An Introduction

SPIRI-SCULPT: BODY SCULPTING FOR THE CREATIVE AND SPIRITUALLY MINDED
INTRODUCTION

I had been training Terri for about eight months by that point. She was a bubbly, somewhat stout, blonde woman in her early forties and mother of two pre-teens. Terri generally came to our sessions with much energy and enthusiasm. It was always a joy working with her as she was always ready for anything and willing to train hard. Terri was energetic but one wouldn’t necessarily point her out as someone who worked out regularly. She was your everyday “mom type”, if such a thing existed.

Today was different. Terri arrived almost in tears and moving very sluggishly.

I asked her if everything was okay. She said no.

Terri had just left her husband that morning.

“Are you feeling up to working out today?” I asked her with the utmost care and concern.

“I don’t think so,” was her reply. “But I don’t want to quit training. I know if I stop for a day I might be more inclined to stop working out altogether.”

I thought for a moment and then asked, “Do you just want to hit stuff today?”

She shook her head with a determined “yes”. I got out the boxing gloves for her and put on my punching mitts. I let her wail on the pads for a while and she started to feel a little better.

“Do you mind if I try something different with you, Terri?”

The wheels in my head were turning. “It’s sort of like working out your emotions along with the body. It’s something I’ve been playing around with during my own workouts and I wanted to see how someone else takes to it.”

She agreed. I made sure we were in a secluded corner near the deserted basketball court. I asked her if she could identify the emotion she was feeling at that moment.

“Fear,” she replied after having a chance to reflect.

“What specifically are you afraid of right now? You don’t have to tell me out loud. I just want you to be honest with yourself and get very clear about what you’re afraid of.”

She trusted me enough to say out loud what specifically was troubling her at that moment considering her circumstances. So I asked her to get centered in the fear before punching the mitts. After a few seconds of hitting the pads, Terri seemed to be getting stronger with her punching power. Not only that, she was also demonstrating greater accuracy until there were a few hits that didn’t quit hit the mark.

“Is the fear still there?” I asked.
“Kind of. But now I’m more pissed!”

Again, I asked her to focus on what specifically she was “pissed” about and then punch the pads.

“I’m angry that I took his shit for so long!”
BAM!
“I’m pissed off that he uses our kids against me!”
BAM! BAM!
“I’m angry at him for taking the last ten years of my life away!”
WHAM!

Once the anger subsided, we gradually worked our way up through other emotions like pride, faith, forgiveness, love and joy. To my bewilderment, Terri was getting stronger with her punches landing with increasing accuracy. What was even more to my amazement, it seemed that she became less winded as we moved up from the more "destructive/negative" emotions like fear and anger toward the more "productive/positive" emotions like joy.

Before we knew it, an hour and a half of hard training went by.

“Thank you so much for that, Mike,” Terri said, noticing the clock on the wall. “That went by so quickly.”

As I removed my punching mitts I told her, “Boxing like that for more than an entire hour isn’t easy. Do you realize that was almost ninety minutes of strenuous cardio, Terri? Do you realize how hard you were consistently training for that time?”

“Felt like nothing.”

That was the moment which planted a seed in my mind. What if we were able to train like this every day? We could come in to the gym feeling “blah” but always leave experiencing a feeling of happiness. We could continue to get better quality workouts on a day to day basis, maybe even achieve results faster. Ultimately, we might even become better people.

It gave me a lot to think about…


Why Was This Book Written?

Dedicating yourself to a quality physical fitness program can be daunting. What if there were a way to become more creative while working out? What if you could solve problems easier through this new found creativity? What if a deeper connection to “God” or Source (insert your own key word for the divine) was possible all while creating the body of your dreams?

In my years of working as a personal trainer I’ve learned that there is no secret formula to dedicating your life to a physical fitness program. To some extent there are basics rituals that will make all the difference regardless of the series of exercises you choose to do on a day-to-day basis. These “rituals” include knowing how to tailor your diet intended to produce a desired result, periodically challenging yourself with new exercises, getting plenty of rest, etc.

The primary focus of this book will be on the emotional life of your workouts. Likewise the mission of this book is to have you always and consistently leaving the gym feeling wonderful -- to develop an addiction to sculpting your body.

Our bodies have the power to sense when we are working constructively or destructively toward what we want for our lives. Simply put, we experience “pleasure” when working constructively and “pain” when working destructively. The body recognizes this phenomena as “emotions”. Think about it - have you ever experienced a “broken” heart and literally felt it in your chest? Have you ever been nervous sensing literal “butterflies” in your stomach? Has your head ever buzzed from a “mind-blowing” experience? This book will help you channel these emotions into the your highest quality workouts ever! These emotions will lead you to maximum results within a 30 day program which is laid out step-by-step in Spiri-Sculpt: Body Sculpting for Creative and Spiritually Minded.

There will be physical exercises included with photographs to help you out, but the emotional work in this book can be applied to any strength training or athletic training regimen. The personalized interactive emotional workbook included within this volume will require consistency from you for no less than 30 days.

This 30 day commitment will lead to your forming a lifelong habit. Interested?

What Makes The Difference Between Success and Failure in a Training Program?

First and foremost, you will need a compelling “why” behind your training program.

Take a moment and think to yourself, “What is the most important thing in my life?” During these workouts you will actively be working on what’s most important outside of the gym while working out. Between the sets of a exercise you will be working on Interactive Emotional Exercises. The author has included his own journal to help you follow along and complete a 30 day “Quest” (a goal you wish to accomplish in life) in conjunction with your new 30 day workout regimen. This “Quest” is something outside of the gym you’re looking to attain, achieve, or accomplish.

So why do you want to sculpt your body? Why do you want to dedicate 30 days, and possibly a lifetime, to going to the gym? Do you want an increase in confidence to help you at work or for your relationship to feeler richer? Do you want to feel healthier or have an incredible sex life? Do you want better mental clarity or simply to look “ripped”? Or chances are, if you bought this book, you want a better perception of the spiritual benefits that can come from working out. Benefits of this nature include deeper patience, the ability to communicate from your heart, or to have a perception of what your own personal meaning of life could be.

This 30 day “Quest” will help cultivate your relationship to this power of “Why?”. What will specifically inspire you to become addicted to enjoying a lifelong commitment to exercise? Are you committed for health reasons? Or for beauty? Or simply to have fun? Do you want more energy to play with your kids? Does thinking about this commitment evoke productive emotions inside of you? Does your emotional state instantly change, for better or worse, when considering working out today? These are questions that, if you take them seriously in this moment, will begin to pave the way for you in this SpiriSculpt program.

Find out what is compelling to you! What sends chills down your spine? Just “showing up to the gym” IS NOT a compelling reason for most people. If your “why” is strong then you can “crush” the next thirty days. Likewise, if you make it through these thirty days, then you will have established a new habit dedicated to the lifelong commitment of your physical fitness.

The power behind your own personal “Why” is what will keep you committed to becoming your best in this 30 day Quest and beyond.

Feel Free to Get Creative

The exercises contained in the photos are merely suggestions. Feel free to plug in whatever sequence of exercises work personally for you. There will be some guidelines outlined in these opening chapters specifically for burning fat, gaining muscle, or maintaining athletic performance, but ultimately the physical exercises are limited only by your goals and creativity. It bears repeating that the primary intention of this work is to be the emotional supplement to your physical workout. Never buy into the hype that a fad diet or a “latest craze” exercise is always going to be perfect for you. Your perfect exercise will evolve as you evolve. There is no one path to truth, only you taking responsibility in paving your own path will work consistently.

If the exercises listed here don’t feel right to you, then feel free to do your own research and substitute more appropriate exercises for your personal results. The emotional work with which this book is primarily focused on can complement any fitness regimen.
 
The Emotions Are Everything!

Our culture does not provide significant training on how to harness the creative (and oftentimes destructive) power of our own emotions. Done intelligently, well-directed emotions will lead you to an easier, more enjoyable, and ultimately more productive exercise routine. From the mild mannered office employee to the abused housewife to the body builder, every individual needs something different.

Very rarely is anything really personalized these days. For a fitness program to stay with you for a lifetime shouldn’t it be personalized to your body, your personality, and your own emotional patterns?

Between exercise sets you will be asked to participate in different emotional exercises which will change every three to four days. This emotional work is the heart of this program. As your emotions strengthen so will your body. You will be encouraged to “rest” between sets and participate in these interactive written exercises. Be sure not to waste this valuable time!

What Inspires Our Emotions Most?

Stories inspire us. It’s crazy the small fortunes people spend to vicariously live through the stories told in film, television and song.  Therefore, this regimen will be like an adventure story - starring you - which will include all the elements of an exciting tale. There will be an established beginning, middle, and end. Yours will be a story with a character arc including a rising and falling action like a thrilling roller coaster. Every three days or so, you go on to the next “chapter” of your story while proceeding into to the next chapter of SpiriSculpt.

The story you write for yourself in these 30 days will be the perfect one for you - the story you are ready for. While pursuing this 30 day fitness Quest, you will be asked to accomplish something else along the way. It could be something that has to do with your career, personal relationship, or even a quest for more clarity in your life. This will bring the very potent power of “why” to every day, every moment, every set and rep of your 30 day fitness quest.

The Phases of the 30 Day Quest

The first ten days or so will be dedicated to getting your body and mind attuned to this new adventure. It’s a phase called “Unconscious Incompetence” in which you are starting to intellectually understand what this adventure will entail. You will immediately become conscious of the benefits that an emotionally centered physical fitness regimen will have for your mind and body. Things will make sense to you but it won’t be a habit yet.

The second ten days will be dedicated to making fitness a habit. You will experience higher quality emotions like pride and clarity on a regular basis. Exercise, as well as the intentional emotions you feel after a workout, will start to become addictive.

Most people begin to experience what’s called “Conscious Incompetence” in this phase and it’s the reason why most of those people quit. (It will feel hard and very challenging and you start comparing yourself to other people or even make comparisons to the way you felt last week.) Or, at the very least, most people cease to challenge themselves because they start to feel overwhelmed. The Interactive Emotional Exercises in the program therefore become the “X factor” in your workout regimen. The emotional exercises will make you stronger as the workout quality intensifies, testing both your new physical and emotional skills.

Finally, in the last ten days, you will begin to enjoy what’s called “Conscious Competence”. Not only will you master the workouts and see results, but you’ll also learn to master your own motivational psychology. Because it generally takes 21 days to form a new habit, by DAY 21 of this program exercise should become a very positive addiction. Not only have you worked on your body, but also on the thoughts that enter your head when you even consider working out for the day. This habit will in turn lead to “Unconscious Competence” or the Art of Mastery. The 30 Day Quest process will now become instinctive and unconscious and you’ll be on the road to enjoying the benefits that can only be garnered through a lifetime dedication to physical fitness.

How to Get Your Subconscious to Work For You

You’ll want to get your subconscious mind on your side to prevent self-sabotage. But more importantly, you’ll have deeper “why’s” to discover which will motivate you to work harder and experience more enjoyment from your workouts. Skipping or slacking in a workout is usually a product of unconscious habits. If the habits are "un" conscious that means you're not aware of them. If you're focused on what's happening "sub" consciously, meaning the thoughts that are just below the surface, you can cross the bridge to changing unconscious habits.

As weird as it may seem, you might want to consider journaling your dreams as well. By journaling dreams (and also making a commitment to remember these dreams) you will form a new habit that makes you more conscious of not only what potentially holds you back, but also what will drive you irreversibly forward!

Journaling your insights is important. We can be highly motivated by growth and there is no better way to track your growth than by journaling your physical results but also about the story of how you were able to sculpt your ideal body (and, hopefully, your ideal self!) There will be a story arc in this experience -- your own personal character development, if you will. Consider reading this introduction as your own personal “Call to Adventure”.

This program will work with you on three different levels:

(1) Your Consciousness
You will call attention to improving the quality of your workouts by focusing on the emotional content behind your workout. Or rather, what you’re thinking and feeling before, during, and after your gym session. This will increase the day-to-day effectiveness of everything that you do - in and out of the gym!

(2) Your Subconscious
The content in this book will allow you to leave every workout session in a heightened state of emotion. Eventually you will become aware of why these Interactive Emotional Exercises work, but on a subconscious level your mind and body will become addicted to the positive emotions anchored within your workout sessions.

(3) Your Unconscious (or Super Conscious/Spirit)
A new unconscious habit will form connecting mind, body and emotions (And dare I say ‘spirit?’)  This habit will form within thirty days as you become unconsciously drawn to the gym. If you choose to journal your dreams, your dreaming mind will feed back to you potential underlying fears or aspirations about how accurate your “why”, or reason for working out, is in motivating you forward on the 30 day Quest.


The Power of Choice

Within these pages, you always have the choice to accept, reject or modify anything this book has to offer. You also have the choice to challenge yourself by letting the physical exercises become more challenging. You can also chose to push yourself emotionally by going deeper in understanding emotions like fear, guilt, and anger. This book seeks to challenge your body while helping you develop conscious habits that will strengthen your entire being.

Don’t lose sight of your power of choice in which you truly do have in every single moment!  When you do lose sight of this power, you put yourself in danger of failing or quitting. But the most important choice you have at every moment is whether to love or respect yourself, or lose yourself to fear and judgment. You always have a choice!

When the mind wants something but your choices are leading you away from what you want, you experience emotions in your body called “pain”. If the pain is subtle then they become nagging emotions, if they’re severe then it literally can become physical pain! Likewise, if your mind believes that it’s getting closer to what you desire the emotions are called “pleasure”. It’s really as simple as that. Some might call this pain/pleasure principle an interaction (or intervention?) with the spirit. Regardless of your personal beliefs, spiritual or otherwise, you will get to know yourself on a deeper level.

The highest outcome this program intends is to provide for you the ability to tap into any emotional state at will. Some might call this a spiritual “Quest” but we’ll leave any spiritual “influence” you might experience to your own personal beliefs.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This book is for those of you who believe miracles can and should be an everyday occurrence. A miracle is intended for healing in a world where the ego rules. The very foundation of this book and program is intended to be an open-eye mediation. Instead of closing your eyes and being passively still, this SpiriSculpt meditation will ask you to perform physical workouts while inviting miracles to come into your life. The only thing standing in the way of your ideal reality is the ego. Together we will attempt to shake the shackles in which the ego might have placed on your mind, body, and spirit.

I've heard it said that "We're on earth to heal so we can create in heaven." The ability to create something in thirty days -- be it a new career, deeper relationships, abundant physical health and energy or personal growth -- is the act of healing. The ability to create miracles in our lives that can be shared and make others whole is indeed an act of healing. While you are creating/healing your body and mind, it is my hope that the Interactive Emotional Exercises in this book will provide you with the ability to heal others. That is the primary objective of this book.

Another thing that bears mentioning: you don't have to change any of your spiritual beliefs. This book and workbook will be effective in the attainment of your 30 day goals without requiring you to believe anything spiritually. During the 30 day "Quest", as we like to call it, you will be converting emotions like fear into "higher" emotions like determination, clarity, and joy. Once you start experiencing moments of clarity then your purposes will be served as far as the attainment of goals. At some point in this Quest you will be asked to explore states like love, joy, peace and enlightenment. These words might mean less to someone not interested in pursuing spiritual insight. That being the case, if you choose to delve into the entire content of SpiriSculpt, like the sections titled “Mike’s Journal”, you will find that I do often use place-holder words for the Divine - words like “God”, “Holy Spirit”, and “Source”. If these words are a turn-off personally to you, then simply use the "Mike's Journal" sections as a guide if you get stuck and need an example on how to perform an Interactive Emotional Exercise.

“Mike’s Journal” was not written to solve anyone’s problems. It was written as a true to life example of how to apply these techniques. It's a guide on how to use the SpiriSculpt Quest process. At times it is repetitive, self-indulgent, nonsensical, and at other times, downright incomprehensible. But it makes sense to me and has moved me forward. I would expect any reader who picks up this book to do the same for their own journaling process. The SpiriSculpt journal is meant to serve you and I would encourage that you be as self-indulgent as you need to be. The skills you’ll develop will help you understand the communication going on inside your own brain which in turn increases the quality of your communication with others. I’m asking that you excuse my writing style with all it’s flaws and turn your attention on finding value in your own Quest process, journaling your own story along the way without fear of judgment or criticism.

One of the reasons SpiriSculpt is currently in blog form is to allow myself the opportunity to refine it while you, my reader, can actively participate in your own Quest. My hope is that you will contribute to this blog and share your own SpiriSculpt experiences as you follow along in your own 30 Day Quest Journal.

You are now ready to embark on a journey in discovering your creative powers. Your life is a canvas and I hope that SpiriSculpt will offer you new tools in crafting what is already a masterpiece. At your deepest levels, you don't need this or any other program for self-improvement. All "self-improvement" programs should be dedicated to reveal what already is perfected inside of you. In fact, your spirit is already a masterpiece - it’s perfect. SpiriSculpt is a tool for recognizing the ego that is ready for surrender in order to have a spirit dedicated to life creation.

And, now, on to the Quest…


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