QPME: Fitness for Marines

 “I am the captain of my soul.”

Nelson Mandela

Spiritual Fitness includes an individual's or group's ability to maintain beliefs, principles, and values needed to provide support in times of stress. Spiritual fitness includes the development of personal qualities needed to sustain a person in times of stress, hardship. and tragedy. These personal qualities may come from religious, philosophical, or human values and form the basis for character, disposition, decision making, and integrity. Human spirit development provides people with an understanding of who they are in terms of core values and identity. This awareness contributes to consistent behavior in accordance with one's values and identity and living with integrity. 

Spiritual Fitness has several traditional rather than scientific components. Those components include spiritual beliefs, values and practices; core beliefs: purpose and meaning; self-awareness, reflection and introspection; transcendence; relationships beyond self; and spiritual experiences. These components overlap, interpenetrate, and have somewhat different meanings in different traditions.

A strong spirit promotes resiliency and enhances one's ability to mitigate adverse responses to stress. Promoting spiritual fitness is a vital component of a TFF program and fully complements the other seven fitness domains.