Ep. 399: The Body Teaches the Soul with Justin Whitmel Early

Let's Parent on Purpose: Christian Marriage, Parenting, and Discipleship

In this conversation, attorney and author Justin Whitmel Earley unpacks how embodied habits shape our spiritual life—what he calls habits as liturgies. Drawing on neuroscience and Scripture (Genesis 2:7; Romans 5; Ephesians 2; Psalm 23), Justin explains why the body often leads the heart, how practices like box breathing + breath prayers, sleep and Sabbath, and fasting and feasting can realign our loves, and how parents can build grace-based rhythms that form their homes. Jay shares his own story of grief and healing to show how God uses humble, repeated practices—friendship, worship, exercise, daily prayer—to restore joy. If you’ve wrestled with anxiety, distraction, or unhealthy relationships with food/tech, this episode gives practical, theologically grounded steps to start small and stay faithful.

Justin Whitmel Earley is a writer, speaker, and lawyer. He is the author of The Common Rule, Habits of the Household, and Made for People, though he spends most days running his business law practice. Through his writing and speaking, Justin empowers God’s people to thrive through life-giving habits that form them in the love of God and neighbor. He continually explores both how physical habits are more spiritual than we think and how spiritual habits are more physical than we think. He lives with his wife and four boys in Richmond, Virginia, spends a lot of time around fires and porches with friends, and is a part-owner of a local gym. You can follow him online at justinwhitmelearley.com.

Key Takeaways

• Habits are liturgies. What we do repeatedly (often unconsciously) forms our loves; your identity tends to follow your practices, not just your ideas.

• Embodiment matters. God made, saved, and will resurrect us in bodies. Spiritual formation happens through the body, not around it.

• Top-down meets bottom-up. Pair truth in the mind with training in the body—e.g., Scripture + breath, theology + sleep rhythms, confession + tech limits.

• Breathing as prayer. Use box breathing to calm the nervous system and pair it with breath prayers (e.g., inhale: “The Lord is my shepherd”; exhale: “I shall not want”).

• Sleep & Sabbath are starting points. Begin the week (and each day) from rest, not for rest—work from God’s finished work.

• Food as formation. Redeem eating with the twin practices of fasting (dependence) and feasting (delight); both counter indulgence and shame.

• Fight habit with habit. You usually can’t think your way out of what you practiced your way into; stack small, embodied practices.

• Parenting is daily formation. The household is a “monastery” where we practice loving God and neighbor—bedtime blessings, screen rules, mealtime conversations, and pause-prayers change the parent, not just the child.

Conversation Highlights

• Why “habits as liturgies” reframes everyday routines as worship.

• Jay’s testimony of grief, trauma, and how embodied rhythms restored joy.

• Breathing as the intersection of theology, psychology, and physiology.

• The Jewish day begins at sundown: a paradigm for starting with rest.

• How ultra-processed foods hijack dopamine and how fasting/feasting heal.

• “You can’t think your way out of what you didn’t think your way into.”

Reflection / Small-Group Questions

1. Where do your current habits reveal what you actually love?

2. Which embodied practice (breath prayer, sleep/Sabbath, fasting/feasting, exercise) do you sense God inviting you to try first? Why?

3. How could you redesign one household moment (bedtime, mealtime, screens, discipline) to make it a mini-liturgy?

4. In a season of anxiety or grief, which small, repeatable habit most reliably pulls you back to God?

Resources & Links:

• The Body Teaches the Soul — Justin Whitmel Earley

• Habits of the Household — Justin Whitmel Earley

• Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind and Renew Your Soul

• Justin’s Website - https://www.justinwhitmelearley.com

• Check out www.youthministry.coach

• Daily Devotional Podcast Guided by Faith: www.guidedbyfaith.net

• Join my Things for Thursday Email List and get a free Marriage Snapshot Tool and Fun Family Conversation Ebook!

• Support Let’s Parent on Purpose as we help families thrive through the gospel: https://letsparentonpurpose.com/support/

Let’s Parent on Purpose is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcasting Network. For more information, visit www.ChristianParenting.org