Enjoying Life. Enjoying Your Exercise.

Friends,

Perhaps a bland blog subject title, but I think it nonetheless fits.  I don't claim to be a world-class or expert anything, but I do think I've discovered some things along the way.  Do you have to force yourself to work out?  Do you feel anxiety about your day?  Are you unhappy?  Are you constantly chasing after who-knows-what?

Simplify.  What do you enjoy doing?  Realize that you can't be ALL things, and you can't do well at everything.  If you try, you will simply frustrate yourself and perhaps others.  Lessen the stress.  Let go of and even stop doing altogether those things which steal your time but you either have no aptitude for - or more importantly, do not enjoy as much as other valuable things.  You don't know how many days you have on this earth, so clear out the time-takers that are not as valuable as the time they take.  Learn to be OK with it too.   Make sense?  This  has been an extremely valuable discovery in my own life, and has taken away much stress.  Pick a few things that you really enjoy and find valuable.  These should be things that you feel define you - or that you want to define you.  Do them.  Let the other things fall by the wayside.

Make your chosen activities more YOU.  When it comes to exercise, make it a part of your life - like eating, breathing, and talking.  Visualize yourself as a LIVING, MOVING, creature!  Do you want to be a sitting, lying down person?  Also consider that the sitting or the lying down feels best when it is contrasted with movement, just like a cold drink tastes better on a hot day!  Learn to enjoy to movement.  Learn to enjoy moving under your own power.  Humans have tremendous endurance and other athletic potential.  Embrace the mystery of where your potential lies, and realize that the journey can be enjoyable in itself.  This is key.  The journey is what takes the most time, so embrace it.  You may not like the way your body works or looks now.  That's OK.  Be patient.  Visualization is good.  I have sometimes visualized myself as a saluki.  I have also visualized myself as a gazelle.  What works for you?  Since my focus is fleet-footed endurance, these animals work for me.  A poor choice (if you want to enjoy or do well at running) is visualizing yourself as a monkey, hippo, elephant, or anteater!  This hopefully goes without saying.  As your body changes in positive ways, you can even enjoy the feeling of being in your own skin.  This is a powerful motivator.

Develop a meditative, patient attitude/frame of mind.  I have often considered how some of the poorest nations on earth sometimes have the best endurance (typically runners) athletes.  I believe this is not only because they lack resources for sports requiring expensive equipment, but more importantly because the people are used to suffering, waiting, and not needing constant entertainment.  One of the weaknesses of the western world and western mindset is the tendency to need/expect things quickly.  It can help in many areas, but when it comes to enjoying your distance running, hiking, or similar things, it's not good! Not only is it not good for enjoyment, but it is not good for performance in these types of pursuits.  Learn to differentiate between injury pain (bad!) and the low-grade discomfort that comes from physical activity like running.  This is the "suffering" you must come to endure and even enjoy.  Practice relaxing your body even while using it.  Unwind your mind.  If something does not NEED to be tensed up, make sure it's not tensed up!

One other thing.  Destroy all thoughts of "spirit good - body/matter bad".  This tends to be a problem - for modern-day Christians.  Sorry, fellow Christians, but many of you (us) have neglected our God-given bodies as if it were any enemy.  Yes, it's corrupted by the effects of the fall, but you are not made more godly by letting yourself get grossly overweight, not exercising, etc.  Consider that the unhealthy practices (or lack of healthy practices) may in fact be violations of the 6th Commandment - toward yourself!  A slow killing of oneself.  It's one thing to give your life for another - it's another thing entirely to just give up!  Don't falsely consider yourself somehow more spiritual by doing that.  Use the body and abilities God has given you.  Be thankful, and give praise to Him as you engage in activity and as you begin to love it.  This goes for all things.  Don't neglect or kick at what you've been so graciously given.

That's all for now.  I had simply felt compelled to publish my thoughts this morning.  I hope it helps you!