Life lessons from my abs

So this one time, I was doing yoga, coaching myself to use my abs-you know, so I remember they are there. So, I tell myself, “engage your core” and then it hit me! It clicked!

Okay, if you know me at all, you probably know that I love a good analogy. I love the parallels between physical and spiritual things. So I’ve been thinking about my core and the link between physical and spiritual so much that I even brought this philosophical topic to our game night. I asked our friends; two of which are PTs, one is a cosmetologist and the other is a nurse, “how important is your core?” They responded with, “its everything!” “If I don’t have a strong core, my back kills by the end of the day”, “I have to regularly work at it or I feel a difference”, "I'm sure that's why my back hurts so much", "working at your core can remedy so many problems", etc.

My own experience with my abs is that if I take time to do even 15 minutes of an exercise in the morning, it is so much easier for me to use them throughout the day. Otherwise, I have to really work at it. Lets me real here, I'm really just “sucking in” my stomach and pretending like I'm using my muscles. So yeah, most of the time I just pretend that my abs are holding me together but really, I'm just faking it.  I know regularly exercising my abs is vital and yet, on a good week, recently, I've done it once.  Lame.

Well, even after this game night conversation I still couldn’t quite put my finger on the connection. Until I heard myself say, “engage your core”.  

Here are some things I’ve learned:

We have a spiritual core. Everyone does. It’s who we are, it’s our connection to God and Christ. 

The more we work at this spiritual core, the stronger it will be. 

The strength of our core affects everything. 

When we neglect our core, we feel a difference. 

It’s so much easier or more possible to engage a core that I exercise!
Knowing that we need to do something is only the start.  Action must be taken.

Faking it is way more work and harder on me.  Spiritually, it takes its tole.

Let me insert something from my spiritual experience.  There have been times in my life when I have felt very centered.  I was doing things I knew strengthened my relationship with God.  Because of this, I felt more confident in my daily life.  There really was a difference.  I am sure you can look back over your life to times and seasons that were like that as well.  If you can't, you can experiment! If you are like me and you know you can do better, now is the time.

How do I exercise or strengthen my spiritual core?

Some ways that have come to my mind come from two talks.

Sister Eubank and President Nelson 

Answer the questions that Sister Eubank puts out:
*How do you feel about Jesus Christ?
*Why do you stay in the Church?
*Why do you believe the Book of Mormon is scripture?
*Where do you get your peace?
*Why does it matter that the prophet has something to say in [2018]?
*How do you know he is a real prophet?

President Nelson suggests we study the scriptures on Jesus Christ from the Topical Guide and memorize The Living Christ document. 

Our core focus should always be Christ! Engage your core! Exercise it and then use it!

What does that look like to you? What are you doing? What commitments or covenants are you keeping? Remember, this makes all the difference. It affects everything!

I'm grateful for my abs and the lessons they've taught me.