Soul Workout

The idea for ‘Soul Workout’ came as I daydreamed my way through a long bus journey from home to the gym. As I tried to work up a passion for my forthcoming exercise I began to see some connections between what I would be doing in my gym programme and the discipline of living out my Christian faith. Not an obvious connection, I grant, but as I pondered the metaphor, the more it seemed to fit. I thought about it a lot over the following weeks and the more I came to understand the metaphor, the more I felt I wanted to share it. This desire has never left me. I have shared it in the form of Quiet Days at different venues but now I feel that the metaphor can be trusted enough to take to a wider audience – hence the writing of this book. Not everyone will warm to the idea of exercise (physical or spiritual) nor easily connect a metaphor between exercise and the spiritual journey: indeed, I would have had no understanding of it myself at one time - and even less interest. However, we live in an age of heightened awareness of the problems of obesity and lethargy and the benefits to be gained from healthy eating and exercise. The call to exercise cries out from magazines and television programmes, to doctors’ surgeries and physiotherapists’ couches. We are frequently urged to be proactive about our health: to err on the side of prevention rather than cure. So, in the spirit of being proactive about my health, I joined a gym in my forties. What became obvious to me as I meandered through my bus-journey daydreams was that my gym regime also gave me a framework on which to work proactively on my spiritual health and wholeness. Out of my subsequent musings came the Quiet Days and out of them has come this book. I anticipate that the structured approach of the Soul Workout will be most easily translated into a group setting and, in respect of this, the majority of Part 1 will focus on a group approach. Church groups, faith groups and other communities seeking to deepen spiritual awareness may want to consider using the material in this book: maybe as a one-off event or maybe as a series of sessions. Leading such an event can be daunting, especially if you are not an experienced group leader and so I include a chapter giving basic information on how to organise, plan and run a Soul Workout Quiet Day as well as a handy checklist of materials and essentials for leaders. Even when there are no plans to run a group event, the exercises can still be very useful tools for individual reflection. Though less likely to be used in as structured a framework when used individually, I can attest to the value of drawing on the material for personal quiet times. To honour this aspect of the work, I include a chapter at the end of Part 1 to help those who will be exercising alone. Like all metaphors, Soul Workout has its limitations. It is not intended to be the definitive way to approach your spiritual life and, indeed, it may feel too structured for some people. It is offered as one way of checking out the state of your spiritual health from time to time. I encourage you, whether leading a group or having a go in the privacy of your own home, to pick out the parts that work for you and be the owner of them: adapt them, stretch them, translate them into something you can connect with. Above all, I ask that you allow God (however you relate to him) into that deepest part of yourself – the part we call the soul - and let him be your personal Fitness Instructor. So, what is a soul workout? We are all familiar with the notion that physical exercise helps to maintain healthy bodies. Cardiovascular, also known as aerobic, exercise encourages our hearts and lungs to work efficiently while weight resistance work enables us to strengthen muscles; floor exercises help us to maintain flexibility and balance. The metaphor which began to crystallize in my mind enabled me to see clearly that these principles of heart-health, muscle strength and flexibility are just the same principles we need to sustain a healthy spiritual life. The difference is in the application. Maintaining a healthy relationship with God is the equivalent of cardiovascular exercise: freeing blockages from my prayer life, working at seeing God in every area of my life and being present to God’s leading is what I seek. Above all, it is about the free-flow of love between us. Preserving a healthy spiritual heart, lungs and circulation doesn’t come easily: it takes effort and energy. Just like aerobic exercise. But life has a habit of throwing lots of problems our way. Just as we think life is great and we are happy, something happens to upset our equilibrium. Tragedy, relationship problems, ill-health and other life events cause sadness, anger, disappointment, or anxiety. It can sometimes feel that life is all too much and we will never be happy again: we may feel unequal to the task of getting through the dark place and this leaves us feeling weak and vulnerable. Just as weight resistance exercise helps us to build strong muscle, so, in spiritual terms, we need to build up and sustain an ability to cope with the pressures of life: through our relationship with God we are then enabled to work on strengthening our spiritual muscles. We become balanced and internally supple. Dark days will still come but we will be stronger to face them. Floor exercises help to tone our bodies, enabling us to maintain flexibility and balance: these simple bend and stretch movements keep our limbs moving and supple. In just the same way, we need to keep spiritually flexed by maintaining a regular discipline of time with God. A workout is good for the body. It is also good for the soul. Is this book for me? Soul Workout is written from a Christian perspective because that’s where I’m coming from but it is not written from any particular denominational or rigid theological position. If you can say ‘yes’ to any of the following statements then this book is for you:  If you long to relate to God in a personal and real way;  If you want to deepen your relationship with God, however you perceive him, and you want that relationship to influence the rest of your life;  If you long to find God within His created world;  If you want to deepen your reading of scripture and/or your prayer life, through the senses or through the use of art or your imagination;  If you want to bring issues of your life to God in prayer in a way that is much more than a ‘shopping list’ of things you want God to do for you;  If you want to check out how life is for you at the moment or gain new insights into your faith life;  If you want to look at the balance of energy going in to your life against the energy of what you give out, then this Soul Workout book is for you.