Up(rising)
Posted: April 29, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, compassion, Compitition, crossfit, cycling, exercise, Fairness, family, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, nebraska, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, trail running, walking, WOD, writing, yoga 5 CommentsThe world isn’t fair, Calvin.”
“I know Dad, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?–
I want to go back and touch on “should” thoughts for a moment before we move onto today’s post. Contemplative thought is truly a brilliant tool to exploring your true potential, just not when its time to perform. I like to call these – trigger happy thoughts or reactive thoughts. Let’s dive a little deeper and to maintain some clarity, I’m relating the post today to competitive outings and more specifically: Running.
What are your initial thoughts and feelings when I tell you that “Fairness” – Is a fallacy? Fairness is rubbish and compete utter nonsense?
Many of us (maybe this hits close to home for you) … Cloak ourselves with the falsehood that there exists only a single standard of fairness and – SPOILER ALERT! – It’s our very own! What we consciously choose to ignore, and this is when we start our “should” thinking, is that fairness is a completely subjective concept, based on our individual needs, expectations, and values. The big boy truth, is that your definition of what’s fair? Is completely self-serving (mine included).
If your buttons have been pushed in the past, or even right now because you thought you were being treated unjustly? Let me share a classic example most runners have lamented about: “I should not be in the 30-39 year old age bracket! It’s too competitive! If only the race organizers would change the ages – my time in a different bracket would get me on the podium!”
Daily Meditation:
The next time you find yourself questioning fairness, your mind clouded with “should” thoughts? Try this on for size at the starting line – What I see as fair? Is a direct reflection of my own deeply held personal preferences. Then proceed to run the race of your life!
CultFit 
Agreed. so many of our “truths” are subjective.
Like most of my posts, there is a tedious amount of back story to them. Long story short, I’m back “competing” once again. MTB racing and Gravel Grinding. The fairness thoughts I used to have back in the day still linger at times, then float away, while I’m enjoying a beer after the race.
I can definitely relate to this (although I’m not a runner), as I have certainly done my share of whining over how I feel life “should” be, people “should” be, etc.
I have learned so much from paying attention and tuning into these thoughts, these emotions. Less “shoulds”, more smiling and simply being 🙂
And allowing others to “be” as well. Their way might not be my way, but rather than judge, I’m training myself to just say/think “Mmmm …isn’t that interesting”