Exercise and Spirituality
Exercise and Spirituality
Mario D’Couto
Aristotle said that our lives are
governed by the habits we create and follow, and exercise and spirituality are
no exceptions to it. But more than just being governed by this one common
factor, what strikes out is that both have similar paths if not identical in
the attainment of their respective goals. So, without further ado, let’s jump
right into it and understand their similarities.
1)
An Arduous Journey:
In both exercise and spirituality, the goal
cannot be achieved in one shot or overnight. It takes time, effort and
persistence.
2)
To Stop is to Regress:
Anybody who has been through an exercise
program and has stopped will tell you the effects of what a change of lifestyle
can do, not so much for the better, but for the worst. Not following a healthy
life style or a healthy diet is only going to lead one down the rabbit hole.
Likewise, when one stops praying and does not feel the need for God, something
similar would happen. Only in this case, instead of your body becoming flabby,
your will to do the right thing becomes weak, because of which a person’s evil
tendencies can get the better of him/her. When we are in the grace of God, we
are in a better position to do the right thing and fight against our evil
tendencies.
3)
Taking care, sacrifice and discipline:
An important aspect of exercise is not just
working out but also consuming he right diet. If the diet is not in place, you
may as well stop exercising. If the diet does not compliment your exercise,
rest assure you’re not going to get the desired results. This means eating
healthy food, more nutritious, organic food rather than junk or processed
foods.
In
spirituality spending hours in prayers or attending a series of talks, sermons
or just merely attending Church services (or any other place of worship) is not
going to help if you don’t compliment with the kind of choices you make in your
life. This mean that you would need to be a bit moderate and if I may add that
means you may need to mortify your taste not just in terms of food but also in
your lifestyle. There is nothing wrong in having riches or having wealth but
don’t forget that in whatever you do, maintaining a good life and a good
spirituality is never taking your eyes or focus from God. As a Christian (and a
Catholic), I strongly believe that everything comes from God and everything
will go back to Him.
It is interesting to note that in both the
cases, whatever seems nice and pleasing to the eye can actually do harm. I mean
like who would not want the easy life. But that’s where discipline comes in
which means sacrificing and mortifying one’s self to put it in a spiritual
sense. Discipline is an essential aspect in both areas.
4)
Aim high:
Bruce Lee once said, “A goal is not always meant to
be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” Thus,
failure is not the end of the story. He would go on to say, “Defeat
is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as
reality.” Another reason as to
why setting goals is important is because if we don’t push ourselves we will
never grow, and we would never know our true potential or what we are capable
of. Stirling Silliphant (a student of Bruce Lee) relates an interesting story
that perfectly embodies Lee’s attitude toward progressive resistance in
cardiovascular training, as well as his refusal to let a person – in this case Silliphant
– underestimate his own physical potential, “Bruce had me up to 3 miles a day
to a good pace. We’d run 3 miles in 21 or 22 minutes. Just under 8 minutes a
mile (It has been said that when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his
time down to 6 and a half minutes per mile). So, this morning he said to me, ‘We’re
going to go 5.’ I said, ‘Bruce, I can’t
go 5.’ He said, ‘When we get to 3,
we’ll shift gears and it’s only 2 more and you’ll do it.’ I said, ‘Okay, hell,
I’ll go for it.’ So, we get to it, we go
into the 4th mile and I am okay for 3 or 4 minutes and then I really
begin to give out. I am tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so
I say to him, ‘Bruce, if I run any more’
– and we’re still running – ‘if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart
attack and die.’ He said, ‘Then die.’ It made me so mad that I went the full 5
miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about
it. I said, you know, ‘Why did you say that?’ He said, ‘Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you
always put limits on what you do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over
into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality,
into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must
not stay there you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man
must constantly exceed his level.’”
In the
spiritual realm, we can say something similar happens. Of course, not that we
should always exceed our limits because ultimately it is not merely by our own
efforts that we become holy, but it is God’s grace that strengthens us.
However, we need to make the choice to be holy. St. Augustine explains this in
his teaching on operative and co – operative grace, which speaks about God’s
action upon us and our response to it. God will never force anyone to love or
follow Him. He respects our freedom. It would definitely hurt Him if we do not
respond to Him but that does not mean that God will force us because true love
is never forced. It is freely given and freely received. At this point, you may
probably be wondering how is this connected to exercise or what common elements
are there? The point is that we need to act. Some people may tend to think that
holiness is not for them or that they are not capable of holiness but that’s a
lie. We are all called to holiness. But we need to aim high and act upon it and
with the grace of God Almighty, you will definitely see changes in your life
for the better.
5)
True purpose:
Sometimes exercise and body building is usually
thought of something for the sake of aesthetic pleasure. While that is true,
the true purpose of exercise and body building should be to equip the body to
perform one’s tasks more efficiently. It’s easy to become a couch potato but it
takes effort to develop real strength.
Dan
Inosanto (of Game of Death fame) and another close friend of Bruce Lee said
that Bruce Lee was only interested in strength that could be converted to power.
He recounts, “I remember once Bruce and I were walking along the beach in Santa
Monica, out by where The Dungeon (a gym originally owned by famed Muscle Beach
denizen Vic Tanny) used to be, when all of a sudden this big, huge bodybuilder
comes out of The Dungeon. At that moment, I said to Bruce, ‘Man, look at
those arms on that guy!’ I’ll never
forget Bruce’s reaction. He said, ‘Yeah, he’s big – but is he powerful? Can
he use that extra muscle efficiently?’”
Power, according to Bruce Lee, was demonstrated by an individual’s ability to
use the strength developed in the gym quickly and efficiently for real – work
purposes.
He
believed that the student of exercise should aim at nothing less than physical
perfection, including great strength, quickness and skill, exuberant health and
the beauty of muscular form that distinguishes as a physically perfect human
being. He believed that each day brought with it the opportunity to improve
ourselves physically and mentally, we could choose either to seize the moment
to take a step closer to maximizing our potential and progress or to decline
the opportunity and stagnate and progress or to decline the opportunity and
stagnate and not grow.
Likewise,
every day is a gift from God; another day of opportunity and to do more good,
to help others and continue living in His grace. Holiness is never about
boasting. In fact, the holier we become the more humble we should be.
6)
An unseen progress:
In all this, as noted earlier, the development
is gradual and while you may or may not see the changes in your physique,
others will start seeing the changes in you. In the same way, you may feel like
your payer life is just a drag. But the truth is, the more you pray, you may
not see the changes in your life, but others will see the changes in you.
7)
The desire to be:
To wrap up all that has been said, leading a
disciplined life would not be possible if one does not have the desire. You’ve
got to want to lead a disciplined life and while it is important for both,
exercise and spirituality or anything for that matter, we may just say that in
the spiritual life, if our motives are not genuine, we could actually be doing
more harm than good to ourselves. By this, what I mean to say is that holiness
is something that should be done for God’s glory and not for our personal
glory.
To conclude, when a person who is
sick pretends to be alright or denies that he/she is sick, no cure is possible.
Likewise, when we don’t realize the need for God or pretend or act like we can
do without Him, we could actually make a mess of our lives. As in the Bible, it
is written that our bodies are the temple of God’s Holy Spirit, we should
ensure to take care of it, not pampering it or indulging in pleasures (although
that is valid to an extent) but to eat healthily and be fit so that we can use it
for His glory and do more good in the world, while not forgetting to live in
His grace and follow Him closely in whichever path of life, one may find one’s
self in.
