Tag: mindfulness

Thankful for Young vs Old, Escalating Positivity, & Body Awareness

Day 2,993

Growth:

I think people get old when they stop thinking about the future. If you want to find someone’s true age, listen to them. If they talk about the past and they talk about all the things that happened that they did, they’ve gotten old. If they think about their dreams, their aspirations, what they’re still looking forward to – they’re young.”

Ric Elias quoted by Peter Attia in Outlive

Truth.

Appreciation:

Stress is going to happen in our lives. Something outside of our control happens, causes an unexpected issue, and we have to figure out how to adapt to it or how to correct it. What we can control is the way we respond, the way we choose our attitudes in those moments. What really stuck out to me today is how inspiring it is to spend time with people who smile and choose joy even in moments of stress. Their positive energy is contagious and help create more smiles for all around them. It is like an upward spiral of joy in the face of stress as one person’s positive response to a challenge inspires another to smile through their stress which in they inspire someone else to choose the same path. So awesome seeing the escalation of positivity like that!!! Seeing teammates in action like this today remind me how important it is to choose the right attitude – to help ourselves AND to help others.

Presence:

When I got out of bed this morning my legs were sore! It took a hot minute to get up the courage to step out of bed and see what I had underneath me… but then everything went very well. My legs loosened up rather quickly! Once I was on my bike and got moving it seemed as if everything was back to normal. My cadence was solid and held right at 90-95 while my resistance stayed put with where it normally is. All in all, it felt pretty good.

The moment of presence I am grateful for was the hyper awareness of the sensations in my leg muscles and elsewhere throughout my body today. In an action as simple as turning my torso I can feel the muscles that were worked yesterday and I paid extra attention to how they were feeling. It is not often that I put that much focus into the sensations within my body, it was pretty enlightening today!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Shutting Down Ego, Awareness of Direction, & Ghosts of Vacations Past

Day 2,990

Growth:

I met with a personal trainer today and he was asking a bunch of questions to help me build the right exercise plan. As we were talking I caught myself talking about how much I already know about weightlifting. In a stroke of divine awareness I realized what I was doing and apologized. I shared that the reason I was there was because my past workouts never quite did exactly what I’d wanted, and that was why I was talking to an expert – for THEIR advice. As soon as I flipped the switch from thinking I needed to not sound like I didn’t know what I was doing to thinking that I am a beginner and need all the help I can get everything changed for the better so quickly. I was picking up on things I’d never realized and was seeing a more clear and accurate picture of how everything works together.

Ego is such a bastard sometimes. In trying to not “look bad” I get in my own way of learning, the exact opposite of the growth mindset I work to cultivate. Here’s to realizing when the ego need to be shut down (almost all the time!).

Appreciation:

When I pause to take time to listen to the vibes the Universe is sending I’m surrounded by so many positive reaffirmations of heading in the right direction. Recently a couple of common themes have been slowly percolating to the surface and are helping me see how I really should shift in a couple of very positive ways – focusing more letting go (ego), remembering to take care of my physical health as I have nothing without it, and remembering to keep my purpose in mind as I choose actions. As I pause and listen (maybe observe is a better word for it… ?) the awareness really kicks in and helps me see the right line. Without diving too deeply into the details, I’m grateful for the awareness of the right direction.

Presence:

Over the past 24 hours there have been many ghosts of vacations past coming to visit! Gavin shared his treasure trove of vacation knickknacks last night. I dreamt of trips to Iceland and New Zealand. Gavin mentioned our trip to Iceland in a different conversation. During two different conversations I talked about two different vacation experiences. All around me were moments of presence in a conversation as a direct result of a past vacation experience.

If anyone reading this is questioning whether or not they should take a vacation – the answer is YES!!! Schedule a trip, it will blow your mind on so many levels, open your mind to so many new things, AND provide so many moments of presence in the future.

Thanks!!!