Today's fitness training is a mix of, one, 30 minutes of power walking at about 80 per cent of race walking pace - I guess the distance to be about 5 km - and, two, resistance training using weights, bar springs and body weight. I train 7 days a week, taking it easy on some days at about 60 per cent intensity of power training. In order to do this you have to like and enjoy what you are doing and not feel or see it as a form of self-torture. To do that you have to make it a habit, establishing a routine, a regularity and, well, a groove. Once you get into the groove, it becomes easier to do it daily. The motivation comes from doing it, from an initial awareness of its health benefit and the raising of the awareness to include the mental and spiritual dimensions as well. Exercising regularly, incorporating fitness training as a way of life not only keep you physically fit but also maintain a high level of mental alertness and emotional equilibrium. This many people know. But not many people would want to step out of rank and claim that fitness training CAN also be a spiritual experience or a way of developing a spiritual consciousness.
Before I talk about the connection between fitness training and spiritual consciousness, Let me explain what I mean by it as it has many meanings and mean different things to different people and in different contexts.
For my purpose here, spiritual consciousness is a state of mind in which you feel you can and choose to feel you are not a separate individual or ego at war, competing, envying, being jealous, comparing, wanting to best, to manipulate, feeling hostile, seeking revenge, not being concerned, not caring ... for/with others, with other living things, with the environment at the discreet, molecular and life-force levels. You can and choose to feel one with the world. This feeling or awareness is not something that falls from the sky on the wings of inspiration, revelation or after long years of meditation or prayer but instantly the moment you CHOOSE to feel it. It comes from within. Not outside. What is outside of you is only the backdrop, stepping stone or sounding board, while you are the player or drummer, as it were.
By this definition, if the awareness comes in the form of a set of memorized liturgy or quotation from an outside source however holy or celebrated, it is not the real McCoy. It has to come from your own heart and mind. You have to be able to describe it in words. It is not enough to feel it but cannot communicate it to others or record it for your own review. It is not enough to feel at peace with the world with a beatific smile on your face but all you can say is, "ERRRMMM" or "There are no words to describe it." Have you tried the dictionary?
You see, spiritual awareness is about reaching outside of your ego and skin. You don't feel that your ego and skin is a real barrier to the world outside in time and space and even dimension. And the written word is the most complete tool for this reaching out or communication. Music, dance, drawing, graphics, photography, sculpture, architecture are all great forms to express spirituality - a reaching out to universal and enduring themes of beauty and the human experience, BUT they are not standalones. Alone they are mute sentinels. You can respond in silence, in awe, but there is no sharing, no recording without the written word. Songs and speeches come close to bridging the gap between sound and word but, not recorded by the written word, they are just like froths, come and gone. So it is to the wings of the written word that we rely on to bear and share the message of our spiritual longing and realization this instant.
Now you can choose to feel and express your spirituality through any form of experience, not necessarily only through organized systems of beliefs and communal, societal or tribal traditions. You can participate in any activity in a passive, perfunctory, mechanical, blind, just enough to pass or make the grade, only physically, mentally or adding a spiritual dimension to it. To be cynical, you can say even robbing a bank, killing or committing suicide can be spiritual. I can't disagree with that statement. I know literature has explored the theme of spirituality in negativity, criminality or destruction. Seen spiritually, destruction, for example, is the ending of a phase and the beginning of another, a case of the phoenix rising from the ashes.
But back to fitness training and spirituality. That's it. Just will your mind to transcend the constrictions of conventional thinking -- the ego within the skin limitation - while your feet are pounding the path ... tap-a-tap-tap ... tap-a-tap-tap ... and simply love the world around you, the people looking at you with funny looks (yes they deserve your love too) ... but for heaven's sake don't pick up every stray kitten that crosses your path just because you're now a lovey-dopey convert ... sigh ...
Before I talk about the connection between fitness training and spiritual consciousness, Let me explain what I mean by it as it has many meanings and mean different things to different people and in different contexts.
For my purpose here, spiritual consciousness is a state of mind in which you feel you can and choose to feel you are not a separate individual or ego at war, competing, envying, being jealous, comparing, wanting to best, to manipulate, feeling hostile, seeking revenge, not being concerned, not caring ... for/with others, with other living things, with the environment at the discreet, molecular and life-force levels. You can and choose to feel one with the world. This feeling or awareness is not something that falls from the sky on the wings of inspiration, revelation or after long years of meditation or prayer but instantly the moment you CHOOSE to feel it. It comes from within. Not outside. What is outside of you is only the backdrop, stepping stone or sounding board, while you are the player or drummer, as it were.
By this definition, if the awareness comes in the form of a set of memorized liturgy or quotation from an outside source however holy or celebrated, it is not the real McCoy. It has to come from your own heart and mind. You have to be able to describe it in words. It is not enough to feel it but cannot communicate it to others or record it for your own review. It is not enough to feel at peace with the world with a beatific smile on your face but all you can say is, "ERRRMMM" or "There are no words to describe it." Have you tried the dictionary?
You see, spiritual awareness is about reaching outside of your ego and skin. You don't feel that your ego and skin is a real barrier to the world outside in time and space and even dimension. And the written word is the most complete tool for this reaching out or communication. Music, dance, drawing, graphics, photography, sculpture, architecture are all great forms to express spirituality - a reaching out to universal and enduring themes of beauty and the human experience, BUT they are not standalones. Alone they are mute sentinels. You can respond in silence, in awe, but there is no sharing, no recording without the written word. Songs and speeches come close to bridging the gap between sound and word but, not recorded by the written word, they are just like froths, come and gone. So it is to the wings of the written word that we rely on to bear and share the message of our spiritual longing and realization this instant.
Now you can choose to feel and express your spirituality through any form of experience, not necessarily only through organized systems of beliefs and communal, societal or tribal traditions. You can participate in any activity in a passive, perfunctory, mechanical, blind, just enough to pass or make the grade, only physically, mentally or adding a spiritual dimension to it. To be cynical, you can say even robbing a bank, killing or committing suicide can be spiritual. I can't disagree with that statement. I know literature has explored the theme of spirituality in negativity, criminality or destruction. Seen spiritually, destruction, for example, is the ending of a phase and the beginning of another, a case of the phoenix rising from the ashes.
But back to fitness training and spirituality. That's it. Just will your mind to transcend the constrictions of conventional thinking -- the ego within the skin limitation - while your feet are pounding the path ... tap-a-tap-tap ... tap-a-tap-tap ... and simply love the world around you, the people looking at you with funny looks (yes they deserve your love too) ... but for heaven's sake don't pick up every stray kitten that crosses your path just because you're now a lovey-dopey convert ... sigh ...
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