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Many people who try to eat healthy, work out and stay fit have found that fitness can be a lofty goal to reach for. No matter what they try, their diet is hard to stick to, they aren’t seeing results and they never feel motivated to work out. These people wonder: what am I doing wrong?
If you’re reading this and it sounds like your own struggles with fitness, don’t worry. There might just be a simple solution you’ve overlooked. It’s quite possible that your spiritual health, or lake thereof, is holding back your overall wellness. You need to focus on your soul before you think about your body.
It might sound like a crock of nonsense, but your spiritual health is of utmost importance. If you don’t believe in something as ephemeral as a “spirit,” you can think of this as mindfulness or focus training. Whatever you want to call it, focusing on the “why” of fitness is as important as the “what.” This is where spiritually mindful exercises come in.
There are many ways to watch out for your spiritual health, but some are more prominent than others. The most straightforward is simple mindfulness meditation. This is the classic form of meditation: closing your eyes, focusing on being in the moment and clearing your mind of distractions. Many prefer to use meditation to gather their thoughts, plan for their day and prepare to tackle their obstacles.
Beyond simple meditation, there are many physical practices that can help you increase the mindfulness of your body and soul. Disciplines like yoga and tai chi, for instance, are meant to help practitioners bring their body and soul into alignment.
Performing yoga poses or tai chi exercises might seem a bit strange from the outside looking in, but it’s a great way to both get moving and bring your spirit into your exercise. Both practices help to make you mindful of your body, with their purposeful movements and deliberately slow-paced exercises.
So, if you’ve been struggling to get motivated and haven’t seen the fitness results you were hoping, it’s possible that you just need to center yourself with some spiritual wellness training. Take a deep breath, clear your mind of distractions, and get in touch with your own place in the world.
