Move a Muscle, Change a Thought

One of my pandemic pals has the surprising saying, Move a muscle, change a thought.

How we look at it — what we get from it — depends on us. Do we want to look at it the way she means it? When she says it, she talks about how hard it can be for her and the rest of us to get out of our old ways of thinking and being. To move forward in life.

To do something new.

Get out of your chair. Forget staying in bed all day and indulging in sheet therapy. If we aren’t happy with where we are in life, that won’t improve anything.

Saying we’re going to do something isn’t the same as doing it. Don’t waste your time worrying about something. Worry is not the same as action.

Do something.

Do anything that will get you up and physically moving. Clean the house. Walk. Change your clothes.

Change a thought.

If you feel hyperactive and can’t calm yourself down, do something radical. Sit in a hot bathtub. Sometimes we can meditate or pray to quiet the squirrels rampaging through our brains. Other times we need to exercise.

Contrary to popular belief, meditation and prayer take a lot of physical energy. Have you ever tried to spend an hour sitting or kneeling? It doesn’t matter if we believe in God or not. It’s the simple act of slowing our muscles, breathing out the thoughts swirling through our brains, that changes our thoughts.

The facts of my life are different from most people when it comes to dealing with the Deity. It can complicate life.

Just because I see God doesn’t mean we’re always on the best of terms. Days come when I feel like It’s leaving me in the middle of the desert when I’d rather be on a beach. Even a rocky beach. I want to be left to my own devices rather than doing spiritual work.

There have been more days than I would ever want to recall that I’ve found myself doing precisely the opposite of what I want. God wants me to go one way with my life when I know that is absolute madness. Except it’s not.

There are times I’ve had to move my physical and spiritual muscles contrary to my wishes. I’m thoroughly convinced whatever it is God has in mind is wrong. It’s one hundred eighty degrees opposite from where my life ought to be heading.

In our jobs it’s easy to see how the boss can be one hundred percent wrong. The company is about to go over the cliff. The boss is telling us to head in what we are convinced is a very bad direction for us all.

When the boss is human, sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.

When the Boss is divine, what may be wrong is how we execute It’s plan. The plan is always to help us, take care of us. To keep us safe.

For that we have to move away from whatever stagnant thinking we have. To move our spiritual muscles and, frankly, who wants to keep doing that? Why can’t life be good enough as it is? Why do we always have to change and grow?

Possibly it’s because spirituality isn’t an event. It’s a permanent motion forward. The danger is if we pause too long. That could become a full stop. With a full stop we soon start to become spiritually stale. Stuck in actions and ideas that have nothing to do with our present lives.

Take a small step. Do something different. Have a bagel instead of a donut for breakfast. Give yourself a gift.

Take a new direction in your life. Go left when normally you go right. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but with time it can give you the boost you need to move your life forward.

Move a muscle, change a thought.