Sometimes you have to know what you don't want in order to know what you DO want! I think one of the earliest exmples of this is how we feel about our parents, or at least one of our parents! Who hasn't thought "I never want to be like them!" Myabe you are lucky and had great examples of parents and wanted to be just like them, either way we have people or things that inspire us in positive AND negative ways.
Two recent examples in my life came from training. The first from my yoga practice. There is this one teacher that bugs the crap out of me. I try and ignore my personal feeling about her, and most of the time I succeed....but I still try and avoid her classes when I have other options. The way she teaches bugs me, but some of the other things she does bug the crap out of me too. One of them is that she is always in a freakin' rush! Dashing out of the yoga room before the door hits her in the ass!
In Bikram yoga the last 2 minute savasana is supposed the be "the most important part of the practice" and you can be regulary hasseled into staying no matter how late the class can run over. This used to chap my hide big time. A Bikram class is already 90 minutes long, now you are asking me to take another 2 minutes to relax? The nerve! (I'm being sarcastic now).
Anyway, this particular teacher never stays in savasana when she practices, and the noise she makes and bad energy she creates by rushing out of the yoga room bothered me so much that one day I swore I never wanted to be like her! Argh! From that point on I was going to stay a full 15 minutes everyday meditating at the end of class!
I did indeed start to do this and I'm glad. In this "extra" time I was always filled with amazing thoughts and many times some great ideas for imporving my life came during these moments.
The other happened just yesterday. I ran into someone at the gym that is an "over-exerciser". I wrote a blopost a while back on "junk miles". Junk miles are time and energy you put into exercising that do not improve skill and/or performance. This reminded me of an episode of some addition show I watched months ago where this woman was addicted to her treadmill! Waht a metaphor that one is huh? A treadmill! Like a hamster or rat running, running, running.
Two recent examples in my life came from training. The first from my yoga practice. There is this one teacher that bugs the crap out of me. I try and ignore my personal feeling about her, and most of the time I succeed....but I still try and avoid her classes when I have other options. The way she teaches bugs me, but some of the other things she does bug the crap out of me too. One of them is that she is always in a freakin' rush! Dashing out of the yoga room before the door hits her in the ass!
In Bikram yoga the last 2 minute savasana is supposed the be "the most important part of the practice" and you can be regulary hasseled into staying no matter how late the class can run over. This used to chap my hide big time. A Bikram class is already 90 minutes long, now you are asking me to take another 2 minutes to relax? The nerve! (I'm being sarcastic now).
Anyway, this particular teacher never stays in savasana when she practices, and the noise she makes and bad energy she creates by rushing out of the yoga room bothered me so much that one day I swore I never wanted to be like her! Argh! From that point on I was going to stay a full 15 minutes everyday meditating at the end of class!
I did indeed start to do this and I'm glad. In this "extra" time I was always filled with amazing thoughts and many times some great ideas for imporving my life came during these moments.
The other happened just yesterday. I ran into someone at the gym that is an "over-exerciser". I wrote a blopost a while back on "junk miles". Junk miles are time and energy you put into exercising that do not improve skill and/or performance. This reminded me of an episode of some addition show I watched months ago where this woman was addicted to her treadmill! Waht a metaphor that one is huh? A treadmill! Like a hamster or rat running, running, running.
I don't know why other people overexercise but topping the list of why I find myself overexercising is falling victim to some of my fears. And although I'm getting better about recognizing it I still do it, but not nearly as much as I used to.
Fear of gaining weight. One cannot out-exercise a bad diet, so time is so much better spent on that end.
Fear of not training enough...whatever that means. Enough for what? Last time I checked no one, especially me was competing in anything.
Fear of not being as good as other women (or men if you're a man). Life is not a competetion, or a race with a finish line.
As much as I like the feeling that regular and consistent exercise gives me, I do find myself trying to fit as much as I can into my day, whether "I need it or not".
So what could motivate me to stop or at least lessen the junk miles? Seeing in someone else something I don't want to be. I don't want to be the woman always in a rush. I don't want to be the woman on a treadmill spinning my wheels and going nowhere.
So what could motivate me to stop or at least lessen the junk miles? Seeing in someone else something I don't want to be. I don't want to be the woman always in a rush. I don't want to be the woman on a treadmill spinning my wheels and going nowhere.
Normally I would say something like, "don't focus on what you don't want, focus on what you do want", but I'm not focused on it. I simply took note and moved on. In others we may see reflctions of ourselves, good and bad. I can get irritated by the actions of others until I remind myself that they only serve as examples of what I don't want, reminding me of what I do want, And knowing what I do want is more than half the battle.
4 comments:
Excellent post, and meant for me to read it at this time for me.
It's good to be reminded of what's important.
Fabulous pic too, you look concentrated and intense. ;)
That picture is awesome Mrs Reifind =) eye of the tiger.
Dawn,
You know, we can decide what's improtant everyday as priorities can change.
But once we establish our priorities and don't live accordingly then that's the time to reflect and take the opportunity to re-evaluate.
I'm in a constant state of reevaluation these days!
Lots of important stuff, but what's really important?
joleRKC,
Thanks, I am lucky to have had Mark clip thes shots atken from the 4 hour body video. I have to say , it's cool to have images taken by a professional!
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