(I’m) Reckless
Posted: May 7, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Addiction, blogging, crossfit, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, intensity, jogging, kettlebell, kindness, life, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, pain, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, simplicity, social media, technology, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, yoga 10 CommentsIn this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed-
You scowl at your running partner(s) for running with headphones in. You can faintly hear ‘1901’ blasting from their ears. They are insistently checking their GPS watch, every ten steps, although 10 miles later during a quick stop to refuel? Out comes a magenta hued insta-message to let the world know you just slammed a gel pack. Don’t they realize how much it annoys you? The anger on your face is plain as day …
Remember when placing an emergency call meant stepping into a phone booth? Today’s electronic do-dad’s and wireless communications gadgets have made it possible for us to handle emergencies in near real-time, help us to find and reconnect with long-lost friends and the best part: Fantasy Sports. Although all of this “convenience” we have at our finger tips comes at a steep price. The incursion of technology into our lives both at home and while out for an evening run, means less down time and we become ungrounded from our true spirit (tomorrows post). FaceTube and iThings rip into and tear apart relationships and thwart leisure pursuits. I often lament about leisure/life balance, oddly the term “Balance” seems to be a thing of the past.
What in the world is the meaning of balance anymore?
Steeping back from the running story, we as families are feeling this pain at home as well. Social experiment for the day: Engage a teenager in an eye to eye conversation. Let me know how that works out for you. Today’s teens have booth feet, wading chest deep in a technology sinkhole, sad.
Notes:
Know what? It’s rather easy to blame social media and technology, I should know, I am rather adept at it. Over the past fortnight I have been thinking about this issue ad nauseam, what “balance” truly means, the mixed blessing and danger of technology and many other things (NHL Playoffs). Even though social media and technology have placed the world at our feet, the 24/7 access impedes our spiritual health and quality of life.
Ask yourself today: Has the convenience been worth it?
CultFit 
My headphones died the other day. Nothing worse than being mid-run and only one side of the headset would work or the other ear kept going in and out. Last night I went for a run without music, just my thoughts and the sounds around me. It’s nice. I’ve done it before. How amazing it is to hear the birds along with all the other noise, some good and some bad. The reality is that at many races – tris anyway – you can’t have an iPod on. You are left only with your thoughts. That’s the real challenge isn’t it? All the voices in your head wanting you to stop whatever it is your doing. I just try to drown those out with the voices that tell me, You Can Do It! Cheers!
Thank you for sharing this! On longer training rides I do have in one headphone bud in to keep me distracted, just one. I have a few distance runners I coach and of the items I confiscate before a run is the gadgets. Learning to listen to your body, quiet your mind, is often overlooked in distance training. Take care today!
My yoga classes aLWaYs have music on. And of recent, we have a new stereo for our iPods. I spend time and effort to round up playlists suitable for the the type of yoga I’ll be doing and my theme. I have yet to do a class without music playing; just so they can really be aware more of their poses and how their bodies respond. There are lots of times music helps in achieving a meditative state; but I fear of relying too much on it, both for myself as a teacher and the class. It eventually becomes something we all get used to, even with varying songs. And that kinda defeats the purpose of yoga. Namaste! =)
When I practice at home, its dead quiet. I’m easily distracted, so the stillness in the air allows me to focus on my breathing between each movement. The one studio I really enjoy in town uses no music, its deeply meditative for me. The energy in the room is more easily felt. However, my other fave studio uses music and I enjoy it as well, it helps my find my rhythm (I have little of it). 🙂
This is why I feel yoga is so amazing! One day yoga can be deeply personal, soothing and meditative. The very next day yoga will allow you to fully and openly express yourself!
It’s amazing what unfolds in each practice, whether there’s music or not. But I try to be careful choosing songs too. I’ve been warned that some yogis can break down when the music is a memory of something sad. I’ve shed tears in my practice a couple of times. But it wasn’t the music. Only me realizing something when I’m in my own stillness. So I guess when it happens in my class that someone goes berserk, I’d like to see it as a tool to release.
And hopefully, no complaints!
Namaste! =)
I love running with my headphones, but mine died during a 15K – it was nice to just listen to the world….
During longer runs, listening to the world is what I enjoy the most. 🙂 Have an awesome evening and please take care!
Thanks for a great post!
Last year I started running without my ipod, mostly because of the preponderance of stupid people on the road when the weather gets nice–but also because I love to hear the birds. I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish longer runs. I play the “I’ll keep running until this song is over” game, but without music, what could I use?
“Run until I get to that Sycamore tree”.
More importantly, I can hear the jingles of my dog’s collar, I can hear birds, dogs barking at us through the windows (that always makes me smile, my cockers used to do that–and it makes me think of them), and I let my mind go.
It takes me places. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Horsebackriding when I was 15. Singing songs to my Dad as he began to disappear into Alzheimer’s. The sound of my feet hitting the concrete at a run/jog, something I thought I would never hear. The air coming in and out of my throat, the wheezing caused by asthma, a connection to me I rarely get otherwise: not at the gym with the noise, not on my bike with the wind, not in the pool with the splashing. Just me and my air. Exchanging, in and out.
Tomorrow I ride. The wind in my helmet, my GPS on the handlebars. 🙂 But I know how far it is, and I don’t care how fast I go. I just want the wind. I just want to breathe.
Thank you so much for your beautiful response. The intimate relationship we establish with our senses is sadly forgotten at times, although it is rather easy to reestablish once again, as you so eloquent stated. 🙂 When I’m out and about on the roads or trails I do have my phone. You know exactly what its like being active here and sadly our phones are a critical life line if we ever need it, hopefully we don’t! May the wind be at your back, a smile on your face and your feet gently gliding beneath you. Take care and be well today!
Thank you ! You too, my friend.