21C Pilgrim

June 17th, 2007

Ever had a spiritual experience on the treadmill? You should.

Our reductionist thinking tries to create artificial boundaries between body, mind and spirit like they are three unrelated things. I’ve seen this illustrated before as three compartments, but I think that the relationship between them is more like a venn diagram with a large common area in the middle.

This is probably why scripture describes the body as being the temple of the Holy Spirit. The astounding effect that our mind has on our body is well accepted – but what about the effect that our body has on our spirit? I’ve certainly never considered it before now.

In the spirit of the ancient Rabbis who would invoke the adage "an hour of study is as an hour of prayer in the eyes of God", I propose a new adage for the 21st century pilgrim: an hour on the treadmill is as an hour of prayer in the eyes of God.

Mind, body and spirit are linked in such a way that if one is in bad shape – all suffer. What does this mean for a society in which obesity tripled in children and adolescents and doubled for adults between 1980 – 2002?!?

Check out About.com’s exercise for beginners section.

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