Faith and fitness has been on my radar screen the past few days and now it has become a news story in the army. Recently a concern amongst atheists was raised with regard to a mandatory spiritual fitness test given to recruits.
The point of the spiritual fitness test is to determine how well soldiers can handle not only the physical challenges before them but the psychological challenges as well. It was created to help curb a common result of combat, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Now I have always believed that the body and mind go together when it comes to fitness. Overall fitness is about every aspect of your life—physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. But what happens if you are an atheist?
I guess I can see the concern and I would question whether this should really be mandatory. Can’t there be an “opt-out” for those who don’t profess to have any faith? I’m a woman of faith but by no means do I think that everyone else has to profess the same.
But here is what I think no matter what faith you follow, if any at all…while a person can work on the body if they neglect the mind it really won’t do any good. Think about emotional eaters. You can exercise all day long but if you are an emotional eater who hasn’t tackled that issue, you aren’t going to keep fit.
Fitness isn’t just about being a certain size or weighing a certain number. It isn’t about vanity. Or at least it shouldn’t be about these things. It is about overall health and that encompasses every area of our lives.
In your pursuit for physical fitness, don’t neglect the other things that can actually end up standing in the way of what you hope to accomplish. Find something that will help you emotionally as well. You are more likely to be successful.
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