Exercising Your Core (no, not that one)

Your core is critical.

You are holistic - “whole-istic” - in the sense that everything is connected and interacting all the time. What develops in your character (or soul, or inner self) is a direct result of how you exercise that core.

To illustrate, I’ll use physical exercise as an example.

If my back hurts, I can’t just straighten up my body by way of my torso. I must pull in the muscles that support my spine and, in doing that, I straighten my back in a way that’s correct. If I pull myself up some other way, it might hurt my back.

You know that reading about exercising, thinking about it, visualizing it, or talking about it will not help your cardio-vascular system or tone muscles. You know you must actually do the exercise to benefit your body.

The same principle applies to our inner self. Whether you call it character development, spiritual exercises, or anything that improves our total “self,” if it doesn’t start with our core, we may not end up where we intended. It might even reflect a different intention.

Your spiritual core is the same as your physical core insofar as the benefits of exercise. You can’t only talk, think, visualize, write or read about it (though they each have limited advantages by themselves), and just stop. It takes persistent, consistent, and both emotive and intellectual determination and action to push forward and to cause a change.

From the core is better than from the heart, which might mean we are controlled by passing emotions. The core is your most inner self, your basic nature, your true self – the part of you no one sees or fully knows except God. THAT is the core of which I write.

Good character comes from the consistent exercise of this development. Good character (as the memes say: how you are when no one is looking) effects everything and everyone in our life. It is well worth the effort and critical to our own well-being.