's going to be for this season over the foreseeable future, like I receive it with open hands, but I desire you more than like this answer to a question that I feel is everything in my life. But actually your timing and you're holding it all together, I trust.

Yeah, we want directions. We don't want a person. Right.

Like you picture as you're talking, like you're, you're sitting in a car and you just want to drive up to God and be like, tell me where to go. And God just says, take a left, take a right, go three miles and stop right there at the blue house. Like that's what we want from God. Right.

We don't want him to get in the car, car and then go on a road trip where we have no end destination.

That you experienced him showing up in yoga and I, I read that you say for years I walked out of yoga classes with tear stained cheeks after experiencing the overwhelming closeness of God on my yoga mat. There was something so powerful about focusing my attention on just being present for that hour of class.

Can you kind of let us in on what was going on in you?

I'm a doer, an achiever and I'm always moving on to the next thing. I'm very future oriented in my thoughts.

And so there's something really safe about 60 minutes on a 2 by 6 yoga mat where I was encouraged to not try and like achieve a goal or meet some marker, but instead to notice what it felt like to be in my body and to breathe. And it was like all the hamster wheel monkey brain just got, was able to be like silenced for a few minutes.

There was just this presence of God that I couldn't connect with anywhere else that I found through this practicing yoga.

And what amazed me about it was that, I mean these weren't Christian yoga Classes like, this is a yoga studio with Buddha statues everywhere and the teacher using a different language and saying things that I was like, this is kind of true. But also like, and yet God was there and God spoke and felt so real.

And there was this connection that I experienced that having grown up in the church, in a wonderful Christian home and being part of amazing Bible studies, I, I didn't experience it in this way.

Hmm. You, you have now made it your aim to create a Jesus centered approach to yoga. What, what does that look like?

And, and also, what are the common misconceptions that people have about yoga and certain spirituality?

Yeah, yeah, yoga. I think the biggest misconceptions or just fears that I hear from people are like, oh, yoga is Hindu.

And so by practicing yoga, you're worshiping Hindu gods, which I don't believe to be true. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means to yoke or to unite.

So yoga is a really spiritual practice which I think when we invite Jesus into it, is so transformative and so powerful. I think yoga developed from the Indian subcontinent and so it's been largely influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism.

But the yoga that we practice today, which is like, you know, 60 minutes of stretching and toning or whatever, is nothing like the yoga written about in, in the ancient yogic scriptures, like thousands of years ago. But even then, the goal of yoga was like, we do these physical practices or these breathing exercises to help us be still and meditate.

Like these ancient yogis wanted to transcend their bodies and have this meditative experience. And even though that's not my goal today, right, Like I commune with God in this body.

He's given me this skin and these bones and he's put me on earth at this time in history and given me a holy spirit and said, this body is a temple for my spirit. This is how I get to know God right now on Earth.

I'm not trying to escape this body or transcend it, but also I need to learn how to be still in it and know that God is God and know that I am loved and know that it's God's spirit in me that empowers and enables me to live and move and breathe.

And as someone who is always on the move, doing a million different things, learning to be still like that, Yoga gives me the tools to help me be still like that and know, which has been so powerful and transformative in my life, but especially in my faith life.

And so that's why I, that's why I'm passionate about creating more Spaces like this for other people to, to begin to connect with and worship and experiencing God in, in this deeper way.

I have so many questions after you all that and I'm so excited to ask you them. But first about Caroline Williams Yoga and the abbey in which you started.

So Caroline Williams Yoga, super creative name, was birthed about five years ago now, which is crazy. I put out a video on YouTube.

I had like finished my yoga instructor training a few months earlier, but we moved to New York City right about the same time I graduated. And so I didn't know anybody. I had no studio connections. And so like no studio is going to hire this like brand new teacher.

So.

But I really felt like I was kind of good at this or like this was something that a tool or a gift God had given me. And I just felt this responsibility to work it out. But I didn't have an easy way to do that.

Like none of the churches we are part of in New York have their own space. And I, like I said, wasn't part of a studio.

So anyway, I decided to put a video on YouTube, which was also like horrifying to me at the time, like a Christian Yoga video on YouTube. But here we are. So that was five years ago and about two and a half years after that first video released and many more after that.

I was still working in politics up until about a couple years ago, so officially left and started doing this full time. And then the abbey was birthed about a year and a half ago because I wanted to create a community that didn't have my name at the center of it.

That created a platform for other instructors to exercise their gifts as yoga teachers and as spiritual directors and meditation guides and whatever.

And so that was my heart for the abbey was to create a space to raise up other leaders and also so that you know, you can join the Abby as a member like anyone who just wants to practice yoga. And you can practice not just with me, but with dozens of other really incredible instructors.

And then we also have a wing for yoga teachers to help equip and empower them to teach Jesus centered yoga classes.

That is so dang cool. I love it. And you all need to go check it out. So you are now you move from politics.

You, God completely redirected your plan and he did that by showing up and meeting you with his presence and reminding you who you were and then, and then put you on this path of really showing up in your life through yoga. And now you're inviting other people in a sense to collide with him by doing yoga, which I love. And you say you're now cultivating inner peace.

And you talk so much about freedom and I, I want to hear what you think. Sort of wars against our pieces. Women. I mean, I see in you a passion to help women find freedom.

And how do you see women enslaved and what is our way out?

That's a question.

I know.

One of the most surprising gifts that God has given me and thousands of people through my YouTube channel is there's so many women, primarily women, who will message me or comment on these videos and say things like, I'm a pastor's wife or I'm a missionary or I am a therapist or I have been a Christian my entire life.

And yet when I get on my yoga mat and practice with these videos, there's a part of me that cracks open and softens and I just spend the whole time on my mat weeping. And I've never experienced that in all the church settings I've been a part of.

And that's not to demean the church by any means, but there's something that's missing in I think, the narrow way that we often talk about what it looks like to experience God.

And so I think it's a lot of doing, like, oh, I have to go to this place, I have to dress this way, I have to act this way, I have to sing the songs with this amount of passion. I have to hear from the speaker and be inspired in this way. And so there's a lot of doing things.

And for me, like, I think about this encouragement to have a daily quiet time.

And it was always this thing that I felt so guilty about because I could not sit down every morning, first thing in the morning and have this really rich, profound time with Jesus. And I just, I felt a lot of like I'd do it for like five days and then I'd like fail miserably and it'd be like three months before I try it again.

I'm laughing because I don't know why we think that like our best time with God is when really no one should be spending time with us.

I don't talk to anybody. Why would I talk to Jesus before 8am?

Like he doesn't want anything to do with me before a certain hour on the clock.

I just, I think there's a lot of, a lot of should I felt for a long time, a lot of shoulds and obligation and I think it's all well intentioned and it's, I don't want to Point fingers and blame. But we somehow find ourselves with this, like, backpack full of shoulds.

And for me, the yoga mat feels like a safe place to lay that down because often it's done in my home by myself, with God there. And so it's just a safe place to be with God in a safe way. It doesn't have to be this big public experience, expression or performance or.

And so that's what I find so sweet about connecting with God in this way. And for me, it's yoga. For some people, it's running or painting or dancing. It doesn't have to be that narrow.

But I think that's one of the really beautiful invitations that God extends to us through some more movement practices is this freedom to connect with him in a really individual and intimate level. But it's really embodied.

Like it's not just in our heads or something we do for others, but it's something that we do just because we love God and we enjoy being with God.

I love how you, you put it that we sort of have made narrow ways to experience God. I just had a conversation with a woman who potentially could be facing the end of her life. And she's really. She wanted to meet to talk about you.

Her fear of what she said is heaven and hell. And so we started breaking down, you know, why would you be afraid of heaven and facing God?

And so then we started talking about connecting with God and how she's never felt a sense of connection. And I said, well, what have you, what have you been told you have to do to connect with God?

And so she lists off all of these things exactly like you said that she's been told to do. She went to all the youth groups, went to the church, went to this, went to that.

And I was reminded, I don't know if you've read this book, but Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, who's a monk.

Oh my gosh. One of my friends.

It's been years since I've read that, but I. So I'm here. But I love the idea that monks in the monastery have all these, like, specified times that they needed to pray.

But he actually signed up for the worst job at the monastery to do dishes because he wanted to figure out how to find God in the midst of something non spiritual, like washing dishes. And so he talked about, about this idea of practicing the presence of God. And so I had suggested to this woman, like, what do you love to do?

Like, I love to go on walks by the water and I love coffee and So I asked her, what do you love to do? Because go do what you love to do and be aware that God is with you. Like go do something and just be with God.

So I love your invitation that you can go be on a two by six matt and invite God. Be aware of his presence.

He's already there, but it's just your awareness that opens up to his because we've made our faith so narrow in how we can experience him.

Yeah, yeah. I'm an extroverted social person. So like, I love the church setting, but not everybody is.

Yeah, yeah. You talk about grace filled yoga. Tell us what you mean by that.

I think yoga in America looks so many different ways nowadays. Like there's hot power yoga and there's restorative yoga and there's, I don't know, like black light yoga.

And I'm not saying any of those are good or bad, but there's so many different styles out there and some of them are quite fitness oriented, which is great if like you are like my goal is to do, you know, check these like five fitness boxes that I want to check off.

But I think what's really beautiful about yoga is that there's this invitation to let go of the measuring stick that exists in a lot of other fit and types of fitness and to just step on your mat. And I like to say, like, become aware of the ocean of grace that we're swimming in.

Not like, look at my thighs and how thick they look in these tights. Or like criticize myself for how inflexible I am or look at the person next to me and rate my pose against theirs.

We live in a world that rates and ranks and compares and judges.

And this is a space where I think we can actively encourage women and men to let go of that and have grace for themselves and accept experience the grace of God, which is not ranking or rating or comparing or judging, but extending compassion and grace and delight at this opportunity to be connected for this hour in this really intentional way.

I love the ocean of grace that we're swimming in and your invitation for us to swim in it. That's so beautiful. You mentioned a little bit, but a lot of the work we do with women, I see women not being grace filled towards themselves.

When you are doing this work with people, how are you running across that and what are you seeing women? How are you seeing them self debase? How are you seeing them talk about themselves? How are you seeing them view themselves?

And how are you able to, through your work, invite healing in Those places when they're not showing themselves. Grace.

Hmm. That's so good. I don't. I'm not a fitness instructor, so I don't talk a lot about weight or size or measurements or even goals.

I think what I see, women,.

One.

Of the biggest excuses I hear from people about why they don't want to come to a yoga class is they're like, oh, I'm not flexible. And it's like, well, I'm not going to make dinner because I'm hungry. Well, the reason you're going to make dinner is so that you won't be hungry.

The reason you would practice yoga so that you can be more flexible. So there's this work to educate and let people off the hook and be like, look, this isn't about trying to touch your toes.

This is about feeling better in your body and connecting with God in your body. So I think body image and just body connection are some of the biggest things I see.

I think we live in quite a disembodied world, or we talk with disembodied language a lot of times, like, we'll say, even as yoga teachers, for example, like, reach that leg back instead of reach your leg back. Like, it's not just like a leg randomly on a mat. Like, it's connected to you, it's your leg. Or the way that we advertise to people, it's quite.

I mean, even the advertisements in themselves, like, you'll cut off body parts when you see, like, models in a store or something.

And so it's something that I'm really conscious of is helping women feel what it feels like to be in their body and then invite the presence of God into that, because, like you said, he's already there. And so whether it's this voice of criticism or negativity or just curiosity, like, oh, I feel. Can I feel safe in my body for five minutes on my mat?

And in that notice the presence of God, like, that's a huge, huge breakthrough and a huge win in my mind.

So as a teacher, what that looks like is encouraging people to move as it feels good to move, to say, you know, like, as I'm walking around the room, I'm not looking at you with judgmental eyes, but if I notice that you're doing something that I think may hurt you down the road, I might offer. Or, like, hey, try putting your foot here instead, or whatever.

But this is about you moving and breathing in the presence of God and enjoying that, whatever that looks like, and giving yourself the gift to Slow down and just be with that for an hour instead of having to also hold like the grocery list in your head and tomorrow's schedule in your head. But how often do we give ourselves permission to slow down and breathe for 60 minutes and be in our bodies?

It's so interesting, this idea of body connection. I'm just listening to you talk. I'm thinking, I suck at this so badly. I'm the girl in the doctor's office.

I had a Dr. Obama this week, you know, where they're asking you questions and you're like, you know, I, I like, how do you, how do you feel in this area? How are you feeling here? And I'm like, I don't really know. I'm not paying attention. I'm so busy. I'm not paying att. But I think about our hustle.

I think about a lot of people don't want to feel connected to their own body because of shame, because of pain.

So there's a lot of numbing, a lot of self medicating, so we don't actually have to feel what's going on in our body because of chronic pain, because of aging and feeling so afraid of aging. And there's so many reasons why.

We either try to run from our own bodies, medicate our own bodies, change what they look like, don't pay attention to them, stay super busy so that we don't have to sit in that mat and actually feel all the feels of where we're at with our body. Do you see that with women? And what for those of us who are like, oh no, I'm running to be disconnected from this body?

I think, I think being able to admit that to yourself is really powerful. Is the first step to notice like, oh, I numb out, I disassociate.

I would rather go to the HIIT class or the power yoga class where I don't actually have to think about noticing how I feel and slowing down and breathing. I think I absolutely see that on our yoga mat. I just, I don't know, I think keep showing up is what I encourage my students to do.

Like God is so endlessly patient with us and so desires to heal this part of who we are.

Like one of the most profound things to me about God is that we don't just worship the concept of God or even the spirit of God, but we worship the person. Like God put on flesh and became a human being, thereby making honorable and holy this body.

And it's not worshiping this body, but also God dignifies it by becoming it in the form of Jesus. And Jesus knows what it's like to be in this body, to numb it, to disassociate it, to feel pain in it.

And I think we miss out on a part of who God is when we dismiss this part of who we are. And there is very real pain and trauma that our body holds onto.

And so I think you can go through years of therapy and mental health, and if there isn't some kind of embodied work to go along with it, there's this part of healing that's missing. There's this incredible book called the Body Keeps the Score. I don't know if you've heard of it by this.

I think he's a psychotherapist named Bessel Van der Kolk. But it's how. I mean, just studies this whole idea of how imprinted in our cells is the trauma that we experience over the course of our lives.

And so things like yoga or dance or exercise are incredibly powerful in shaking those things up and finding healing and freedom from them. And it's not easy. Like, I can't tell you how many times I just sit on my mat and cry.

And I may not even have words for what it is I'm crying about, but I trust that a level that I don't have words for.

There's this groaning and interceding and healing that's happening because I'm willing to show up and lay this body on the altar and ask God's spirit to search and to heal and to restore.

You know, I'm hearing your invitation right now, and I think other people are. The idea that, in a sense, our body keeps score. I have. I have been so well aware of that, and for so many reasons, we. We suffer from ptsd. We.

We carry the weight of other people's burdens. I mean, there's so many things that we could talk about here.

But one of the things for us at Kolide that we talk about all the time, one of our values, is that we will teach a holistic theology, meaning we believe that God wants to heal every part of who we are. And a lot of capital C Church, a lot of Christianity has been, hey, just as long as you say these things, these statements of doctrine, you're good.

Like, you're good to go. And we've neglected to invite people into not just being whole in.

In their beliefs, but whole in their mind and their hearts and their bodies and their relationships, that God wants healing for our whole selves. And I love that you're inviting us into really recognizing, like, what's your body telling you? Is your body keeping score?

How do you need to invite God into healing the pain that your body's telling you you have? Because it's so easy to run from that pain and, you know, have it be the last thing that we deal with. You.

You, of course, love Jesus and have studied his life. We've studied his life together, and he often slipped away to be by himself. How important do you think being alone to the health of our soul?

Oh, my gosh, it's immensely important. And, like, for years, it terrified me. Like I said, I'm an extrovert.

If there are people around, I will stay in the living room until I fall asleep on the couch to be around people.

Which made quiet time alone with God honestly torture because I was like, I need people or I need to listen to someone else, you know, a podcast or, you know, have someone else translate this for me. That being alone in the silence really scared me. But so, I mean, yoga has been hugely helpful to help me be alone with myself.

Like you talked about, it can be really scary and intimidating and overwhelming. But. But learning to sit and be still. And I think, like, we've talked about being with God. Like, I'm not sitting here alone.

I'm sitting here with an awareness of the presence of God.

And so nowadays, like, what my quote unquote, daily quiet time looks like is what, like, what is the one thing that I'm gonna do every morning I'm gonna, like, make myself coffee. And in a dream world, I would just get to sit and drink it. And I was like, so why don't I just do that with Jesus?

And so every day I have my coffee and I put my butt in the same chair and I just sit there with Jesus. And like, that is the only agenda.

And oftentimes that will lead to, like, oh, I'm going to journal for a bit, or I'll read some of the Bible or read some of this devotional I'm reading. But the only agenda is just to sit and be with Jesus.

And that's the invitation every day and to start from that place and then be led as I feel God leading me into, you know, some other kind of devotional practice.

But learning to feel comfortable in the stillness and silence, I think has helped me just develop this awareness of the presence of God beyond the quote, unquote, Christian things or spiritual things in my life, you know, but it's developed this connection where I don't feel like, oh, I'm disconnected from God, because I'm not doing a church thing today or right now.

But no, like, I'm sitting here talking to you, or I'm going to walk the dog, or even as I transition from task to task, like, presence of God is here with me, guiding me, infusing me, directing me, rejoicing with me, mourning with me, holding it all together so I don't have to. And being able to hold that in stillness is so good.

Mm. You describe yourself as an achiever, a doer, and all those things.

And for people who don't know you, they might just think that's kind of a typical thing that maybe women say about themselves, but that's actually so true of you and your husband. Really interesting to hear this path change that you're on. I feel like women. And you know this because you.

You are one of these women, but we have these long to do lists, we have these big dreams and an overwhelming amount of opportunity ahead of us to get where we want to go. And. And it's so easy to say yes to everything except for getting away and being still and silent and praying and meditating, yoga and self care.

And I'm just wondering, what is your best advice to people to steal away from the hustle.

It starts with just five minutes. Like, give yourself five minutes in the morning with your cup of coffee and lock yourself in the bathroom if you have to, do it.

And don't fill it with other things like, oh, I'll do it while I'm putting my makeup on, or I'll do it while I'm driving to work. But really, give yourself five minutes to just be. And notice what it feels like to be in your body and the presence of God around you. Notice the.

If you're outside, the sun on your face or the wind on your skin, if you're inside, notice the sounds around you, what it feels like to have your feet on the floor, your hands around your mug, and let yourself just be immensely present for just five minutes. Notice what that feels like. And then maybe over time, you build that up a bit more. A bit more.

The Christian tradition is so rich in prayer practices to help with these practices of stillness and silence and solitude. And we've kind of forgotten a lot of them in mainstream American churches these days.

But practices like the prayer of examen or electio divina are really contemplative ways of engaging with God and not doing. And so the. Abby has a lot of those. I have a lot of them on my YouTube channel. But start small. And like, honestly, I'm not that as an extrovert.

Going away by myself for a weekend in a cabin sounds like pure torture. So, like, maybe don't. If you're an extrovert, like, don't make that step one, like start with five minutes.

If you're an introvert, like, maybe, maybe that's your step one. Give yourself so much grace. Like, so much grace. Some days are going to be way easier than others, but let yourself have the gift of being present.

Because God isn't. God is. I mean, God is in tomorrow and God is in yesterday, but God is here now. And the thing that he wants to give you is here now.

And if we're always one step ahead, we miss out on the fullness of who God is right here, right now.

I love the five minute advice. That's so good. I'm laughing because it is so easy to buy into the whole, like, I wanna, I want more inner peace.

So I need to go away for a week by myself, you know, Or I need to just talk to God and fast for three days straight or jump so far away from where we currently are. And the funny thing is, I'm like you. I'm an extrovert. So much so that. But the more time I spend with God, the more I crave that alone time.

Yes. Yeah. I don't know if I'm like, am I just getting older or is this the yoga?

But I feel myself like actually I can go and be alone right now and like not be afraid that I'm missing out on something or, you know, worry what people will think or I don't feel as alone by myself.

Right. Because you're not. Caroline, I love that you are still using your life to invite people to collide with Jesus. And you're doing it through yoga.

And I'm hoping that people will connect with your meaningful work. How can they connect with you?

So you can do, not hundreds yet dozens of videos for free on my YouTube channel, Caroline Williams Yoga. You can join the Abby, our website and on Instagram, we're the Yoga Abby.

T H E Y O G A A B B E Y and we have yoga videos, meditation recordings, written devotionals, some creative contemplation stuff, and a big online community. So if that's more your style, come join us. We'll do a free, I'll give you like a code for a free month so that you can check it out.

And if you want to go all in and find this inner peace on a week long exotic retreat, you can also join me on one, right?

Because you're traveling all over the world. Didn't you just go to Bali or something?

I was just in Greece. Bali will be in April and I'll be in Costa Rica in the winter.

Oh, holy cow. You guys definitely need to check that out. Caroline, thank you for hanging out. It's so good to talk to you.

And for those of you listening, I challenge you to steal away this week. Steal away from the Hustle and meet God and check out Caroline's website and consider colliding with Jesus through yoga.

I will catch you guys next week.

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