Lifting weights, swimming, hiking – these are exercise for your body, to keep it lean and functional.
Sudoku, poker, reading – these are exercise for the mind, to keep it sharp and creative.
What is exercise for the soul?
What’s the equivalent? Something that challenges your spirit in a way that strengthens it?
Perhaps it’s embracing sadness and grief; confronting the pain you’d like to ignore. Maybe it’s charity: pitting your altruism against your selfishness in the same way that lifting weights is pitting your endurance against your sloth. Maybe it’s simply driving yourself to love others that you’d rather not love.
I believe that the things that make your body and brain stronger come from challenge, and so I believe the same must be true for the spirit. And I believe that letting your body or your brain rot is a recipe for great despair in life, and so I believe the same must again be true for the spirit.
