Spiritually Fit or Fat?
by Al Harris

I had always been thin, so when extra inches began to bloat my stomach I paid little attention to them. They’ll go away soon, I thought.

I failed to connect the consumption of late night corn chips with a growing waistline; failed to connect a self-induced busy schedule and lack of exercise with mental gloom.

It seemed everyone wanted a piece of me and there wasn’t enough to go around. So my body accommodated my thoughts by adding the required pounds. “More of me, more available,” became its motto.

But the treadmill of life has a way of slowing you down when you stay on it for too long, and I soon grew anxious. Fatigued. Then finally angry.

What’s happened to me? I wondered. Why am I angry? I sat down and wrote myself a letter, to find the source of that anger. Whenever I’m confused I find it useful to write, keeping an attitude that I will soon receive clarity.

A partnership ensued. I playfully constructed questions, relaying my concerns to Infinite Intelligence and soon my pen allowed that intelligence to convey its answers to the paper in front of me.

As I did this exercise it became clear I was out of control. Out of balance. And as a musician I realized I was out of tune with life’s rhythm, out of sync with the pattern that feeds us.

We breathe with a rhythm that if interrupted causes loss of life. The heart beats to a certain drum, pumping blood at regular intervals to nourish our cells. We cycle from day to night and night to day, waking and sleeping at regular intervals, or we fall ill.

So where did my lack of rhythm come from? I thought back a few weeks. “If you want to succeed you’ll have to do more,” said my brain. I complied. I forgot that the lungs expel air, then pause before they inhale. I forgot that the heart beats, then relaxes. That all rhythms have a pulse. And each pulse contains an element of rest, a slight pause to rejuvenate.

When I forgot to pause, I forgot to listen to my own wisdom and knowingness. And at that point I lost my synchronicity with Infinite Intelligence. Because wisdom lies mostly in the moment of stillness that is a natural part of rhythm, in the pause that allows us to listen and finally hear what we’ve asked to know.





When our metabolism loses that pause, because we are too busy “doing” instead of occasionally listening, our rhythmic cycle falters and we accumulate more of what we don’t want, in order to balance the cycle.

Losing balance is a form of spiritual gluttony. So whenever you find excess in your life (weight, poverty, loneliness) write yourself a letter and ask the question: “Where am I out of balance?” What will put me back in tune with the rhythmic cycle of what I want?

It takes but a few minutes to ask, then practice listening and you’ll soon find a way to re-start your engine and keep it running the way you’d like. Ever heard an engine hum? It does you know, if it has the right rhythm.

Copyright @2000 Al Harrris