Back in the day……………it was all about hard work. “Put your nose to the grind stone.” “No pain no gain.” “The only way you can get a head in life is if you work harder.”

Do you think it’s possible that we have gotten into the habit of “working harder?” Or at least our brains think that working harder is supposed to be better. If you think that way then all you do is kick yourself when you don’t believe you are working ‘hard enough.’
And who says what ‘hard enough’ is anyway? How do YOU measure hard enough? Do you compare yourself to someone else? Maybe that’s a little restrictive.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be yourself and start from where YOU ARE right at this moment? How often do we allow ourselves the chance to do that? I mean………..when is the last time any of us gave ourselves a moment to just find out how it feels to just “BE where YOU ARE?” Because, truly, it is only from that place that you can start to grow and find more and easier and better ways of doing and being.

I was able to do that over the weekend. I went for a mountain bike ride with friends. There is a somewhat steep loose rocky climb that I have always remembered to be quite difficult to climb. For what ever reason I was always in the mind set, “just get to the top , just get to the top, go, go, go!” This past weekend I tried a question instead of a command to myself. “How can this be easier?” Funny enough, I found an amazing amount of ease in myself. It was still a climb, but, it felt smooth and flowing and much much lighter than ever before. Nice!! Give it a try. But, don’t forget , you should consider starting from where YOU ARE! Sometimes you have to let some things go in order to find that starting place. But, it feels great!

Hmmmmmmmmm!!!  Don’t we all want to do something better?  Is it possible to try so hard you actually get in your own way???  Maybe it would be better to slow down a bit and be a little more supple and sensory in what we’re doing.  When we are say, running or riding, is it all about the heart rate or the power out put or speed?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Consider this: have you ever had a little twinge of back pain, knee pain, hamstring pain, or calf pain and finish your workout to find that you can’t walk the next day?  Why were you able to keep going? Why didn’t something let you know it could end up like that?  We often train at uncomfortable levels for long periods of time without any consequence.  But, sometimes it’s not like that.  Could it be that we have dulled our ability to sense ourselves in what we do because it has become a habit?  Have we gotten in the habit of setting our sites on a time/wattage/speed/podium placement/the person ahead of us and lost site of our own selves?  Have we focused outside of ourselves so much that we have forgotten how to listen?  Is it possible to back up and listen and find out that hmmmmmm maybe that hamstring pain is actually related to the fact that our low back muscles are actually still pulling that pelvis in the other direction?  How could this be????  Is it possible that we quit listening to the back muscles a long time ago?  Now we have a nagging hamstring pain that won’t allow a solid bike ride more than an hour or a run more than 5 miles.  Is it a system wide focus on something outside yourself that is counter productive????  You can find ease in yourself.  But………………you must listen first and then choose!!  Find the ease and choose it!!!  Join me in class at CasaBagus!