Journey to Fitness and Wellbeing

This past Monday, I ran in the Sudbury Fourth of July Road Race.  I hadn’t trained for it at all but, had run 3 miles the previous week and had felt surprisingly good so, thought I’d give it a go.  I thought it was a 5K (3.1 miles) but, when I went to register that morning, found it was 3.8 miles.  A little more than expected.   I thought, “Well, .8 isn’t THAT far” and decided not to worry about it.  I was a little nervous at the start.  I didn’t really feel nervous myself as I was just running for an experiment and a workout but, I think I was catching the nervous buzz of the group.  I worked to keep my energy high and relaxed surrounding myself with light and comfort.  It helped.  The first mile, I went slow to start but found I felt wonderful.  In a book that I read recently, John Douillard’s “Body, Mind, and Sport”, the author says to notice how your body feels while you are working out and only do what feels good.  I translate that to: “How do I feel now?  Is there some adjustment I can make to feel better.”  It really works.  I picked up my pace and still felt good.  I felt really good the whole way.  There was a challenging uphill at the very end but, once I got to the top, I was able to recover pretty quickly.  My son and husband were waiting at the finish line.  I started my sprint in but realized that I had started too soon.  I couldn’t stop the sprint because I knew running in fast at the end would delight my son.  So, I kept it up all the way to the finish line. 

I felt pretty good for the rest of the day and did a regular workout the next day.  No problems.  I started to think, “Why, at 48, do I feel so good?  When I was in my late 20’s I did a lot of running and never felt so relaxed during and good after a race.  What am I doing differently?”  Here is what I came up with:

I went into the race not trying to do my best time but with the thought, “ I want to feel good the whole time.  I want to feel relaxed, enjoy the scenery, notice other people, and have fun.”

I noticed how I was feeling and if I didn’t feel great, I didn’t push myself, I asked my body what I could do to feel better.

• I go for Polarity sessions every other week.  Recently, my Polarity therapist did some great sacral alignment work that I have really noticed.
• I go for Chiropractic care when needed.
• I practice dry brushing and oilation each morning.
• I go to my Ayurveda doctor.  She has given me herbs and food suggestions specific to my constitution.
• I finally got a physical and discovered my iron was very low and that some of my other numbers could be better so, I have been taking some high quality supplements.
• I am doing Cross Fit training with a brilliant mixed martial artist, Paul Witherspoon.  It involves Plyometrics, Named CrossFit workouts (such as Fran, Elizabeth, Dianne) and sparring. 
• I practice Taekwondo regularly with a great teacher.

The theme I notice is that I am paying attention to my body and its signals on my own and through the help of others.  The martial arts training is not just great for the body but, for the mind as well.  And, finding the right practitioners for my body, mind and spirit is key.  I notice that I am continuously opening myself to new ideas and the more I do that, the better my intuition and self-knowledge become.

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