Hopko’s 22nd maxim, ‘Exercise regularly’, is about caring for your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, not about becoming athletic, thin, or neurotypical. For autistic Christians, it is part of our prayerful stewardship of a nervous system that is often overloaded, under‑responsive, or both at once. Regular, gentle exercise can help regulate mood, sleep, sensory processing, and anxiety, making it easier to pray, attend services, and keep the other maxims. Exercise might include walking, stretching, swimming, cycling, dancing at home, or even structured stimming and movement breaks – anything that moves your body in a way that is safe, sustainable, and does not feed shame.
Because many autistic people struggle with motor coordination, pain, chronic fatigue, or bad experiences of school sports, ‘exercise regularly’ needs to be adapted, not weaponized. It can mean choosing simple predictable activities; breaking movement into small chunks across the day instead of one long session; using visual schedules or timers; and/or linking movement to existing routines (walking after meals, stretching before prayers, pacing while saying the Jesus Prayer). If public gyms or team sports are overwhelming, home‑based options, quiet outdoor routes, or one‑to‑one sessions may be more realistic. When executive function crashes, you can set the bar very low – five minutes or even just standing and stretching at fixed times – so that the maxim remains keepable rather than an additional source of guilt.
It is also important to disentangle this maxim from contemporary diet culture and from the pressure some autistic people feel to ‘fix’ their bodies to be more acceptable. The point is not self‑punishment or ‘looksmaxxing’, but collaborative care with God for the body he has given you, with its sensory profile, gait, and limits. You might explicitly offer your movement as prayer (‘Lord, receive this walk as thanks for my body’) or dedicate a short walk to interceding for someone. If you have significant health issues, disability, or injury, ‘exercise’ may simply mean whatever movement you can do safely under medical guidance; using aids or going slowly is not a failure. Lived this way, ‘Exercise regularly’ can become a gentle rhythm by which your autistic body is strengthened to bear joy, stress, and worship, rather than an athletic ideal you must somehow reach to please God.
No comments:
Post a Comment