It’s not about sculpting abdominal muscles into a washboard or monitoring fewer pounds on the bathroom scale. It’s not even lower blood cholesterol scores and the good-news checkups from your physician.
The best part about fitness is a result you can’t see or precisely measure. It’s the increased energy you draw from regular physical activity. If you exercise, you will be less tired, even if some muscles ache on occasion. Your mind will be consistently alert. You will feel more involved in your own life.
And to Richard Woods, all of the above adds up to a deeper sense of spirit.
“My definition of spirituality is to be as alive as a person can be,” explained Woods, a Roman Catholic priest and instructor at both Loyola University on the city’s North Side and Oxford University in England. “That means not separating body, mind and spirit. Neglect one, and rest of your life suffers.”
Of course, the body is often the first part of one’s self that is ignored on busy days; in the interest of saving time, people eliminate physical activity and to reach for fast food and junk. Even grooming can be cut short.
“It’s just another way of not paying attention to ourselves,” said Woods.
For more than a decade, Woods taught a popular course at Loyola about the body and spirituality. On sabbatical from teaching to write a book about Irish saints, he still makes the connections among body, mind and spirit.
“I try to run when my schedule permits,” he said. “It makes me feel more alert and attentive. But I always find time for what I call `normal exercise.’ That would include walking to the store rather than driving, taking the stairs instead of elevators or escalators, riding my bike with friends rather than meet (for a sit-down conversation).”
In his classes, Woods discussed how exercise can be a form of prayer. He emphasized that physical activity, even short bouts, affords an opportunity for greater awareness of breathing, which is a concept that cuts across many spiritual disciplines.
For example, one of the key components in the teachings of yoga is “pranayama,” which means breathing. You don’t even have to break a sweat or make it to the health club on time. Yoga breathing exercises can be performed while commuting to work or waiting in line at the bank.
“Spirit is air,” said Woods, who believes that regular physical activity and breathing exercises can lead to a heightened prayer life. “Breathing is a way we participate in the presence of God (or any higher life source). It can be a major contributor to your well-being.”
Karyn Tonkinson holds similar views, if not the same religious underpinnings. In her “Sweat Your Prayers” classes, held at various city locations, the instruction could be called movement therapy or spiritual dance lessons. The concept is based on the ideas of Gabrielle Roth, a New York-based dance instructor and author of a “Sweat Your Prayers” book (Tarcher) and associated CDs and videos.
“Most people are locked into the idea that spirituality is thoughts and emotions,” said Tonkinson. “Beneath all that is energy, which our approach equates with the truest spirit. You can tap into that energy with movement. We hope to develop a spiritual practice that reminds you to breathe the energy.”
There are five distinct types of movement in a “Sweat Your Prayers” class: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness. Each person faces a personal mix of strengths and weaknesses as Tonkinson takes students in her 90-minute classes through the five movements, which Roth created from the sequential movements of an ocean wave.
Someone raised in a strict household would probably be comfortable with the linear, stop-and-start movement of staccato — but would struggle through the circular actions of the flowing segment. And not accepting a certain amount of chaos (in class, represented by wild dance movements) can stunt one’s ability to appreciate joy (which turns up as on-the-toes, lifting movements in the lyrical section). The final section, on stillness (only “interior dancing”), typically shows every participant how difficult it can be to keep the body still enough to access the mind and spirit.
Tonkinson said her class participants vary in their physical capabilities, including one regular who uses a wheelchair. She has used rock, tribal and New Age music in recent classes, but plans to begin experimenting with jazz, too, as she moves to a regular Wednesday morning location at Transitions Learning Center on the North Side.
But such classes are only one option available to those seeking spiritual fitness programs. Woods said the walking meditation of Zen students is another possibility. It is actually one of the more difficult parts of Zen to master, but the fundamental idea can be applied to your morning stroll — provided you can do it in a small area (your backyard or a neighborhood park, perhaps) with no danger of traffic.
“The idea is to focus on moving one foot in front of the other and not paying attention to where you are going,” said Woods. “You are involved (in the present moment) and detached (from daily stress) at the same time. It can do wonders for your alertness the rest of the day.”
