Issue No. 1

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

Article

Enhance your Well-Being through Spiritual Fitness

Greetings and welcome to this inaugural edition of Get Spiritually Fit! a monthly newsletter dedicated to helping you learn how to enhance your day to day life by honoring your soul and spirit.

Let’s face it.  Life can be a challenge.  Sometimes it feels like we’re jugglers trying to juggle in a tornado!  The whirlwind of daily activities and over-stimulation increases our stress and anxiety.  We pay a huge toll physically and emotionally with stress related illnesses. We run ourselves ragged.  But how many of us are aware of the price we pay spiritually?

To cope with all of life’s demands many of us shut off or ignore our hearts and souls.  For so many people, life has lost its meaning.  We no longer know what’s really important to us. We walk around with a void, a gaping hole that we try to avoid by over indulging in mind numbing activities or fill by staying busy, accumulating possessions and accomplishments.  We focus on what’s next; longing for weekends, vacations and retirement. We tell ourselves, “Someday, when I have time I’ll….”  You fill in the blank!  We think these external things will bring us fulfillment. 

What’s missing?  The vital connection to our deepest self, to the essence of who we are, to the part of us that is contained in and illuminates our bodies.  This is the part that speaks to us in a still small voice we don’t take the time to hear.  This core of us is the soul.  Our experience of our connection to it is what I call Spiritual Fitness.

Spiritual Fitness creates the opportunity for you to have a life that is fulfilling purposeful, meaningful and joy-filled in any moment.  It raises your consciousness and experience of the interconnectedness of life.  It enables you to discover and live in your unique purpose.  It helps you learn how to embrace and accept all of who you are, while still striving to better yourself. It is an aspect of your well-being that is as precious as your physical, mental and emotional health.  In fact, it is essential.  So, how can you begin to build your Spiritual Fitness?  

Like a physical fitness program, beginning a Spiritual Fitness plan requires a commitment, positive attitude and effort.  It may require shifting your priorities and routine. The most important element is your willingness to be engaged with your self and with God, or a Higher Power as you understand and name this Power.  It will be difficult at times.  Yet nothing changes if you don’t! 

So, this month, make the time to acknowledge the spiritual part of your life.  Here are five simple, easy to implement suggestions that can help you begin. 

1. Breathe.  Take 5 deep conscious breaths whenever you feel caught up in your thoughts.  Acknowledge the part of you that is wise, eternal and connected to Love.
2. Listen.  Pause periodically and listen to the sounds in your environment.  Listen closely, paying attention to the experience listening creates in your body, thoughts and emotions. Ask your self- Who is listening?
3. Explore.  Change one thing you do routinely: Take a new route home from work; brush your teeth with your opposite hand; turn off the TV at dinner time, leave dishes in the sink – or do them! This increases your awareness and loosens your attachments to the sameness of your life, preparing you for the abundance of experiences that await you.
4. Silence.  Be still and silent 5-10 minutes every day.  It is in the silence that you can hear the still small voice of God.
5. Say thank you to the Higher Being of your understanding before you go to sleep. Practice gratitude for the little things you notice – a smile, wave, a flower growing in the crack of a sidewalk.

BLESS your self and your life by practicing these simple steps this month.  Before you know it they will have become helpful habits to building your Spiritual Fitness! You deserve it!

Next month:  Your Spiritual Muscle!