Workout For The Soul

The author offers one hundred exercises for improving the health of the soul, showing readers how to overcome obstacles, create a positive mental attitude, and foster empowerment.--

In these pages, Dr. Bernie S. Siegel offers 101 simple exercises for the soul, a divine plan for healing yourself and transforming your life. With his trademark humor and insight, he becomes your "workout coach," giving you this wonderful series of short and easy-to-apply exercises to help you achieve your potential and live a more peaceful, loving, and fulfilling life. As Bernie writes in the introduction, "Before you know it, you will begin to notice how your life has taken on more meaning and how much better you feel....The Force is with you. Believe me."

Blaze shows readers how to nourish their souls in just 15 minutes a day, with a powerful, yet simple eight-step action plan that can make them feel more alive, creative, and dynamic.

In these pages, Dr. Bernie S. Siegel offers 101 simple exercises for the soul, a divine plan for healing yourself and transforming your life. With his trademark humor and insight, he becomes your ''workout coach, '' giving you this wonderful series of short and easy-to-apply exercises to help you achieve your potential and live a more peaceful, loving, and fulfilling life. As Bernie writes in the introduction, ''Before you know it, you will begin to notice how your life has taken on more meaning and how much better you feel.The Force is with you. Believe me.'

Using the words soul and workout in the same sentence may seem implausible and stretching artistic licence too far, but in the Soul Workout book, the improbable becomes believable and the only stretching to be done is metaphorical. An imaginary visit to the gym for a workout becomes a metaphor for the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, and contemplative reflection. Going to the gym may not be everybodys cup of tea, but when the idea is transposed into the metaphor, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief: lycra and dumbbells will not be required. What is needed is a willingness to be open to prayer, spiritual reflection, and a desire to look for creative ways to deepen your faith journey: this is what Soul Workout offers. By methodically guiding you through the metaphor, Janice Speddings shows how different aspects of the gym have their spiritual counterpart: so cardiovascular exercise is likened to time spent building a deeper relationship with God (the heart and life-blood of the Christian faith) while spiritual weight-resistance exercise is seen as a way of learning to carry lifes burdens with added strength and resilience. You need no previous experience of contemplative prayer as all the exercises are fully explained and offered at basic or advanced levels. Part 1 includes a helpful chapter for those with little or no experience of planning and running a group event while part 2 works through the metaphor step-by-step, including spiritual reflections as exercises: extra tips are offered for group leaders. Part 3 deals with hanging on to the feel-good factor after the workout is finished. As a tried-and-tested metaphor, this inspirational book provides a down-to-earth, easy-to-read resource for groups and individuals alikean essential companion for your spiritual journey.

From setting appropriate goals for each type of fitness to learning how to feed both body and soul, this ground-breaking guide goes beyond the typical health mantras—eat right, exercise regularly, reduce stress—and explores the emotional and physical obstacles to corporeal and spiritual fitness. Based on the immensely successful training of a six-time Ironman triathlete by a renowned Huichol Indian healer, this handbook seeks to remedy the conspicuous absence of spirituality in typical Western exercise regimens by explaining how to incorporate the divine into everyday exercises and why the two issues are inexorably linked. After years of respective training, both parties realized that the art of prayer and its signature mindfulness could increase not only one's physical abilities but also the mind, and that fitness wasn't just a matter of good cardiovascular health and strong muscles. Whether training for intense competition or just reaching fitness goals, this indispensable resource discusses how to exceed mental limitations and become successful in any physical, emotional, or spiritual journey.