Exercise as Spiritual Practice
On Wednesdays, I work from home (and sometimes wear pink). Some people who work from home use it as an opportunity to start their workday early so they can stop work early. I, on the other hand, use it as a day to slow down. I sleep in a little bit. I make coffee. I still start my workday at 9am without all the hustle and bustle of packing a lunch, finding my keys, and biking or busing to work.
This morning, I woke up later than usual, even for a Wednesday. It was cold and dark and rainy outside, and I hadn’t fallen asleep until after 11p.m.
My body was aching, as it tends to do on most mornings now that I’m well into my 30s, and I considered, for a split second, that maybe I should do yoga.
No. my brain chimed in. You don’t want to do yoga. Just go in the living room and sit on the couch and read your book.
But my body! My hips are tight and I don’t feel…
No! You’ll be just fine. Afterall, you need to spend time with God and you won’t have enough time to sit in prayer if you do yoga. You shouldn’t have slept so late.
I guess you’re right. I should have gone to bed earlier. But yoga would feel so good, and...
But you’re too tired! Put your favorite sweatshirt on and go cozy up on that couch. You’ll be glad you prayed this morning.
This was the inner monolog that ensued for a good three minutes. Me arguing with myself about whether I should care for my body or care for my soul, whether I should do yoga or spend some time in prayer.
And then I remembered what Lysa Terkherst said in her devotional a few days before:
The more I made running about spiritual growth and discipline, the less I focused on the weight. Each lost pound was not a quest to get skinny but evidence of obedience to God… The more I focused on running toward God, the less I thought about my desire to stop.”
Exercise is a form of spiritual practice. Caring for my body is as much a spiritual act as sitting on the couch to pray. For far too long, we Christians have tried to distance ourselves from our physical experiences. We’ve viewed our bodies as temporary, as sources of temptation that we should fear, and so we’ve separated from them. For many of us, eating and exercise have become sources of overindulgence and/or punishment, and we become filled with guilt and shame.
This is not how God intended it. God gave us physical bodies for a reason, and those physical bodies are good. The way I feel physically directly affects how I feel mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
If you’re struggling with something physical today, why don’t you take a note from yesterday’s spiritual practice and bring it before God? “Hey God, I’m struggling with this today,” or “Hey God, I feel ashamed about this today,” or “Hey God, help me with this today.”
You don’t need to stuff or hide or control those thoughts or feelings, just presently be with them in the presence of God today.
And if that’s not you, I’d still encourage you to bring a little more awareness to your body today. Is there a tension you need to release? A shoulder that could use a massage? An ache or pain you’ve been ignoring?
Or, are you in the best shape of your life, but haven’t fully allowed yourself to feel the joy and gratitude of feeling great physically?? Say thank you for that today.
I want to end today’s post by sharing a few excerpts from Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Sacred Rhythms. They’re changing the way I view my body and engage with God’s spirit. She says:
Knowing that God has chosen to make our bodies his dwelling place opens the door to remarkable opportunities for heightening our awareness of God’s presence…
The spiritual discipline of honoring the body helps us find our way between the excess of a culture that glorifies and objectifies the body and the excess of Christian tradition that has often denigrated and ignored the body.
As we become more intentional about finding this middle way, we will be surprised by the spontaneous combustion that comes when aspects of ourselves that were always meant to exist as an integrated whole finally come together in a way that produces great joy and vitality…
Moments of physical activity and exercise can become prayers of gratitude and moments of consecration. Eaing food that we enjoy and is healthful for us can be the occasion of experiencing God’s care and reminding us of our dependency on him and of his faithfulness to care for our needs.
God gave you a body. Your body is good. Bring your body before God today.