{"id":123504,"date":"2025-08-06T11:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123504\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:51:13","slug":"army-releases-spiritual-fitness-guide-to-help-soldiers-strengthen-their-will-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123504\/","title":{"rendered":"Army releases \u2018spiritual fitness guide\u2019 to help soldiers strengthen their will to fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Two<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tSgt. Maj. Meaghan B. Simmons, chaplain corps regimental sergeant major, from left, Army veteran Jasmin McKenzie and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s chief of chaplains, pose for a selfie during the Warrior Games in Orlando, Fla., in June 2024. The Army has released a spiritual fitness guide focused on helping soldiers derive meaning from their military service. (James Dickson\/U.S. Army)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army has released new guidance designed to get soldiers in tip-top spiritual shape for the battlefield. <\/p>\n

The Army Spiritual Fitness Guide<\/a>, released last week, is a 112-page document that acts as a road map to help soldiers develop a sense of purpose and mental resilience. <\/p>\n

While the guidance doesn\u2019t focus on any one religion, it does discuss the importance of belief systems as a building block of spiritual strength. <\/p>\n

Army leaders say it\u2019s a key part of overall readiness and providing soldiers with the \u201cwill to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaghan B. Simmons, regimental sergeant major for the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, said the guide will help to build a foundation of \u201cspiritually healthy, purpose-driven soldiers and families.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Soldiers derive purpose from their source of inner strength and collective mission, they become unstoppable in war,\u201d Simmons wrote in the guide\u2019s foreword. <\/p>\n

The Army Chaplain Corps, which has served as the service\u2019s primary spiritual support for 250 years, developed the material through a \u201ccomprehensive and rigorous evidence-based approach,\u201d according to the document. <\/p>\n

The guide aligns with the Army\u2019s existing Holistic Health and Fitness program, which includes spirituality as one of the five categories of readiness, alongside physical, mental, nutrition and sleep. <\/p>\n

The guide\u2019s nine chapters lay out the components of a soldier\u2019s spirit, principles of spiritual fitness and suggested exercises for spiritual growth. <\/p>\n

The guidance is also supplemented by a hands-on \u201cbattlebook\u201d<\/a> that includes more exercises, reflections and scenarios designed to train inner resilience just like physical readiness.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tArmy chaplain Capt. Adam Strater reads from the Haggadah during a Passover Seder at Irbil Air Base, Iraq, April 18, 2025. The Army’s newly issued spiritual fitness guide aims to help soldiers find purpose and derive meaning from their military service. (Andrew Lightsey IV\/U.S. Army)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\"U.S.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAs part of Operation Holistic Warrior 2025, soldiers navigate an obstacle on the team development course at Fort Jackson, S.C., March 27, 2025. The Army has released a spiritual fitness guide focused on helping soldiers derive meaning from their military service. (Crystal Harlow\/U.S. Army)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In addition to highlighting the importance of creative expression, emotional intelligence and human connection, the guide also lays out four stages of spiritual development, helping soldiers move from a place of feeling helpless to feeling empowered. <\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., chief of chaplains for the Army, said the service must be equipped to lead service members to success in both war and life. <\/p>\n

The guide provides field-tested advice for navigating the uncertainties that may come with future large-scale operations, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese pages are not just a culmination of shared experience; they highlight the remarkable operational effectiveness of spiritual strength,\u201d Green wrote in the guide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sgt. Maj. Meaghan B. Simmons, chaplain corps regimental sergeant major, from left, Army veteran Jasmin McKenzie and Maj.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[76236,76239,76242,76235,1198,210,76240,76238,76237,76241,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-123504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-army-chaplain-corps","9":"tag-army-holistic-health-fitness","10":"tag-army-mental-health","11":"tag-army-spiritual-fitness-guide","12":"tag-fitness","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-military-chaplain","15":"tag-military-spirituality","16":"tag-soldier-mental-resilience","17":"tag-soldier-wellbeing","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114981679235226616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}