Stymied
I am going to admit something strange. I heard a quote the other day and I can’t stop debating about it in my head and when I sit down to write a blog post, it’s all that comes to mind. I can’t write anything else until I ask you your opinion. Ready?
The guy said in relation to working out: Bring the body and the mind will follow.
I don’t know if I agree! On the one hand, yes, get your physical body to exercise or eat right and, yes, there will be positive benefits that hopefully your mind can then click into. On the other hand, I cannot get my physical body out of bed and to the gym unless my mind does its magical insipiration.
Move on to other topics besides working out/eating healthy… what about getting to church? What about getting to the grocery store? What about staying faithful to your spouse? What about not getting angry with your child?
I’m stuck. What do you think?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
WOW… I’m with you and probably can’t offer any wisdom… I lean a little towards mind than body, because as you put it … it isn’t my body that gets me out in zero temps to walk every morning. Oh, and if you ever find a fool proof way to not get angry with your child… let me know.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Anything that doesn’t require your mind to show up is probably going to work out pretty well for you. Go for it.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
If you’re mind isn’t there, just who is it that’s bringing the body?
January 7th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
It doesn’t make any sense. You can’t do anything without making a decision to do it. Before you decide to do something, your head has to acknowledge that it’s the right thing to do and now is the time to do it.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Regarding the gym, I agree. I often had to “just do it” without thinking and several minutes into the workout, I was usually feeling the vibe/energy/whatever. It helped to always go with Tiffany, because we knew that to get there on our own – well, our brain might tell us that we weren’t feeling right or there was too much to do at home, etc, etc.
Regarding the other situations you mentioned, I don’t think you can apply the same wisdom. Going to church without your mind in the lead would probably just turn out to be useless; in my case, I’d be daydreaming and probably not notice anything that was going on. Grocery store – can’t really comment on that. Staying faithful to your spouse: if you bring your body before the mind, then the exact opposite is likely to happen.
So, the short answer is, it depends on the situation and, I suppose, what part of our being – body, mind, soul – is most involved in the particular activity.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:47 am
I don’t know. I have met some pretty brilliant people in my life, Christian, Phd, can read 2 novels a day, and they are quite a bit out of shape.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’ve always viewed the Spirit as the 3rd aspect to the equation. It’s where faith comes in. The flesh will always be weak, the mind will not always be clear…