It's a gorgeous rainy morning and I am sat in my readings room with candles lit, my chanting beads and the most nutritional smoothie I could make out of what was left in the kitchen. Yes, my birthday weekend is over and I have eaten too much cake, eaten too much wheat and eaten too much of everything else so my stomach is now so swolen I look like I am expecting in a few months! I can't wait to get to the gym today and really sweat it out of my system. I never thought I would become one of those “gym people”. The most I exercised was running to the fridge but as time marched on it also marched across my stomach and I went from crying laughing with my friends about how much I could eat without putting a pound on to just plain crying that nothing fitted me any more. So, it was time to get to the gym.
Yes I have now have something that resembles a waist but something else happened to me that I wasn't expecting. The sheer mental clarity I get after a work out is priceless and something that I don't hear talked about often enough. We tend to think of working out as something to do with our image and we don't really tend to relate it to any form of emotional state which is why it shocked me as to how much it influenced mine. When I work out I sleep better, eat better and I don't tend to have any of that random unused mental energy floating around my brain any more. It grounds me in a way I never even considered. I think because we view working out as something image related we also mentally pair it up with doing something to please other people and there's no denying that there are a lot of “look at me”'s prancing around in the gym but I think if we viewed it as something as part of our spiritual practice it would reach out to more people.
Tribes danced as part of their rituals. They understood the value of sweat and grounding yourself. Most of the things I had read on mentally and emotionally and spiritually grounding were purely mental exercises and never even mentioned physical activity. When I physically exhaust my body, when I work out until my entire gym kit sticks to me, when I push myself to the next physical level there is a certain mental stillness that comes with it. I no longer have the energy for useless thought and I feel quiet. Doing this 3-4 times a week is perfect for me at this point in my life and the benefits are clear when I look at the quality of my work. I watch my sugar intake, I watch my animal protein intake, I watch my gluten and dairy intake, not with the intention of creating a physical appearance but because it just feels better in my body when I do these things. The ability to fit into my clothes is just a benefit!
Work out for yourself. Find your own inner tribal dance and let it be whatever form it takes. Allow your body to free itself of whatever it has picked up and then let it find the quiet place at the centre of it all!
Thank you for listening,
Big Love,
Ryan James
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