Priest in Sweden uses crossfit to increase well-being on Instagram
Oskar Arngarden’s Instagram account contains posts with spiritual reflections and healthy lifestyle habits.
Under the Instagram handle “crossfitpriest,” Swedish hospital chaplain Oskar Arngarden shares fitness and spiritual advice to more than 30,000 followers, helping to heal body, mind, and spirit.
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“God is in every aspect of my life,” says the 38-year-old. “When I work out, it’s also in some way a relational interaction, a prayer with God.”
When he pulls out his mobile phone in the gym opposite the Academic Hospital in Uppsala – where he is a priest in the Swedish Lutheran Church – the muscular father of two shows videos on his Instagram account of him lifting weights and working out.
“The Bible says your body is your temple. And part of that is thinking, ‘How am I going to treat my temple?'” While the negative effects of social media are well-documented, Arngarden says social media can also be a good place to talk about “faith and health, and… our existential, mental health.”
His account also includes posts with spiritual reflections and healthy living habits. The young priest launched his first Instagram account in 2019. He became such a sensation that he was quickly overwhelmed.
“It got a bit out of hand… In a couple of months I had 160,000 followers, and I’m quite a shy guy so for me it wasn’t that comfortable”. At the same time he suffered from depression. He ended up closing his account.
In 2020, he returned to Instagram, with a clearer idea of the message he wanted to deliver – especially to his subscribers in Sweden, one of the most secular countries in the world.
– We are held back by a history where the church was at the center, and people came to the church, he says. “Now we have to find ways for the church to come to meet people.
“And where are the people? They’re on social media.” For him, there is “something spiritual about social media,” and how it allows users to “interact with the whole world.”
Modern technology offers a unique way for him to reach out, he says, and show how his faith and exercise routines are inextricably linked. “My faith is always with me in everything I do,” he says.
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Some of his followers contact him directly through the social media app and it’s “the deeper conversations” that interest him the most. Some tell him about their own life experiences or their spirituality. “I want that interaction with other people, to hear their history and stories,” he says.