Do You Believe Exercise Can Be Spiritually Transformational?

       
      I believe so. But yet it still surprises me. In our North American society we have been taught to believe that the mind, the spirit and the body are separate things. Look at traditional medicine: it is full of specialists who don't talk to each other. In truth, not only is the body a holistic mechanism, the mind and the spirit all work together for our health.
      This morning I enjoyed a great yoga class - well, enjoyed is a stretch. It was hard! I do yoga often but some of the positions today were new to me. New is good, it tests my self imposed limits and shows me I can do more. The class was good for me. But the biggest benefit was not physical, but spiritual.
      Before class, I woke up with anxiety. Problems... issues... concerns about the relationship I began a month ago. "We don't really talk," I complained, "and if we can't talk I can't be with you and I don't want to break up!"
      My boyfriend offered some insight, "You are going too fast. We are just getting to know each other. We have plenty of time. Slow down." I admitted he was right.
      Later on in the yoga class, the anxiety I had been feeling was again, brought to my attention. The instructor spoke of how the physical can affect the psychological. She said we all have addictions (or attachments) to something. It need not be drugs or a physical addiction. It can be to anything to which we are inordinately attached without regard for our own benefit. The exercises we did today involved releasing toxins and letting go of that which does not serve us. I went along with it, not really knowing what I needed to release.
      In the middle of the class when the poses were the most difficult. I focused on release, as I was instructed to. As I held the position my body trembled and it took all my effort to maintain the pose. When complete, the instructor took us to Child's Pose and I'll tell you, in that moment I really felt like a child in surrender to my learning. A flood of emotion came to the surface, along with an epiphany. I knew what I needed to release.
      I'm a writer: a naturally verbal communicator. The trouble is that I try to use words to calculate, compute, determine and assess circumstance, in order to gain control.  Speaking out loud or simply in my head, I push to resolve a situation rather than letting it work itself out on its own. Tears came to my eyes as insight grasped the gift I'd been given. I don't need to think, talk, plan and get everything all figured out. I don't even need to try. What a relief to realize I can just let go and trust the process. And what a gift indeed, to be in the process of learning and change in a new relationship with an amazingly beautiful person who teaches me without even knowing it.
      The process started mentally and the emotionally, on its own. Physical exercise with the intention of release moved me through it and took me exactly to where I needed to be. Our bodies are really remarkable when we learn how to work with them. Exercise is truly transformational.