Too Much Exercise and the Spiritual Consequences
On realising that exercise can’t heal your soul.
When I was younger I exercised a lot. Whether it was soccer with my friends at the local park or any other team sport that my school held yearly trophies for, I loved it. The gentle competitiveness and general physicality of sport just felt fun. There was no more to it.
Throughout my teenage years I started to take one form of exercise more seriously — I was a county-level track athlete in the UK, 800m and 1500m were my speciality. I was always at a running track either training or racing. Despite this nigh-on obsession, I was in a good place mentally, there was a purpose to my actions. I was trying to win races, improve my times, and gain selection for various championships. Most importantly, I was still having fun.
Something changed as I got older. I can’t put my finger on exactly when or why but exercise became less of a passion and more of a medication. And not a medication in the comforting and holistic sense. A medication in the scientific sense, a chemical designed to be taken at regular intervals less the pain it was preventing returns or withdrawal symptoms begin.
The older I got the more reliant I became on my exercise medicine. I wanted to numb myself from something and intense exercise was…