Sport, Psyche and Spirit
Sport energizes the psyche and uplifts the spirit.
Sport and Psyche
One of my favorite runs is at Point Reyes National Seashore. This is a national park, a wilderness peninsula, north of San Francisco. The run ascends a mountain, continues along a ridge, descends to the ocean, proceeds along a coastal trail, climbs a steep bluff to a dramatic lookout point and finally returns to the trail head by way of a path through an evergreen forest. As I run, my psyche is filled with light, with the scent of the ocean, with the sight of hawks circling overhead. My spirit is recharged with the primal energy of nature.
Do you have similar experiences? Are you caught in the rut of your daily routine? Do you feel run down?
Craig Valentine, a well known public speaker, is fond of the saying, “change small, change often.” If you are sedentary, start your activity program gradually. At first, engage in one of your favorite activities for 5-10 minutes per day. As you gain strength and stamina, increase your active time incrementally to one hour per day, six days a week.
As your fitness improves, so will your confidence, energy and self esteem. Increased health and longevity will be added to your blessings.
Sport and Spirit
Sport is a portal to the realm of spirit.
Seven years ago, I ran a half marathon in Death Valley. This is a surreally beautiful, other worldly wonderland in Southern California. The run traversed Titus Canyon, a narrow cleft through steeply rising cliffs. As the hundred runners spread out along the course, we were each alone, surrounded by shimmering light. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of ancient Native American petroglyphs (rock art), high up on the cliff to my right. These drawings were used in healing rituals by tribal healers, or shamans. Time stood still. The veil separating past from present, matter from spirit, grew very thin.
Have you lost your connection to the realm of spirit? Does your spirit soar? Do you feel at one with creation?
Take your physical activity, your sport, into nature. Quiet your mind. Open yourself fully to sensory impressions. Doing so will stop your inner chatter about past and future.
Your spirit will expand. You will feel supported by the “ground of being.” You will be “at one” with nature, with the Great Spirit.
Being active in nature is a tonic for both psyche and spirit. You will find peace, tranquility, energy and inspiration. You will “shuffle off the mortal coil” of deadening routine and endless rumination. You will be fully present in the moment.
As T.S. Eliot wrote in “Burnt Norton”:
“Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now,
Always —–
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after.”
