Reflections on a Silent Retreat

Having spent the last four days of last week on a Silent Retreat, I'm back in business. I devoted my time to an 8' by 10' room with a single bed, a sink, and a desk, and got caught up on my reading, writing, and reflection.

And exercising.

This is not a very big area to move around in, for sure, but I found time to do Iso's out of John Peterson's Isometric Power Revolution book, and of course, my VRT.

My working area in this small room was literally 3' by 5', but I found no problem utilizing this space for doing any and all exercises in my VRT DVD, and the ISO's in John's IPR book.

So outside of various lectures we could listen to about four times throughout the day, my time was spent exercising, reading and writing. Much like the life of a cloistered monk, except that he would perhaps exclude the exercising part of the question.

I came home to my wife, and she says, "Looks like you've been working out! And you lost weight, too! What kind of a retreat is that? Did they have a workout room of some kind?" I said yes, they did in the basement of the facility, but I never went down there. Just stayed in my room, or attended lectures in a chapel.

So here's one for those living in technologically unimproved surroundings; lose weight, gain muscle, improve your physique in a living area designed for a monk or a seminary student.

Remember "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano," or the old Latin phrase for, "A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body."

--Greg Mangan