Life is a Lot Harder Than Exercise!

The funny thing about life is I can always learn lessons at the most unexpected time and the most unexpected places if I am open and aware to receiving them. I guess my radar was up this morning. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to work on my flexibility and joint mobility. This past year I have trained heavily on strength and conditioning with less of a focus on stretching and flexibility. Along with continuing with the CrossFit program, I chose to incorporate more yoga into the mix. Lately, I’ve been attending a Sunday morning advanced Hot Power Yoga class where the room is heated to close to 100 degrees and I was fortunate enough to be placed directly in front one of the heaters this morning which made my practice feel like I was doing it in an oven. It was about ¾ of the way through a brutal hour and a half class when the instructor said something very powerful. At the moment my muscles were screaming and sweat was pouring down my face, and the last thing I was thinking about was philosophy, the meaning of life, or anything intellectual. I was just trying to keep myself from falling over. It was at this moment when the instructor said, “Come on! You all can do this! Life is a lot harder than exercise!” It was a comment that was made in such an innocuous way but had powerful impact on me. It gave me that extra little bit of effort; that extra bit of mental fortitude to dig deeper and see what was really capable of. The truth is – life is a lot harder than exercise but they are more similar than one may think. A wise man once said, ”Show me how you live one area of your life, and I’ll show you how you live your whole life.” If I gave up in that class when things got tough, how might that translate into other areas of my life? If I didn’t wake up on a Sunday morning because I was too tired even though I made a commitment with myself to attend the class, how might that translate into other areas of my life? And if I didn’t give 100% of myself, my focus, and my energy into my practice this morning, how might that translate into other areas of my life?

Take a close look at your life. Do you continue to get the same unsatisfactory results over and over again? Are you getting everything out of life that you could hope for? Do you give up when things get tough or do you persevere and push yourself to your limits? Take a look at how you exercise and the answers to those questions are closer and easier to reach than you may think.