Seven things that create power

It doesn’t take much perception to find that we, as a culture, are stressed out.  The world is full of chaos and difficulty and we get tired fighting the forces of evil around us, whether in the form of potential genocide or just the usual Thursday parking homicidal tendencies.  I do firmly believe that it is up to us to make the world a better place.  Developing solutions to the large political and social problems we face is well beyond the scope of my practice, but I can say that we have to do some self-care in order to be able to address the issues.  Here are seven things we can do to empower ourselves.

1.     Breathe heavy.  Cardio exercise reduces stress, improves mood, and helps us build the stamina we need to take on our personal challenges.

2.     Get strong.  On a metaphorical level, when we strengthen our bodies, we practice strength of character.  Physically, we increase our lean body mass, reduce our chances of bone loss, and improve our chances of living a long life.

3.     Drink water.  Dehydrated people are crabby people.  That lady who cut you off in the parking lot was probably dehydrated, as was that guy who was so rude to you at work.  Also, if we are drinking enough water, we’re probably eating and drinking fewer calories and fighting the sugar industrial complex.

4.     Eat food.  This goes with the previous point about fighting the sugar industrial complex.  We all have times when it seems just too hard to cook and we find ourselves in the drive-through line or eating Spaghettios at the kitchen counter or a pint of ice cream in the bathtub.  The goal is to minimize those times with a little planning and a good amount of leafy greens.  It’s good for our bodies and the planet.

5.     Sleep.  We need to binge watch the inside of our eyelids from time to time instead of yet more cooking shows, cop dramas, or Star Trek reruns.  Sleep is necessary for lots of body processes.

6.     Meditate.  Meditation, prayer, and ritual can create small spaces of sanity in an insane world.  Even a few minutes of breathing before we put the car in gear to drive home can help.

7.     Connect.  Hug somebody.  Pick up the phone.  Write a letter.  Join a group.  We need each other more than ever right now.

Pilates magic...

What I love about Pilates is that it meets me where I am and leaves me better off.  If I start out stressed, pretty soon it has helped me find my breath and I am calmer.  Stiffness gets gently worked out.  Tuning into the movements calms my hamster head.  And then there are those exercises that kick my butt.

In my own practice of Pilates, I try to work through all the exercises in my repertoire in a fairly orderly fashion.  When I come back to an “easy” exercise I haven’t done in a while, I often find that my perspective on it has changed, that I have a deeper understanding of what it does and how I need to approach it.  When I come to the exercises that really challenge me, I can gauge the limits of my body and my attitude as I work.

No matter what, I leave the studio a little taller, a little looser, a little calmer.  It feels a little like magic.

Fresh!

When we start something new, we have a lot to learn and we know it.  Maybe when we try an activity for the first time, we discover that we have way more body parts than we suspected, each determined to go in a random direction.  Our muscles get sore and our brains hurt from trying to integrate a whole bunch of information at once.

The good part is that we also make rapid progress.  The first month can be one of huge gains in cardio fitness in particular.  As we figure out the form for our weight lifting and our bodies adjust, we may lift more each workout for a while.

And then the progress seems to stop.

Please note that I said “seems.”

What happens is that we get all the easy gains out of the way in the beginning.  Now that we know more or less what we’re doing, the changes are more gradual and more subtle.  We’re less sore, but we’re also habituated to our new activity level.

If we’re lucky, we keep perspective on how far we’ve come and how much better we feel now that we’re moving more.  If not, we might feel like quitting.  That never works.  What does work is keeping things fresh and new for our bodies and brains.  On days when we don’t feel particularly creative, that can be as simple as adding another set, or doing a shorter set with heavier weights.  It could mean trying a different class, or swapping swimming for biking or stairs for elliptical.  Maybe it is as simple as taking the workout outside.

We do have to keep working, but we can make it more interesting for bodies and minds.