Why is Fitness Critical for the Spiritual?

You identify as spiritual. You know that you are energy, embodied. You are connected to the deeper stuff of life. You have no interest in blowing up your ego and you often feel a big ‘yuck’ of dissonance when you witness others basing their self-identity (and sometimes self-worth) on their physical form and/or physical appearance.

I get that. But are you attending to your fitness and physical health, or are you spiritually bypassing it because you figure you are spirit-led and focusing attention on your fitness and physical health is just not that important? Or maybe you think that this focus will somehow make you ego-identified? Here, the invitation to exercise regularly and attend to your fitness has nothing to do with losing weight, being a certain size or shape, fitting into some societally-approved archetype or form. Here, we are bringing awareness to the health of the body, regardless of its appearance: Here we are bringing awareness to using the gift we are given to live in a body to further our spiritual experience.

If you are avoiding attending to your fitness (the condition of being fit and physically well) or do not include exercise as a regular part of your life, you are missing a major link in your ability to fully access your spiritual dimension, to live joyfully and to offer your best to the world. Why?

Here are my top 3 reasons why
fitness is critical for spiritual life:

1. Exercise helps to digest all undigested material, including energetic material
   When we exercise we support our human system. We are not just moving, strengthening, conditioning and stretching our muscles. We are also impacting our organs; contributing to the health of our heart, our lungs, our digestive system and so on. Through generating heat in the body, we begin to metabolize much more than just our food. We begin to metabolize all undigested material within us, be it physical, emotional, or energetic.
   
   When we exercise, we provide ourselves the opportunity to digest energy: keeping what is helpful as spiritual nourishment, and expelling all that no longer serves us. In so doing, we create room within us for that which is needed for our evolution and elevation, AND we contribute to the overall state of our spiritual health.

2. Movement allows for flow of energy.

   We are aware of the connection between our mind, body and spirit. So often we hear that exercise is good for our mental health (and it is!) Exercise kicks up endorphins, can help focus and clear the mind, and leave us feeling tired but capable of taking life on. But what about exercise being good for our spiritual health?
   
   Moving the body is not just about moving ONE object in space. It is about moving all the millions of cells within us, and moving all the energy within and around and beyond those cells as well. Movement of the physical body creates movement in the energetic body because they are not disconnected. Movement of the physical body allows for shifts in the subtle body to be activated. This flow within the subtle body then allows for the release of stagnant energetic material, generate vibrancy within the energetic frame as well as the space necessary for higher frequency energy to enter, since like attracts like in the energy world.

3. The more aligned with your natural state you are, the more you will receive from the ether.
   When we clear our physical body through regular exercise (and clean nutrition and good hydration), the vessel through which our spirit is expressed and can play and expand, the more opportunity we create for alignment with the higher order. When our body feels clear, and in good health, it is a beautiful host or home for our spirit to live in. In this high vibrational space of alignment and attunement, we have opportunity to receive more guidance from Great Spirit, tap more accurately and easily into our intuition, and feel more at ease and in connection with others.
   
   When we attend to our physical form from a loving, peaceful, joyful place, we tap into our essential nature beyond form: the truth of who we are - which is love, peace and joy. So if you want to have deeper, higher access to your spiritual life, and attend to the health of your spirit, it is critical to attend to your fitness. The two are deeply intertwined, and our responsibility to uphold as spiritual residents, in our physical home: our beautiful bodies.