Western culture is wisely focusing on inner focus in the self-help era. Your internal state directly affects your external state. Americans’ top self-help experts are overflowing with this message: Find your answers by looking inside. So, are you up to the task? To actually pause and examine your innermost self requires tremendous fortitude. Similar to training for a marathon, developing inner fitness will require considerable effort. To achieve this level of inner fitness, you must take a holistic approach that includes your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Physiology can influence states of mind, as we learn from hypnotherapy. For instance, it can be very challenging to take a deep breath and very simple to feel miserable if you are hunched over, frowning, and have your arms crossed in front of your chest. However, if you stand up straight, raise your head, keep your arms by your sides (or even outstretched and open), and smile broadly, you’ll feel better right away. Smiling alone can actually improve anyone’s mood. Therefore, consider the benefits that a yoga practice could have for you. You can encourage movement in many areas of your life by putting your body into yoga poses with ease. This will help your body release trapped energy. You become more grounded and more connected to your own source as you practice, I’m not kidding. You can become physically fit on the outside while becoming mentally fit through yoga.
You can develop your mental fitness through yoga with ease. You can really start your inner journey once you start to comprehend the mind-body connection. You and the world you live in are unquestionably impacted by what you think. Your mindset, attitude, and beliefs all have an impact on your intellectual fitness. Dr. Wayne Dyer has said, “You’ll see it when you believe it,” not the other way around. More and more therapists and healing professionals are incorporating this philosophy into their personal practices and into their professional practices, not because it’s the “in” thing, but because it really works. Additionally, it perfectly complements our shared spirituality.
The majority of people on this planet think there is an all-encompassing higher power. A guiding force that permeates everything is something that most people can either feel or just know. We are all a part of the same thing, the same source, and this connection comes to mind when I think of spiritual fitness. It’s not about a male, vindictive god who bestows rewards or metes out punishments, but rather a shared source that can be felt with your inner senses and your own understanding. You’ll always find exactly what you need at precisely the right time if you look within to your inner sense of what spirit means to you.
When you look inward, time can seem to stand still, and you can ask questions like, “What does my life mean to me?” and, “Which meaning do I want it to have for me?” In fact, if you didn’t already have it, the answers to those questions will lead you deeper inside of yourself to your inner guidance. There are many ways to achieve inner fitness, but the only thing that is real is now. Being in the moment is ultimately linked to your inner fitness, as Rev. Dr. Louise-Diana explains. Every moment of the present is a new opportunity for inner fitness.