Alisa Keeton

Alisa Keeton, a certified wellness professional with more than 20 years of experience, has created a remarkable platform for spiritual transformation as the founder of Revelation Wellness, a non-profit that bridges the gap between faith and fitness. Alisa gives her time and energy to helping others see our bodies as a resource for connecting with God and as the means through which his love interacts with others. Alisa takes some time in this interview to explain how the process of “beauty stacking” helps her break out of a dry place, why walking is her go-to spiritual practice and how she makes a habit of holding others accountable to their “God-sized” dreams. Continue reading for inspiration to live life from your whole person—mind, soul and body.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to a meal than palate and preference. How does your go-to order at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

I’m a homegrown Latina in the state of Arizona. My love for authentic Mexican food runs deep. My favorite go-to meal is one I first ate seated in a highchair. Growing up, after my father cashed his paycheck for the week, we would head straight to Don Jose’s for Mexican food every Thursday. You might think a girl like me who teaches health and wellness for an embodied faith would be averse to the greasy plate left behind after a good meal at Don Jose’s, but you would be wrong.

I liken my life’s work to that of Mexican food. It’s spicy and hot. I bring heat into people’s life by teaching them to believe they can do hard things, like the “greater things than these” in John 14:12 that Jesus said we would do. The greater things require us to go and do as Jesus did. But for many, going and doing requires a kind and compassionate guide to lead them into a wholeness that comes from spiritual training that includes our physicality.

Like Mexican food, I get to bring spice and heat into people’s lives while they learn to lean into the power of the Holy Spirit that resides in their bodies. They learn to do things they never thought they could do, like forgiving and loving their enemies. Forgiving and loving those who hurt us is an act, not just a belief. And all action requires a body. Whether or not that body can do a burpee or a push-up is irrelevant. What’s relevant is the body that requires our feet to follow Jesus and our voice to be used to bless or forgive another. As we follow Jesus, we are set free, stay free and can set others free.

Orange Vespa scooter — Juan Domenech; Unsplash

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests, but we tend to hide them. What do you love doing that might surprise (or shock) people?

When I find myself in a dry place, unable to hear from the Lord or feel excited about what I get to do, I beauty stack. I purposely push away from my computer or lift my head from my phone, and I take a walk. For just a few minutes, I get out of my work world, get out into the created world and hoard beauty. When we look for beauty, we can find it. When I see beauty, I stack it away like a squirrel does with nuts for the winter.

Another favorite way to enter the world and beauty stack is moving through the open air on my Vespa scooter. During COVID my husband and I got crazy, and like two wild teens, we purchased Vespa scooters. Mine is bright orange. (Although orange is my favorite color, I probably chose that color for my scooter so this novice motorbike rider could feel safely seen by cars.) When feeling spiritually dehydrated, I clamp on my helmet, throw my legs over the seat, flick the kickstand back and head out into the open air. Something about moving my body through open-air space makes me feel alive. Plus, when riding a motorbike, it requires total attention. It’s a mindful movement that feels like meditation. Moving quickly through space, with the wind in my hair and on my face, recharges my soul. I’m a happy woman, and God feels very near. Mindful risk-taking partnered with beauty supercharges me.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

My superpower is faith. I tell my friends, “Please only tell me your dreams if you want me to keep you accountable to them.” I truly believe that if God said it, he will do it. And if we can dream it with God, and it feels just out of reach in our capability, then most likely that is a God-promise waiting to come to completion. If it is a God-sized dream, it’s ours for the taking. I believe God when he says nothing will be impossible for those who believe.

The kryptonite to my superpower of faith is battling expectations in others that lead to disappointment. I can get in trouble when I believe in others and they don’t believe in themselves due to the lies they believe. I must remind myself that we are all on our faith journey with God; more than anything, we all need patience and kindness when we fall short of the goal. It’s God who gets people to their finish lines, not me.

Now that I’m older, have been walking with God for almost 25 years, and desire his heart to replace my heart for people, my superpower is refined. Living in humility, I can look at my weaknesses and see how I continually fall short. I need to practice ongoing compassion and kindness toward myself, and that’s the same thing I can now give away to others. God has grown my “hot and spicy” heart into one with compassion and empathy. I have learned to let go of my expectations of people as I keep my joy up and give God glory. He knows what he is doing. I’m just a daughter of God hoping to make heaven seen.

When kryptonite comes near me, I don’t react emotionally. Instead, I feel my emotions and take them to God to process. A day doesn’t seem to go by that I don’t need to practice taking my disappointments to God to tell me what he sees and thinks. The practice of metabolizing my pain that I teach in my book, “The Body Revelation: Physical and Spiritual Practices to Metabolize Pain, Banish Shame, and Connect to God with Your Whole Self,” keeps my superhero superpower of faith intact and the kryptonite of expectations and disappointment out of reach.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

My toil is my message, the mission of Revelation Wellness, the ministry God started through me in 2011. When it comes to our physical bodies, the body of Christ has been silent for too long. When we did have something to say, it was too extreme. The dualistic thinking that the body is bad and the soul is good has not served the Church well. Jesus had a body and gave his body for ours, and one day we will have a resurrected body when God makes all things new. If the body doesn’t matter, why, one day, do we get a new one?

Or there is the other extreme of asceticism — punishing the body to prove one’s holiness. Since the church hasn’t addressed the body in a way that is honoring and kind, the world swooped in, and off to the races we went with the health and fitness craze of the twentieth century. Without God at the center, health and fitness loses its way, and the toxicity of diet culture fills the air.

I spend my time obsessively seeking God in his written and whispered words to me while looking at all the incredible science-backed research we now have concerning the body-mind connection. God, the One who designed our bodies and knows what they are for and how they work, surely has something to say about our bodies, and I am gladly seeking to listen, learn and teach. I spend my days working away on the puzzle pieces to understand how our bodies work while honoring the times we live in, leaving room for individuality. I will keep working at this until it’s a normal thought that our bodies are a doxology and that they are the way God’s love gets heard and seen.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

Without the work of the Holy Spirit in me and then this ministry, the whole cause of teaching people how to have a wholehearted and embodied faith is hopeless. The Holy Spirit is the activity of God. When teaching the body of Christ about the importance of their bodies, the common ground we can all stand on is that our bodies make possible activity. The Holy Spirit, the presence of God, is always looking for a partner — a body to put on like a glove. The Holy Spirit is the Helper who has taught me everything I needed to know regarding health and well-being. He’s not done talking, so I will stay busy listening. Almost all of what he is teaching is first for me — teaching me the things I am still learning to mature in Christlikeness. Then, once I understand and have applied it, I can teach it to others. I know it's the Holy Spirit teaching me when it’s something I could not have learned on my own, and it’s something that makes me love and awe in God more.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Some people divide things sacred and things secular. But you know, God can surprise us in unlikely places. How do you find spiritual renewal in so-called “nonspiritual” activities?

The spiritual practice of walking is doing amazing things in my heart. Some might say walking is not a spiritual discipline, but if a spiritual discipline’s goal is to form into Christ’s likeness, then walking is one for me. Every day Jesus walked. He walked to where the Father told him to go to do what the Father told him to do. Some scholars say Jesus walked 10 miles a day, equal to 20,000 steps a day. When we walk, the brain is bilaterally stimulated, which enables the processing of emotions and memories. Research also shows that walking increases our working memory and divergent thinking. For me, bilateral stimulation of my brain seems to open an ability to communicate with the Lord in a way I can’t being seated in a chair.

I encourage a short walk and talk with the Lord, without the phone, to anyone feeling stuck. And you don’t have to go outside to go for a walk and reap the bilateral brain stimulation. Just get up from your sitting spot and move your body. March in place. Toe tap. Pump your arms. Increase the blood flow and invite God into the moment to speak, and I promise you something will shift. We do practices because they create an effect. Watch the good impact in your body and brain when you stand up to give God your attention while you move.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three of your favorite resources?

I don’t mean to toot our own horn, but since the message of living an embodied faith is not a prevailing teaching, I encourage anyone reading this in need of a body revelation to check out revelationwellness.org. Much of the content is stuff I created because the resources didn’t exist. Whether someone accesses our free weekly Revelation Wellness Healthy & Whole podcast, RevWell TV (our at-home streaming health and wellness content) or the Revelation Wellness app where a safe community of healthy, whole people are breaking free from diet culture to live the life God has for them as a body, those resources are daily changing lives.

It’s time to start living as whole people. Whole people love God and love others with no strings attached because our bodies are free to move. Our bodies are how love is made visible. The world needs people who have decided to host the compassion, love, mercy and power of Jesus Christ. Containing that kind of goodness in our bodies and brains takes training. All our resources are here to strengthen your faith in God until it makes its way out of your body.

We all have things we cling to in order to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it’s done for you.

Well, my answer to this question harkens back to your question about what spiritual discipline is shaping me. As a woman who can “sit” in up to six hours of meetings daily, my walking desk treadmill is a massive resource for me. You may have heard health experts say that sitting is the new smoking. Our bodies were not made to sit as much as technology has allowed us to. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Luddite. I love the creativity and benefits that technology has unleashed.

Take the apostle Paul, the chief letter writer of the New Testament. Imagine the amazement he would have at our ability to send an e-mail letter and within moments have our message arrive on the other side of the world. Technology has made life easier for us, and a lot less sweat equity is required for our daily living. Yet our bodies were made to move and make increase, not just sit and think in front of a computer screen or stare at a tiny keyboard in our hand. My walking treadmill underneath my desk allows me to move at a slow pace, rocking the weight of my body right and left while naturally being mindful of my posture that places my body weight over my feet. This walking desk treadmill helps me get through my day with the energy and focus that comes with staying connected to my body while I work. I encourage anyone reading this to resource your body with whatever it needs and to remember your body is a resource for connecting to God and remaining in mind, body, and soul well-being. True health and healing don’t come through more squats and salads but through staying connected to God as you think, feel and choose with him. In his presence is fullness of joy.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

What you can expect from me in the future is more writing, teaching and speaking about the message of living as whole people doing hard things because we have learned how to host God’s presence in our bodies continually.

Alisa echoes Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 6:19 in her mission to help others understand how our bodies play a significant role in our spirituality: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” She combines her wisdom from her experience in the health industry with her faith to relay the message that true wellness comes from connection with the One who created us — our minds, souls and bodies. She encourages us to take time to move our bodies and to invite God into that time with us. How can you set aside time this week to incorporate movement into your prayer and worship time?