Exercise: Mind, Body & Spirit

Beads of Joy 05-24-10

Exercise: Mind, Body & Spirit
©2010 James Dacey, Jr. SFO

Living A Healthy Life 1/5
Hello Everyone,

Thoughts and perspectives from a 45 year old man who loves and adores Jesus. I'm speaking about me, by the way, LOL. I believe a happy spiritual life has a foundation of living a healthy life that affects many areas of our lives. I'm not model, nor do I play one on TV, and I don't attempt to play any professional sport, nor do I have a cooking show (though I have my own recipes), and I can't swim a mile. So knowing all that, let's begin. LOL. Monday - Everything from exercise that affects every aspect of our mind, body and spirit. Tuesday - Eating right so we feel good and not worn out, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Wednesday - Smiling and laughing as much as we possibly can. Thursday - Water, pure clean water needs to be our main drink of choice. Friday - Sleep, getting a good nights sleep can sometimes make or break you throughout the day. I hope and pray this will be a great week for everybody. Of cause y'all know my approach on anything I have to say is always centered in Jesus. So in some sneaky way this is inevitably all about Jesus. So today I'd like on some of the "exercises" I enjoy in my life, to keep my mind, body and spirit in shape.

We can take a look at the first one mentioned, "mind". Wow, yes mine is functioning, but did you know that a good way to keep your mind in shape and even avoid or delay many diseases is by exercising your mind. My 95 year old grandpa may have health issues, but he is still as sharp as a whip with his mind and memory and ability to really comprehend. His big thing use to be math for the grand kids and he also was a ham operator. No I didn't say a butcher, ham operators know Morse code. I think I may have taken after my grandfather in many ways. Math is my favorite subject. I have about 15-20 mathematical textbooks; that I bought at yard sales or library books sales, and I admit, though it sounds corny, strange, weird and well ok weird is a good word; I go through them every now and then and do the exercise pages to stay in practice. I have helped my kids on many occasions including my college son with his Calculus. Christopher was like, are you sure this is right. I told him you tell me after you hand it in. He said, the answers were all correct, I knew that. LOL

I also learned through all these years of growing old. No I did not just say that. LOL. Well Ok, older then a twenty year old, but way younger than a hundred year old. LOL, there you go, now that sounds better. Well anyhow, what I was trying to say was before I interrupted myself was, I learned that doing puzzles and word searches and crossword puzzles, help keep the mind in shape, it keeps it sharp. What I also find to be very helpful in keeping the mind active is, studying my bible. And getting "workbooks" that have to do with topical or book studies on the bible so that there is an interaction of study involved. For some time I use to create bible word games. Keep your mind busy, it will stay sharp when you really need it to be. Like I have said so many times, I love to multi-task. I keep several projects in motion at all times so that my mind don't get lazy. And I even layout other projects, so even when I am done, I'm not. Now when it comes to keeping the "body" in shape, I will admit I prefer one particular activity. Stop jumping ahead of me, and stop guessing what I was going to say. LOL. What I was going to say was "walking" is my favorite, mostly only preferred exercise. Do you have any idea, first of all how simple and easy this is. No equipment, no special gym, you could pretty much do this anywhere. And the benefits are incredible, check this out: prevents diabetes, strengthens the heart, good for the bones and circulation, reduces the risk of some cancers, lowers blood pressure, reduces anxiety and depression and it even improves sleep. And this is just the tip of benefits you gain by having a committed walking regimen. I highly recommend walking 1-2 miles a day of you can, or at least 5 miles a week. Take an ipod with spiritual music or teachings on them, you'd be surprised how fast the whole experience is when you do that. I promise I will spend a couple days just talking about "walking". You believe you will be inspired to walk.

Time to now reflect on exercising the "Spirit". Some of you already know how, and then some are looking at this saying, "What? Do push-ups with my bible?" Nothing like that I promise. LOL. But as a metaphor maybe. The best way to keep your Spirit in shape is to keep the blood flowing. In other words: daily bible meditations, daily rosary, daily Mass if you can go. And believe me if you can go to Mass, I say, "GO !!!!" It's like having a gym in your home and you have all the time in the world to use it to stay healthy, and you never even go by that room unless it's that one particular day. I use to go to daily Mass, oh how I miss that, when I can return I will completely. Mass is such a precious gift from God to us. It is the only time in our worldly life that we are closest to Jesus. It's been said by St. Gertrude the Great, "For each Mass we hear with devotion, Our Lord sends a saint to comfort us at death." The Mass offers much comfort and I have found it to "set the stage" for the day. In other words to me, Jesus was first every morning when I use to go daily. In fact my habit involved having the Eucharist (Jesus) first everyday, period. Jesus first, I took that seriously with daily Mass. I enjoyed early morning daily Mass for a while, I so look forward to returning. If you can go, please go, enjoy Jesus faithfully first everyday. You will have a much richer, more fuller spiritual life, far beyond your wildest dreams.


Your brother in Christ Jesus & His Most Blessed Mother,
Jim (The Rosary Man) Dacey Jr SFO