Meridian Magazine :: Bridell's Diet: Dr Bridell's logical and rational & poetic and beautiful & completely guaranteed Diet #30 Exercising Faith

DR BRIDELL’S logical and rational & poetic and beautiful & completely guaranteed DIET
#30 Exercising Faith
By the Mysterious Dr Bridell

Author's note: This is the thirtieth installment of a column that explores a new diet based on mental and spiritual rather than physical paradigms. It is arranged in "bite-sized chunks" that come to you each Friday and that build on each other. My promise to you who follow the diet is that you will lose a substantial amount of weight — and that that will be the least important of the ways in which you will benefit!

Exercise in the Mental and Physical Diets

It was obvious, back in the physical diet, that exercise had to be an integral part of losing weight and staying fit. Clearly, we have to pay attention to the "output" of exercise as well as to the "intake" of food. The mental diet also carries the obvious need of exercise for the brain. Let's review a little of the physical and mental exercise we advocated earlier and then see if they are a good "type and shadow" of the kind of spiritual exercise we all need.

Back in the physical diet, in Column 6, we said:

Exercising, like eating, should be one of the natural and simple and pure joys of life. It should feel good while you’re doing it as well as when you’re through, and it should be a way of rewarding yourself, not a way of punishing yourself.

The key is to find your form of exercise, to find the exercise you love, the one that makes your body smile while it’s sweating out that pore-cleaning water and pumping those endorphins around through your expanded lungs and your healthier cardiovascular system.

Then in the mental diet, in Column 19, we went on:

We all know that the mind needs exercise too, and just as physical exercise tones and tunes the body and keeps excess weight off, so mental exercise tunes and trims the mind and holds at bay the dimming and dulling that can come to an idle or passive mind.

With the physical diet, we are trying to decrease the quantity and increase the quality of what we eat — and at the same time expand what our bodies can do through good (and loved) exercise as well as through the nourishment that our disciplined eating brings in. With the mental diet we are trying to get rid of mental junk food and bring in wholesome, clear thought — and then to use that mental nourishment to apply our minds to work and creativity that we love and that matters.

So, the mental challenge is similar to the physical one. Find a form of output mental exercise (creating or solving something) that you love, and engage in it at least a couple of times a week (or five times per fortnight). Let your own desires and appetites and likes be your guide. It might be writing poetry, or fiction. It might be painting or drawing. It might be logic problems or jigsaw puzzles. It might be songwriting or music performance. The best mental exercise creates or solves as it makes your mind work.

Exercise in The Spiritual Diet

Think about the terminology of scripture, and its use of the metaphors of exercise and exertion and training and discipline:

"Wrestle with the Spirit"
"Exercise Faith"
"And they did wax stronger and stronger and firmer and firmer."
"Pray with all the energy of your heart."
"Pray morning, noon and night."

Clearly, exertion, regularity, and discipline are required as much in spiritual progression as in physical training.

I am reminded of a recently returned missionary who said, "I just can't seem to get in the Spirit like I did on the mission." It was then pointed out to him that on the mission he read the scriptures hard for at least a half hour every morning and prayed hard at least three times a day. Just as a casual toss of a ball a couple of times or a leisurely trot around a track once in a while will never get your body in serious shape (or cause any weight loss) — so a brief little perfunctory prayer now and then or one quick verse of scripture will not bring us into sound and tuned spiritual shape (or cause any loss of the mind set and attitudes of the world).

Serious training is all about intensity of effort and regularity and discipline of exercise. But more than that, as we deemphasized with the physical and mental, it is about finding a form of exercise that you love — so that you do it because you want to, not just because you should.

So here are two challenges:

Pray and read scripture with regularity and intensity. Pray morning noon and night, and focus the energy of your heart and the intensity of your mind as you do. Kneel. Apply your energy to your prayer. Take notes on any answers or impressions that come. Will your spirit to make a real connection with The Spirit as you pray. Also, concentrate hard on the scriptures at least once a day. Read what you read with avid interest. After all, what is more important?
Find a way to pray and study scripture that you love. Try different things. Read by subject or by research topic rather than chronologically. Read early in the morning or after lunch or some different time than usual. Read from a different book of scripture each month or each season. Read with a friend on the phone. Find a new and beautiful place to read. Sing a hymn from the hymnbook and then read the two scriptures at the bottom of the page that go with that hymn. Pray right after physical exercise when your mind is alert. Pray in your closet (literally). Pray aloud with your spouse where either of you can say what comes to mind within the same prayer rather than only one of you being voice. Pray in your fields. Pray while you drive. Pray out loud. Pray in thoughts rather than words. Keep trying new ways of praying and find the ones you love most, the ones that work best for you.

I have a friend who says "There is nothing better than a physical workout. The endorphins get flowing, the blood is pumping, and you feel so great." I agree and disagree. I agree it feels great, but I disagree that nothing feels better. The fact is that "There is nothing better than a spiritual workout. The spirit gets flowing, and you feel His love."

Good luck! And be sure to be with us next Friday, when we have an important announcement about the future of the Dr. Bridell diet.

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