October 15th, 2008
Your Turn: Going with the flow…
…without thinking about it too hard.
I’ve spent less time online in recent weeks than I ever can recall since I started using the Internet in 1997. Somehow, getting laid off from my job 6 weeks ago has afforded me this incredibly introspective time in which I’ve allowed myself to meander, sleep in, dream, investigate, contemplate, ruminate, and masticate, both literally and figuratively.
Fascinating what happens when Life, the Universe, and Everything converges to set you in the direction of your dreams - even if you got lost, or at least distracted, along the way. This time last year I was settling in with my new roomate and partner. Now I’m engaged to be married with my kids living with us and out of a job - but somehow this feels like it was the best thing ever to happen to me in a long while.
I’ve had some serious anxiety in the last few years with issues involving my financial viability, parenting, relationships, security, spirituality…and then somehow along the way things seem to have fallen into place.
Something I always wanted to do - but procrastinated about repeatedly - was to get in shape. Drop the weight, get fit. For the last month I have been running at the local gym and have gone up from a couple of times a week to 5 days a week of 40 minutes of cardio each time. Currently I am running 15 k a week and my time getting this done has diminished incrementally - I am seeing results and it feels damn good.
I’ve added other activites - yoga once a week, pilates twice, and today I am heading to a core strengthening class. Somehow, with the running, the fitness classes, and the time, I’ve found myself with more momentum, and the other things that weighed me down - worries - have been simply put aside for now while I find my pace. It’s picking up, becoming steadier, and I think I am actually getting somewhere - without looking at it too directly or trying too hard. Strange and exciting.
What do all of these have to do with one another? I’m not sure how to articulate it more coherently than this, except to say that somehow I simply believed that it was time for me to feel better inside my own skin, and I started following the instinct, naturally. A month later, and I am surprising myself.
Let’s see where this takes me.
Your Turn: With the changing seasons of your life, what lasting changes have you made for the better? How did you motivate yourself?
