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Exercise & Sport, Healthy Lifestyle 750 Comments on The Gym and its Path to the Soul

The Gym and its Path to the Soul

By Donna Gianniotis @YogaandHealing1 · On December 15, 2015 ·Photography by Emily Newman
Now who would put the words gym and soul together? I know I certainly never would… that was until last week.

Last week was the first time I have been to a gym to do weight training in over 20 years. I have been exercising regularly over the past couple of years; cardio, walking, hand weights, stretching, connective tissue exercises, but I hadn’t yet ventured to the gym. The idea of a trip to the gym always seemed ‘a bit too hard’. Not being sure of where to go or what to do, going to the gym went on the ‘some day’ list.

I have been staying with some friends who offered to assist me to get friendly once again with the ins and outs of the gym. I eagerly took up the offer – my ‘some day’ had finally arrived.

I trained regularly at the gym when I was a student at University, doing weights and classes 4 – 5 times a week. At the time I wasn’t aware, but the main focus of going to the gym was to improve my body image and to offer myself relief from feeling the depths of disregard I was living in. Working hard at the gym offered me an opportunity to numb out even more so as not to feel the underlying stress and sadness that was really there in my body that I was choosing to ignore. The gym gave me a momentary high and a relief from feeling where I really was at.

I was a heavy drinker and my diet, well, that was something to be sneezed at. It consisted of fatty foods from the University cafeteria with minimal vegetables apart from lots of potatoes. So to keep me in shape I would spend hours pumping iron, increasing my cardio levels striving for the perfect figure, to feel good about myself, to bury my lack of self-worth and to not feel the pain of how I was living at the time, which included late nights of partying with copious amounts of alcohol, long hours working in pubs and restaurants as well as studying full-time.

I didn’t like myself very much although I would never have admitted it at the time. Going to the gym was a way of pushing my body hard so I wouldn’t have to feel the hurt of the un-dealt with issues that I was still carrying from my childhood.

Fast forward twenty years, I am now, thanks to Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness, living my life where I take good care of myself. I go to bed early, I rest when I need to, I eat in a way that supports my body and I no longer drink alcohol, eat sugar or have caffeine. I work on dealing with my issues when they arise rather than burying them and I am open in my relationships. Generally I feel pretty awesome, a far cry from how I felt back in those University days.

I have recently had an inclination that there was more I could be doing to support my body. I had been feeling that I had developed a certain level of connection of my mind being with my body (conscious presence) in my exercise and daily activities, however, at times there was still a sense of this sometimes being a bit soft in my body. I had a sense that weight training may support me in this next stage of development but what I didn’t realise is just HOW supportive this was going to be.

So last week, as I sat on the weights machine for the first time in 20 years, the thought dropped in, “the body is the vehicle to house the soul” and in every ounce of my being I felt that my purpose for being there at the gym was to strengthen my body, knowing full well that my body is not the end result but is a means to access the soul.

There are certain qualities that I have been focusing on over several years such as being gentle and tender, but what I feel has been missing is the power and the strength. My first session at the gym revealed to me the opportunity to deeply connect with feeling the physicality of my body with the machine weights. I connected with my body through feeling every muscle that I worked, choosing to lift them in a way that honored the whole of my body, all the while being aware of breathing gently.

I enjoyed working my muscles, feeling their strength, feeling which muscles lengthened and which ones contracted.

It felt super joyful and powerful to claim my body, not because I wanted to look better but because my purpose was to build a body that has the strength to hold the light of the soul and the light that I innately am. If the soul is love, truth, harmony, stillness and joy – which it is – it cannot reside in a body that does not reflect these qualities.

So it became apparent to me on that day last week at the gym, that we can use the body in two different ways.

We can use the body as a means to give us temporary relief, to make us feel better for a short time to relieve the pain and hurt of what may be undercurrent in our lives most of the time OR we can work with the body to build a body of love, a body that is strong, gentle, tender, precious and powerful, with no holding back so that we can express fully who we are.

My trip to the gym confirmed the latter.

I am now planning to incorporate the gym as part of my weekly routine as a way to deepen my connection with my body in a way that I have been missing, which is building strength so that I can express more fully the inner strength that innately resides within me and equally within us all.

The body is the vehicle to house the soul.

This article is inspired by Serge Benhayon and the work of Universal Medicine.

By Donna Gianniotis, Yoga/Meditation, Esoteric Therapies Practitioner, Sydney, Australia

Further Reading:
Can We Access The Divine Through the Body?
Vitality versus Fitness
Exercise and My Body

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Donna Gianniotis

A country girl born and bred, now residing in the big smoke of Sydney, Australia. I love nature and in particular playing at the beach in the ocean deciding whether to jump over a wave or under it. I love colour, sparkles, pretty dresses and have recently rediscovered the joy and beauty of playing piano.

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750 Comments

  • HM says: October 31, 2017 at 6:59 am

    It’s interesting how we build muscle that compresses and restricts our bodies when actually we can do the complete opposite and exercise in a way that expands our bodies. Gym has been a relationship that has changed drastically for me simply because I have shifted the purpose.

    Reply
  • chris james says: October 21, 2017 at 8:49 am

    Until we connect deeply with our bodies and listen to the profound intelligence that lies within , we will always push ourselves, and head in the wrong direction

    Reply
  • HM says: October 16, 2017 at 5:03 am

    Such a powerful sharing. the gym is certainly used primarily to look good or enhance our body image, but what we miss here is the huge opportunity there is to truly connect with the body.

    Reply
  • John O Connell says: October 10, 2017 at 7:41 am

    ” If the soul is love, truth, harmony, stillness and joy – which it is – it cannot reside in a body that does not reflect these qualities. ” This is so true and a great understanding of what is needed for evolution of all of us . Doing physical exercise to support the structure of the body is of great importance .

    Reply
  • Suse says: October 3, 2017 at 6:26 pm

    It’s crazy that we abuse our bodies by eating either a poor quality diet, or eating to excess, and then in reaction punish ourselves at the gym to try and correct our choices.

    Reply
  • Rachael Evans says: September 20, 2017 at 3:44 pm

    Humans seem to be able to use anything to numb and bury the hurts they do not want to feel – be it food, exercise, mediation, work etc… all of which, when done out of truth and in the right timing, are an integral part of life and can actually be very healing.

    Reply
  • Caroline Francis says: September 20, 2017 at 2:02 pm

    I have begun to go to the gym regularly. It took me a little while before I committed as the impulse simply didn’t go away but got stronger within me. I could sense how beneficial doing weight bearing exercises would help me in more ways than one provided I listened and responded to my body and what it needed; a very different approach to the pushing and driving in complete ignorance of the body to achieve something whether that was weight loss, a toned body or a flat stomach!

    Reply
  • Carola Woods says: August 22, 2017 at 5:59 am

    Thank you Donna. There is such so much more for us to explore about who we truly are and the true power we can live. What our focus is at any time, in any moment is what we magnify through our bodies. As you have so wisely shared – ‘The body is the vehicle to house the soul’, and through our connection to our bodies we are guided by an intelligence that knows exactly what is needed in order for our Soul to freely express through.

    Reply
  • Nicola Lessing says: August 14, 2017 at 6:44 pm

    Thank you for the exercise reminder. I recently brought a big ball which I was told was good for my core strength if I sit on it at times whilst at the computer but I forgot – just went and got it and am sitting on it whilst reading and writing this. No better time to start than now

    Reply
  • chris james says: July 14, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    Once we clock that our body is the housing of the soul, we have the opportunity to totally reconfigure a very old and dysfunctional relationship into something vibrant and alive

    Reply
  • sueq2012 says: July 14, 2017 at 3:53 pm

    Listening to and honouring our body is so important. I used to push myself at the gym. Nowadays i am much more gentle with exercising and my body is benefiting.

    Reply
  • Lucy Dahill says: July 9, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    I went from one extreme to the other, full on exercise to no exercise and I am now finding what really works for my body – from my body!

    Reply
  • Jane Torvaney says: July 3, 2017 at 4:40 am

    Wow! These two different ways of exercising could not be further apart Donna. One in connection, to build a body of love or one in disconnection to gain relief. A great question to ask ourselves as we go to the gym is – what quality are we choosing today?

    Reply
  • Shami says: June 15, 2017 at 1:23 pm

    It is so beautiful to read about the body being a vehicle for the soul. So often the perfect human body is portrayed as being the ideal end result, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This creates a huge investment in the physical form and in physical life all with a need for image perfect perfection – that realistically can never truly be achieved and most of the time if not always leaves us feeling less. This is because essentially everyone does know and has real life experience of the soul in their body, at one point in life we have all experienced this, and so when the images come for perfection and we strive to achieve them, there is a sense of loss because in that strive we are in effect leaving something behind, a very dear and sacred part of ourselves. But the truth is that we can never actually leave it behind, the soul is with us always.

    Reply
  • chris james says: May 27, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    Thanks Donna…. Just reflecting for a bit on the comments you made on your university ‘diet’ and the compensatory exercise… how many untold millions of people are replicating this, upon reflection, outrageously imbalanced life everyday without seeing the terrible irony of it all.

    Reply
  • Shami says: May 26, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    Exercising to improve body image is very enticing, as it can give the promise of no longer having those self-abating thoughts that seek to crush us down as they pick on every imperfection we have in our bodies. Self-love however brings a whole new dimension to exercise, because when you are loved deeply, the exercise you need is so that you can be strong throughout life as you live and learn and express. It in affect becomes a part of your self-care because you are worth caring for and not because there is anything wrong with you.

    Reply
  • Christine Hogan says: May 17, 2017 at 6:50 pm

    ‘So it became apparent to me on that day last week at the gym, that we can use the body in two different ways’ – Donna, I love what you have shared here and the way you have claimed the love you are and have brought that into the Gym work. The breath and choosing to be present in every movement is a powerful way of deeply loving ourselves and available to us in the many choices we make everyday.

    Reply
  • Samantha England says: May 12, 2017 at 12:53 pm

    I love re reading this Donna, it makes so much sense and a great motivator for me to get back to the gym for no other reason then strengthening my connection with my soul.

    Reply
  • Andrew Mooney says: May 10, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    If the body is the vehicle to house the soul then it makes perfect sense to support the body physically to be strong so that the vehicle can handle the stresses and strains of daily life so we can bring even more of ourselves wherever we go.

    Reply
  • Samantha England says: April 15, 2017 at 1:44 am

    We all have a responsibility to look after the body we have got and that means getting regular exercise and doing what we can to support the body.

    Reply
  • Shushila says: April 9, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    Donna it was lovely to read this blog, a real support with my recent revisits to the gym since 10 years ago. Like yourself I was working out to undo the things I had done in the day but can’t help feel the addiction to adrenaline was also there!

    Deanne had mentioned in an earlier comment about ‘closing the eyes’ and this is what my body asked me to do the other day at the gym to bring me back to my body instead of the background distractions attempting to sway me to my past hard rhythms.

    Reading this blog shows there is another way to being with your body and the gym and if it means making it a home for the soul, then I am willing to go with this pathway.

    Reply
  • Meg says: April 4, 2017 at 3:15 pm

    What we can access through our bodies is incredible, what if our relationship to our bodies is the key to everything? It makes every day things like walking, exercise, eating and the way we look after our bodies so important. The more I am in tune with what my body needs the more clarity I have across my whole life.

    Reply
  • Nicola Lessing says: April 2, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    It is very important to look after our bodies which in my case involves gentle weights, walking, being aware of my emotions, what I eat, think, how I move, when I need to rest and when I need to be doing more – really it is a 24/7 awareness . The benefits are so immense I wonder why I have not always lived this way.

    Reply
  • Francisco Clara says: April 2, 2017 at 2:13 pm

    “The body is the vehicle to house the soul” – Definitely second that, and the more we take care of the body and treat it with the love and respect that it deserves the more access we have to the wisdom of the universe, it is our vessel through which we access and communicate with the stars.

    Reply
    • Lucy Dahill says: July 9, 2017 at 6:31 pm

      This is a whole new way of thinking about our bodies but is the most logical – a vehicle to house our soul – well worth looking after.

      Reply
  • Nick Probert says: April 1, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    I’ve recently taken a new approach to going to the gym and it’s really brought up a lot for me, particularly about how I used to work out and ultimately feel about myself. Rather than the supportive workouts I do now, I used to be more interested in bulking up and looking strong. But I must say that today I feel great about the way my body looks – I’ve accepted the way I am/look and can now support myself with a workout as opposed to abuse myself with one.

    Reply
  • Natallija says: March 29, 2017 at 9:29 am

    The gym is a great support for the soul in providing a way to hold the body in all contexts of the day. I have found that the levels of exercise can vary from day to day and week to week, when I stop to feel how much is needed each time I go. It is when we make it about an end product whether that be the perfect abs, weight loss or toning to gain confidence our purpose becomes different and the way we exercise becomes different. My experience is that I leave the gym feeling exhausted rather than supported.

    Reply
  • Shami says: March 29, 2017 at 6:05 am

    What I love about this blog is how you bring out the relationship between the physicality of our human frames and the heavenly quality of the soul. And how with regular and supportive exercise this relationship deepens.

    Reply
  • Gabriele Conrad says: March 28, 2017 at 6:43 am

    You write “Going to the gym was a way of pushing my body hard so I wouldn’t have to feel the hurt of the un-dealt with issues that I was still carrying from my childhood”. When I read it I thought it was ‘punishing my body’ and that makes just as much sense in so many cases. We have a tendency to punish the body because we don’t like what it reflects back to us, our accumulated choices in physical form. But it doesn’t have to be looking like that and the answer has nothing at all to do with looks or outer appearances, the change happens on the inside first.

    Reply
  • Heather Pope says: March 23, 2017 at 4:25 am

    When you start seeing and knowing that the body is the vehicle to en-house the soul, your choices in how you treat it come from a very different place to making it look good. With this understanding I am learning to embrace exercise in a whole new way.

    Reply
  • Kevin McHardy says: February 26, 2017 at 3:19 pm

    So many of us use exercise as a tool to numb ourselves from what is really going on inside, but used as a means to help build a body to house the soul is what exercise should really be about. I have been inspired by this blog to take my exercise to a new level, on a practical level I need to be fit and strong for my work but also need to work at making my body far more welcoming for the soul.

    Reply
  • chris james says: February 23, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    A beautiful doorway that we can choose to open up to reconnect to ourselves into the glory that is the within us all.

    Reply
  • Shirley-Ann Walters says: February 9, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    Its true, we are nothing as a body without the essence of who we truly are, and when connected to soul we have the opportunity to show the world the love that we truly come from. This starts by being that love in all that we do, either in the gym, out for a walk or cooking dinner, it makes no difference, it is about what we choose to bring to the activity.

    Reply
  • Vicky Cooke says: January 27, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    ‘we can use the body as a form of relief or we can use the body to build love’. I know what I choose … to build love absolutely. This is still work in progress. What I have noticed is that when I exercise at certain times my body goes into a really beautifull stillness. It is so lovely to feel and writing this I realise how I do not currently allow myself to completely surrender to this stillness. Who would have thought that exercise can allow the stillness within the body to be and emanate? I love how you have expressed here ‘It felt super joyful and powerful to claim my body, not because I wanted to look better but because my purpose was to build a body that has the strength to hold the light of the soul and the light that I innately am.’ Taking exercise to another level .. the truth of the body.

    Reply
  • Shami says: January 20, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    There is something here about the disregard and irresponsibility of how you lived those university years which seem so contra to the person who you clearly are – very sensitive and playful and loving. And it is awesome to read how you have been able to come back to this true you and how you have been able to include the strength training exercises that can support you to bring all of that beauty out in to the world.

    Reply
  • Francisco Clara says: December 17, 2016 at 4:09 am

    “The body is the vehicle to house the soul.” and connecting to this purpose allows us to treat our bodies in a way that will not harm and abuse it but look after it in a way that is truly supportive for it’s specific needs and not attach to an image of how we like to look like on the outside without taking responsibility within.

    Reply
  • Helen Elliott says: December 16, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    Awesome how you connected to the purpose of your body as being a vehicle to ‘house the soul’ and I loved reading about your commitment to visiting the gym to support this purpose. Thank you for sharing and inspiring me as I am about to embark on a new phase in the way I exercise with the support of the gorgeous Beverly Carter.

    Reply
  • Mary Adler says: December 6, 2016 at 4:19 pm

    “my purpose was to build a body that has the strength to hold the light of the soul and the light that I innately am” Donna, this is a powerful reminder of our responsibility in caring for our physical body that enhouses the preciousness and Divinity that we are.

    Reply
  • Nikki says: November 20, 2016 at 4:30 am

    I often find that my desire to exercise further is about body image. It comes in a mixed bag as my body lets me know when it needs to move and I honour that with walks and gentle exercise. But I have to be aware of when there is that extra push in there that comes from my views about my body. I built a lot of hardness into by body which I have been shedding over the last few years and I know that if I exercise because I want my body to look better, I will build all that hardness back in – not something I want to do!

    Reply
  • Lorraine Wellman says: November 4, 2016 at 4:06 pm

    I agree Donna our purpose of exercising is very important a and what a great purpose you have here, ‘my purpose was to build a body that has the strength to hold the light of the soul and the light that I innately am.’

    Reply
  • Melinda Knights says: September 23, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    I really enjoyed exploring how the qualities of love, stillness, truth and harmony could be better expressed in a body that is well taken care of through exercise, and the connection between our inner power and inner strength and weight training. For a body to serve humanity and house the soul, it does need to be a very well cared for and loved vehicle.

    Reply
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