HEALTH AND FITNESS-Sentinel Article


Be healthy, stay healthy
By Channing Walker

Exercise your right to well-being.

GOOD CONSCIOUSNESS, GOOD HEALTH

Baby boomers are considered the healthiest generation in the history of this age range. So then, why the health and fitness craze among boomers?

Of the many explanations offered, one is: to avoid a trip to the hospital or the development of a serious illness that could involve expensive and difficult treatment.

Is the quest for health like diving for sunken treasure—patrolling the sea floor for hoped-for doubloons, and yet at the same time dodging any nasty predators?

Or is it more promising than that, more like locating the deed to a home one already owns? In other words, is obtaining health more a matter of grasping what’s already ours?


The point is that the quest for health doesn’t have to be awash with risks and concerns. Finding good health and keeping it become easier as we understand that we already include good health. Like the deed to the house, health is ours even if it seems momentarily mislaid.

For starters, consider the link between good health and good consciousness. Stories abound of a day spent peeved at the boss, followed by a night spent in physical distress. Happily, more inspiring stories also abound. These tell of a day spent in gratitude or laughter or real appreciation, followed by a night of harmony and well-being.

The more we see health as a condition of consciousness rather than a phenomenon of physicality, the surer our health becomes. Fear, anger, criticism—as well as being peeved at the boss—seem to lurk in the dark corners of thought, ready to threaten our best efforts. They don’t have to.

How to dispose of those negatives? Christ Jesus offers invaluable counsel: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). What an assurance! Here was a man who walked over an ocean of troubles without sinking, who established health where it was needed, who even restored the lifeless to life. We can abide in him. We can find our thinking and being within the spirit of Love, of Truth, of Life—that is, within Christ.

Could gratitude, love, delight—all qualities Jesus lived and taught—be considered among his "words" that abide in us? Could health? It is natural for gratitude, joy, warmth—and health—to abide in us. Then no space is left for anger, criticism, fear—or illness—to abide in us.

But what about when a host of good thoughts apparently makes little difference? Although the good thoughts/good health connection has long been documented, some cases don’t appear to fit the pattern. There are people with rotten thoughts who apparently are healthy for the time being. Why?

Perhaps we’re tracing those good thoughts to the wrong source. If we’re counting on the human mind to take us on our quest for health, we’re relying on a leaky boat. Only the divine consciousness, coming from God, the divine Mind, is sure.

The divine Mind not only leads us to better consciousness and better health; it leads us out of the limiting, fearful realm of materialism itself. The human mind, whose realm is the belief of life and health in matter, is not capable of rising above itself. The human mind, even engaged in positive thinking, does not compare to the divine.

As we glimpse that God is the only Mind—that Mind which is in Christ—it dawns on us that the so-called human mind cannot produce or maintain real health.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, says, "Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health" (p. 120).

Science and Health is filled with guidance on how we move from the testimony of the material senses to evidence that is sound. The book speaks tenderly to the sick, turning thought from fears and symptoms to what is spiritually assuring. Physical healing follows.

At the same time, health is not, precisely speaking, something we get. True health is something we already have and always include. It comes to us straight from divine Mind. If we mistakenly view health in terms of physicality, it seems subject to chance and loss. See it in the consciousness of divine Mind, and it is solid.

Since health is not a condition of matter, a materially based mentality cannot conceive of true health and certainly cannot preserve it. Nor can a materially based mentality harm true health. As we see that health does not abide in matter, but that we abide in the consciousness of Christ, we find that health abides in us. Therefore, it can’t truly be lost or destroyed.

We can always go further in demonstrating this. Doing so involves a shift of thought. It means leaving the reference points of a material mind and all it’s convinced of, all it dreads. It means dwelling with delight, love, and gratitude in the consciousness—or kingdom—of the Divine.

This consciousness is the "house" our heavenly Father has deeded to us. Jesus referred to it when he spoke of our Father’s good pleasure in giving us the kingdom (see Luke 12:32). Abiding in this home, this consciousness, helps us to better health day after day. .

(Channing Walker is a contributing editor.)


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Get fit

Exercise your right to be free

of a material view of self.

Eliminate graven images

of fat or thin matter.

Walk over the waves

of commercial food theories.

Count your blessings.

Firm up your understanding of Spirit

as the only substance.

Tone your thinking

with unselfish, brotherly love.

Cut out criticism.

Run down the path of forgiveness.

Strengthen your trust

in the omnipotence of goodness.

Cool down with tender patience.

Balance the scales

with mercy and truth.

Shower the world with kindness.

Pallas Hubler


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