Issue No. 2

Dedicated to helping you learn how to enhance your life by honoring your soul and spirit while living day to day.

Article

The Spiritual Muscle

Thank you for your wonderful responses to my inaugural issue of Get Spiritually Fit.

I love hearing from you!  Please send me stories of your experiences, revelations and journeys in Spiritual Fitness and how it is impacting your life. With your permission I’d love to include them in future newsletters. 

Last month we talked about the vital connection to our core, our essence, our soul and how the experience of that connection is what I call Spiritual Fitness.  You learned the tools to BLESS yourself – BREATHE, LISTEN, EXPLORE, SILENCE, SAY thanks!  Remember? In this issue we’ll begin to explore what I call the "spiritual muscle".

First, what is it?  The spiritual muscle is the energetic capacity for deep listening, attention or consciousness that exists behind our stream of consciousness mind.  It is innate; we are born with it.  Through it we connect to our soul, and thence to the cosmic consciousness, to the Divine, to our Source, to God.  It is a "psychic muscle," if you will, that develops through use.  By exercising this psychic muscle we increase our access to and experience of our Divine connection, becoming more spiritually fit.

Spiritual fitness, like physical fitness, requires discipline and commitment to a consistent routine or practice.  Unlike strengthening your biceps or doing an aerobic workout, exercising your spiritual muscle is a more subtle experience.  It involves the discipline of paying attention and listening to your body, thoughts, emotions and experience in the present moment.  This is commonly known as the practice of presence, being present, living in the moment, being with what is.

Exercising your spiritual muscle is not so much about "doing" as it is about being.  Many of my clients get stumped on this one asking me, "So, how do you ‘do’ ‘being?’" 

My Dad, Kiyo Morimoto, always used to say, "Be with yourself where you are because that’s where you are."  He spoke often about accompaniment and the importance of accompanying yourself and others wherever you or they happened to be.  So, a simple way to start "doing being" is to keep your self company.  See your self as a new friend you want to be with.  Engage in a simple curiosity about who in you is breathing, making choices, experiencing, talking, laughing, crying.  Ask your self, "Who is smiling, angry, has a headache, etc.…..?" and wait to experience what arises without expecting a logical rational answer to present itself or interpreting your experience.  Become the loving non-judgmental observer of your life, just noticing your experience.  Allowing yourself to be in the state of observing will begin to stretch and loosen up your spiritual muscle from all the ways it is entangled in what is not the core you. Think of it as spiritual warm-ups (a step a lot of us skip when exercising because we want to get to the "real" thing!)

A couple of caveats as you begin this process: 1. As a culture we are impatient; we like immediate results.  At the beginning of a physical exercise routine the changes you desire may seem to come too slowly for your efforts.  You may become discouraged and give up. Yet when you commit to the process and trust that it is necessary and vital to your desired outcome, over time you see changes and reap the rewards.  The same applies to exercising your spiritual muscle.  Your commitment to the process is all it takes. Because that’s all there is, anyways - the process.  Everything else is thoughts, conditions and interpretations we make up!

The 2nd caveat: we have attached much of our self-worth to doing and accomplishing. We are driven, overworked and over achieving, living with harmful stress levels.  "Being" requires consciously slowing down and risking the experience of truths you may have been avoiding by your "doing".  So, start by being present to your doing.  Ask your self "Who is doing this….? Is this really required right now? Who is choosing this?"  Again, wait to experience what arises without expecting a logical rational answer to present itself or interpreting your experience. Be present to the myriad of competing voices within you as you go about your doing. 

Know that you will encounter monkey mind, resistance, forgetfulness and a host of other responses to your increased attention.  No problem.  Keep practicing!  Stay in the process of your life as it unfolds.

Next month we’ll talk about spiritual fitness saboteurs and spiritual muscle entanglements!

May the practice of exercising your spiritual muscle, release the fire and energy that impassions you so that you get to a fuller, deeper, lighter experience of who you really are!