2007 SERMON LIST

Rev. Ann C. Fox
(508) 992-7081
minister@uufairhaven.org

Unitarian Universalist
Society of Fairhaven

Spiritual Aerobics for Mind/Body Health

a sermon by Rev. Ann C. Fox

November 11, 2007

Note: A reading is attached, which you might like to read first.

          The body and mind (or soul, or spirit) are not separate. Walt Whitman knew it when he said that the body pleases the soul. I did not understand this fully until I had lived more than half a century. Oh, I had walked regularly for many years in the early mornings and evenings; I believed that the state of the mind affected the health of the body. It was clear to me that stress could be relieved and depression alleviated with exercise. But when I went to seminary, I often put all my effort into my study and less into the care of my body.

My first ministry in Canada meant that I automatically had healthcare; so I had my first medical check-up in many years. The young, beautiful doctor looked up from my test results and said, “By all accounts, you are in good health. Does anything concern you?”

            “Well, yes,” I responded, “for some time now, when I have been sitting reading for about an hour or so and then I get up from my chair, my back aches! Why?

            “Oh,” she said compassionately, “it’s your age!” I was astounded!

            “What?! I said, “But I’m only, (blankety-blank)  years old!” She smiled a little. “What can I do about it?” I asked, with a touch of desperation.

            She said, “Exercise! I’d like you to use small weights or go to a gym and use their weight-bearing machines to tone up your muscles. And also walk regularly for cardiac health.” Her advice nine years ago set me on a path that changed not only my physical body but my mental and spiritual outlook. I soon got bored with the gym and I couldn’t stand the music but I got turned onto a PBS television exercise program out of Buffalo, New York, called “Body Electric!” Monday through Friday, a woman with a great personality, called Margaret Richards, stretched and exercised with small weights in hands and on ankles. She advised us to also do aerobic exercise as well, such as aerobic dance or brisk walking for cardiac health. It was fortunate for me that Leo, my spouse, liked this program as well. We began half-an-hour of Body Electric and half-an-hour of walking four or five times a week, and we’ve been doing it ever since. Body Electric is not on the television here but we bought videos of it on the Internet. We added to the Body Electric program walking in-place DVDs for when the weather is bad. We have no excuse for not exercising, except when I have very early morning meetings! I have never experienced any aches or pains since I began this routine.

            Thanks to Body Electric, I became finely attuned to my muscles. It took me some time to realize that these exercises, and especially the walking, were spiritual exercises as well. This is what happens to me: I begin walking first at a slow pace. As I pick up the pace, I can no longer comfortably swing my arms at my sides; I have to bend them, as if I am running. Then my hips also move differently also as if I am running. Within a few minutes, my adrenalin is flowing and something akin to joy arises. I am in a rhythm and flow.  Perhaps this is what is called “peak experience.”  I notice that I begin to feel part of the outdoors. Sometimes Leo and I talk but eventually we fall silent and just walk. I sometimes say to him, “Excuse me, I’m going to do my Zen (meditation, that is), so I speed up and leave him behind for 10 or 15 minutes. It feels to me as if being and doing are one. Can you understand this? We are in the moment. There is no past and no future, just the present moment. And I assure you that the increased sensitivity to the surroundings is profound and joyful. Walking on a bed of pine needles in one of the many nature walks in Dartmouth is quite different from walking on the road, the pavement, or rocky trails.

            You can add into this rhythmic walking another spiritual practice such as a prayer or mantra. It can be, “I AM peace, I AM peace, I AM peace.” Or “I AM, I AM, I AM” or perhaps, “I am here, now. Present and here now.” The point is that the body movement and the phrase become a moving meditation. I never intended this; it just evolved. Even my Zen meditation is a moving meditation.

            Our bodies are made for movement. We cannot do without movement and remain healthy. If a friend tells you that he is depressed, you might ask him whether he is still exercising, or invite him for a walk with you. Of course, your friend may also benefit from the many effective medications for depression as well as exercise.

            I recently came across a wonderful book called The Spirited Walker. You don’t have to walk outside like I do. You can belong to a gym or ride your bike or swim. Leo belongs to a gym and swims at least three days a week and he sometimes works out there. There are many ways to exercise. Only one thing is necessary—you should enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy it, it will simply be a grind and you’ll soon give it up. If you do enjoy it, you can surely turn it into a spiritual experience, a spiritual aerobic experience. You could be a “Spirited Swimmer” or a “Spirited Biker” If necessary, you could get one of those big three wheeler cycles. We could do the slow, mindful walking practice that the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn advises, but what we are talking about here is spirited exercise, the kind that exercises our physical heart and muscles as well as expanding into Spirit (whatever Spirit means to you). If we can enjoy it to the point of it being a meditation practice, that is all the better, and probably necessary for good health and a good life!

            Some of us who are elderly may not find it so easy to exercise. We must find out our limitations and push them gently. Recently, I visited an elderly friend who told me how much she enjoyed going to “Day Care.” I asked her what was so enjoyable about it. One of the things she enjoys very much is the half hour of isometric exercises. These are sitting down exercises that use most of the muscles of the body. She demonstrated them to me. It includes lifting the legs and stretching the feet and twisting the body from side to side and all of this for 30 minutes! I am really impressed that Day Care offers this exercise program. She will keep well with these exercises I am sure. She has given me permission to share this with you.

            Time for a joke break: If you are just beginning a new exercise regimen, don’t listen to people who say things like: 1) I don't exercise at all. If God had wanted me to touch my toes He would have put them up higher on my body! Or, 2) I'm in shape. Round is a shape. Or, 3) the advantage of exercising everyday is that you die healthier.

Seriously though, if we are carrying a bit extra weight, we can be assured these days by the recent study that shows that as long as we exercise regularly, we can be bigger in body and still be healthy because the muscles and heart are in good shape. Remember that in the Bible, not only the Song of Solomon extols the beauty and virtues of the body but so does St. Paul when he tells us that the “body is the temple of the spirit.” It is indeed! So let us turn more exclusively to the spiritual side of things.

Many wise, spiritual teachers tell us that there are three simple but powerful spiritual practices, without which we cannot gain enlightenment: gratitude, forgiveness, and blessing. Exercise can inspire these practices. In fact it can naturally inspire gratitude, forgiveness, and blessing.  When we are exercising and in the moment of “flow,” we are touching that part of ourselves that is Spirit when body, mind and spirit are in unison. It is so easy at this time to look at the world of nature and be grateful for its beauty. It is so easy to pour out gratefulness to the trees, grass, sky, earth. If you do, your heart will open and the Earth itself will respond. At this moment, you are Gratitude itself. Gratitude is a spiritual practice that will expand your experience of yourself as a spiritual being. Practice Gratitude as a way of preparing yourself for Thanksgiving!

The second spiritual practice is letting go of grievances or forgiveness. This means forgiving those who have done you harm. It will do you such good that you can hardly believe it. Don’t let grievances eat away at you! It will only make you angry and sad and it will rob you of joy and keep you in a place of ego, not Spirit. Say to that grievance: “Hey you, I forgive you; it’s in the past and we can’t change it. I forgive you. Goodbye!” If you do this, you will feel your spirit expand and you’ll love it and you’ll dance for joy, which will be good exercise!

The third and final practice is bless, bless, bless! Acknowledge the power within you and stretch forth your hands and say, “Body, I bless you. Food, I bless you. Trees and grass and earth, I bless you. Friends, I bless you.” You are acknowledging yourself as a spiritual being, and a priestly one. And you will resound with this knowledge. It is like the chicken and the egg and which comes first. The practice of blessing makes the egg and the chicken one.[1]

You might find that this is all much easier to do while you are exercising because you will already be in the zone of Spirit and it will seem like a natural outgrowth of the place you are in. Your physical and mental practice becomes spiritual aerobics—body and mind and spirit are one. Aerobics means related to oxygen, breathing—breath of life. Deep breathing is good for being in the present moment.

An exercising Unitarian Universalist has a healthy body and healthy mind connected to spirit. This is a Unitarian Universalist with an open heart and Spirit is there. Spirit is that place where you are when you find yourself in the joyful present moment.

The Body Electric exercise program on the PBS station in Buffalo, New York, always begins with the song, “I Sing the Body Electric” which I understand comes from the now old movie, “Fame.” (I must rent it one day just to hear that song in its context.) The words go like this:

I sing the body electric, I celebrate the me yet to be.
I toast to my own reunion, when I become one with the sun.

I sing the body electric, I glory in the glow of rebirth,
Creating my own tomorrow, when I shall embody the earth.

References:

Alexander, Scott W., Editor. Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life, Boston, MA: Skinner House Books, 1999.

Kortge, Carolyn Scott. The Spirited Walker: Fitness Walking for Clarity, Balance and Spiritual Connection, San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.

Stevens, Jose. Article: “The Human Toolbox,” November, 2007 on www.thepowerpath.com.

Reading 1:

“I Sing the Body Electric” [greatly adapted]
from “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

I SING the Body electric ...
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face;
It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists;
It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees—dress does not hide him;
There is something in staying close to men and women, and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well;
All things please the soul—but these please the soul well.

The man’s body is sacred, and the woman’s body is sacred; ...
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred ...
And in man or woman, a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is beautiful as the most beautiful face.  

The circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out,
The exquisite realization of health;
O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of the Soul,
O I say now these are the Soul!

Published 1900

Reading 2 from The Bible: “Song of Solomon, Chapter 7”

How graceful are your feet in sandals, o queenly maiden!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand.
Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine ...
Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools ...
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, overlooking Damascus.
Your head crowns you like Carmel….
A king is held captive in the tresses.
How fair and pleasant you are ... (7:1-6)

© The Rev. Ann C. Fox

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