Nathan, my handsome son, has returned from a sweat-soaked CrossFit workout. He opens the refrigerator, sips a whole bottle of water, looks at me and asks, “well, mom, how’s ALMA doing?” (It does not happen often that my teenager is interested in my occupation, but sometimes there are miracles!) I tell him about the seminar “Gym for Life” and the preparations for its launch in Israel and Argentina and then he says: “What a strange name. Not at all suitable for your spiritual head” and goes to take a shower.
But this name, in fact, does fit my spiritual perception and is chosen precisely to create the right association to what it offers.
First, anyone who wants a healthy, shapely body knows that there is no other way but to exercise regularly and not “once in a while.” Would you sign up for a gym that promises you to come once for a workout (expensive one of course…) and gain sculpted muscles for life? Of course not! (it’s an illusion). But somehow in the spiritual realm, many people are tempted to go to “wonder workshops” or buy the “new bestseller for happiness”, thinking that these will give them the magic pill and solve them from making a personal effort and perseverance. Here I say explicitly that whoever wants to gain an “inner muscle” (which I will present below all the enormous benefits it brings to our lives) should “make the soul sweat” again and again.
Second, anyone who has signed up for a gym knows that the results will not come from looking at the solid body of the instructor. The role of the instructor is to give a “push” and guidance step by step, but the work has to be done by the person himself. If we transfer this understanding to the spiritual realm, then in the “Gym for Life” there is no guru! No one comes to look at and admire my “muscles,” but simply to receive guidance and inspiration. Besides, being a teacher does not excuse me from practicing in my personal life. Precisely because my internal muscles are developed, I have to train all the time, otherwise just like what happens to muscle owners who have stopped training: their body becomes “Flaccid” or as the famous pianist Arthur Rubinstein once said:
“Should I not practice for a day, I know it; should I miss two days, my friends know it; if I miss three, the public knows it.”
And there are a few more parallels between a “gym for the body” and a “gym for life”:
Just as you feel full of energy after a workout, so will you feel after the inner workout! Slowly this strength that will be at your disposal, will allow you to fulfill your dreams, face any difficulty that life brings, and be constantly happy and not according to your changing moods, or external circumstances that are also constantly changing.
In a gym everyone trains at their own pace and same in a spiritual gym: each soul develops according to the level at which it is at the beginning of the workout and progresses according to its willpower.
Another parallelization: After a demanding workout, stretching and relaxation of the muscles is required, which are what allow the body to assimilate the work done. The soul needs something similar: some exercises require effort and others devotion to relaxation.
In conclusion, the body, at the time of accelerated movement, secretes sweat that contributes to the disposal of waste materials. Similarly, the “inner movement” helps to cleanse the soul from all the waste of the ego that sticks to it, thus purifying it. It can easily get help from the universe through the action of two laws of creation: the “law of attraction – between the similar” and the “law of mutual action” (better known as the law of karma).
So dear friends, this is what “gym for life” offers! Just as the great inventor Thomas Edison said: “success is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
