Inner Work

For the week of January 24, 2005

Exercise Inside and Out

To enliven our spiritual practice, we need to be alert for every opportunity to build our inner life. One way to spiritualize more of our life is to look for those particular situations that do not require all of our attention. When we find ourselves in such a circumstance, we can choose to turn part of our attention toward our inner work. Example situations include waiting, watching some form of entertainment, and routine or repetitive activities. For this week, we focus on physical exercise.

Exercise creates significant amounts of extra energy. We typically let this energy drain away by passively daydreaming while we work out. But instead, we can exercise body and soul at the same time. We base this inner action in contact with our body through sensing, keeping our attention in the actual physical sensations of our body as it moves.

The energy generated during exercise may enable us to take our inner work one or two stages further. After establishing and maintaining full-body sensation, we gradually open to being in the whole of our presence: in body, heart, mind, and consciousness. We work to be fully and deeply present in the midst of the exercise session, at peace in the center of the action.

Beyond that, if we are quite centered, we can even turn toward the higher energies, directing our innermost core toward the prayer of the open heart-mind. Then we begin to taste what it might be like to be a complete human being: engaged in the body and the material world, present in consciousness, and connected with the higher.

For this week, exercise inside and out, body and soul. If you do not regularly exercise, find one of your typical daily physical activities which leave you enough extra attention to turn toward inner work.

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