Spiritual fitness grows ability to face challenges of 2022

By Kari HawkinsJanuary 10, 2022

Spiritual Fitness Gives Hope For Brighter Future
Just like the promise of new growth after a cold winter brings hope for warmer days, spiritual fitness gives people struggling with challenges hope for a brighter future. Army Materiel Command Chaplain (Col.) Kevin Guthrie said the Army recognizes spiritual fitness among the three top traits – the other being physical and mental fitness – to ensuring readiness and wellbeing among its Soldiers and civilian workforce. (U.S. Army Photo by Kari Hawkins) (Photo Credit: Kari Hawkins) VIEW ORIGINAL

As the Army turns the corner into a new calendar year, it remains focused on the health of its people, the human element essential to fulfilling its mission around the world.

When those people are not healthy, the mission suffers and so, too, does the Army. While the Army has long built people resiliency on physical and mental fitness, its more recent holistic approach to resiliency includes a third factor -- spiritual fitness.

“Body, mind and spirit are the new watchwords of achieving holistic health and fitness in the Army for Soldiers and Civilians, alike,” said Army Materiel Command Chaplain (Col.) Kevin Guthrie. “The Army recognizes that we need all three.”

While physical fitness is needed to endure and be ready for protracted combat situations and mental fitness to outsmart adversaries, spiritual fitness provides a foundation of security, wellbeing and safekeeping. Spiritual readiness is one of the five domains of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness System, the others being physical, mental, sleep and nutritional.

“Separating spirituality from overall fitness, training and culture makes us vulnerable to degraded performance, lessens our inner reserves for problem solving and increases personal suffering,” Guthrie said.

Numerous psychological and genetic studies have indicated the presence of a “God gene” in human DNA, a theory presented by scientist Dean Hamer in his book, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes. The theory states that 30% of human spirituality is written into human DNA and brain circuitry, and studies show spirituality is a protective factor against depression by 60%, substance abuse by 80% and risk taking by 70%, Guthrie said.

But building spirituality isn’t an individual exercise.

“Spirituality – for many, religion – is a shared culture of faith,” he said. “We need to be around others who share common spiritual beliefs so we can encourage each other.

“Studies show we are at our weakest when we are alone, without support and our hope in life is simply not recharged to its fullest. Community gives us a team of people who understand our strengths and weaknesses, and give us the encouragement we need to successfully surmount challenges.”

In the workplace, that sense of community is found in teams and teamwork, which give teammates the ability to recover quickly from difficulties, he said.

“Performance strengths such as persistence, tenacity, grit and determination for a higher purpose are fostered in an environment of a team that values building resilience together,” Guthrie said. “When we see weakened character strengths and virtues, decreased relational morality and loyalty, and fragility in coping with failure and disappointment, these are indicators that the team isn’t focused on building resiliency needed to meet the mission.”

While physical and mental fitness can change and even decline with age, spiritual fitness “can be cultivated over time to actually become stronger as we mature,” Guthrie said. He suggested the following “action items” for growing spiritual fitness:

• Read and reflect to gain more knowledge about faith. Guthrie suggests selecting a daily reading from a faith-based book (the Bible for Christians, Tanakh for Jews, Koran for Muslims, Tripitaka for Buddhists and other spiritual books), and taking the time to connect with and reflect on the reading.

• Connect with faith through prayer. “Prayer helps us develop skills like gratitude and compassions, and may be a calming,” Guthrie said.

• Self-reflect and focus on thoughts through meditation. “Life often puts us on a fast roller-coaster that obstructs us from clarity and purpose,” Guthrie said. “Just taking 10 minutes to meditate can be calming and help us to objectively focus on what is working in our lives and how we can change for the better. It’s good to take time away from life’s demands to reflect.”

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, numerous natural and man-made disasters, economic worries and personal struggles, it may seem natural to face 2022 with fear and in trepidation, Guthrie said. But spiritual resilience helps people change fear into positive action.

“Fear is a healthy guide to make us consider the worst possible scenarios and raise our anxiety so we will resolve threatening situations,” he said.

“Soldiers are trained to overcome hair-raising experiences with courage and power to accomplish mission objectives. We want our Soldiers and Civilians to be courageous, but not necessarily fearless. But fear can become toxic when we fixate on it and are paralyzed by it. Winston Churchill said ‘Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.’ Faith in a higher power – in God – helps us to identify our fears, release control over them in faith and move forward.”

Even when people are spiritually resilient, disappointments and setbacks can challenge their sense of wellbeing. But with spiritual resilience, there is always hope that the best still lies ahead, he said.

“I think Mother Teresa said it best when she said ‘Peace begins with a smile,’” Guthrie said. “And, so a better 2022 begins with a smile.”