Next Lifetime
Posted: June 5, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Bliss, blogging, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kettlebell, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, yoga, Zen 7 CommentsAdopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience-
Surrounding us is an odd “thing“, one that we rarely take time to notice and more often than not, have come to take for granted: This little thing called “Life.” Many of us search the entire span of our existence for peace, zen, bliss, the perfect pose, best 5k time, serenity and yet? These same things can be found in places that we overlook each and everyday. Even in a quiet summer field, life continues to flourish and live, eat and exist in a natural way, adapting and overcoming the world we merely “exist” in …
… A small doe emerges from the cracks of a wheat field and wanders up to the man-made nature trail, alongside the many busy feet and tires that tread next to her, encroaching on her survival. Interesting, this stunning animal, living, overcoming and flourishing despite our encroachment upon her natural environment; oblivious to our presence, just as we are to our own presence.
What if we paused for a second to take notice of this natural beauty? Is this an annoyance to you, throwing your pace off, adding seconds to your precious run time? One can only wonder…
Notes:
Have we lost focus on the true purpose, the true use of our senses? How can we become self-aware when all we do is tune out our own beating heart and the beautiful world we live in?
Lost in Translation
Posted: June 4, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Blame, blogging, crossfit, emotions, fitness, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, paleo, passion, relationships, trail running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 4 CommentsSome people’s blameless lives are to blame for a good deal-
Self-blame is pernicious. Self-blame amplifies our perceived inadequacies, the weight we gained over the weekend, coming up short during our last marathon. Whether real or imagined, self-blame paralyzes us before we can even begin to step away from the mirror this morning.
Up until the point you decided to open your email and read this post, we have been taught to extend loving-kindness to others. Although we often fail in first extending loving-kindness to ourselves.
The most significant factor contributing to our tired system of self-blame is our failure to recognize our own humanity. From the day we were born, you, me (maybe) are perfect beings. Let’s think about this for a minute … You alone are enough. However, we are very much human beings: Perfect in spirit, yet as we age and experience the word around us, we often dwell in the illusion of our perfectionism, our need to constantly be right and improve on what already was perfect.
When either we or the world we create around us does not live up to our “dreamt up ideal“? We often take on fault and responsibility that is not ours to own or bear. Our failure to recognize the balance of responsibility in any given situation leads us into the trap of misappropriating this responsibility, which can quickly devolve into self-blame.
When we arrive at a point of self-realization, one that allows us to be our true selves, imperfection is no longer an obstacle, imperfection is an opportunity. We only need to open our eyes, our hearts, our spirit to it.
Notes:
If you walk away from reading today, please – please take note that recognizing you are perfect, just the way you are and that perfection is stunningly imperfect in nature. Matter of fact, perfection is a downright mess, a beautiful mess. Just like your hair when you roll out of bed in the morning.
Slowly Surely
Posted: June 3, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: exercise, family, friends, happiness, health, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, meditation, musings, natural, passion, running, trail running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 17 CommentsThe problem with introspection is that it has no end-
Happiness, true happiness? Lies inside each of us, yet we often look to other people and “things” to raise our spirits and to bring a smile to our face. This endless search for happiness outside of ourselves can be contributed to a void within us.
Show of hands: Have you ever purchased a nifty yoga or running accessory to make you happy? If we pause for a moment and reflect on our actions (as noble as they may be) they show us that we have yet to fully embrace the self-love that is necessary to feel whole on a daily basis. If your passion is running, yoga, working out, whatever etc. Do you have a parasitic relationship with it?
The conversation I really want to explore over the next few posts: Is your outward passion for other “things” driving down your self-love and leaving a void within you?
Notes:
An unbalanced relationship will cause many things in life to fall apart, and it happens all too often. Cultivating happiness within yourself, true happiness, lies hidden inside each one of us.
Rat Race (Pro)
Posted: May 29, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, crossfit, exercise, family, fitness, free range, Freinds, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, kettlebell, kindness, life, love, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, paleo, passion, running, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, yoga 16 CommentsThe truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits-
Feel free to file this post under the “Stopped over, liked and promptly forgot what I read ten minutes later” category.
You, me, the dude shaving in the car next to you during the morning commute, we are our own worst enemies. Especially so when we start talking about cultivating and living a “authentic” life, full of true and unbridled happiness. We make excuses, hourly, as to why we can’t overcome something or we are too busy surfing the webz, checking our work email during a Saturday morning group ride. To stop and realize just how destructive our growth-inhibiting patterns of behavior really are.
What follows is a series of blunt and prickly questions. I suppose we could call them the “Stinging Nettles” series of questions?!? I want these to irritate you, making you look inward to find a solution rather than applying aloe-vera gel to cover up the stinging pain …
Do you constantly put “things” off? We make excuses at every turn as to why we put off doing “things” that will markedly change our lives for the better. How many times will we hear or read this today: “I know meditation and yoga can help me BUT … I’m experiencing (Insert anything here) right now and I haven’t been doing them lately.” Seriously folks, If you know a life-enhancing practice like meditation and yoga will help you make a problem disappear? Why then put it off?
Are you a pecksniffian varietal of toad stool? Our minds tend to veer towards the negative side of life, completely normal. We look at all the “things” we don’t have and feel worse as a result. Dear Reader: There is always going to be something you will not have and embracing life in this way will leave you forever unsatisfied, a Toad Stool of high moral arrogance. Looking up and seeing the sun rise, taking a deep relaxing breath of morning air or even the very experience of rolling out of bed – Alive? Something not Nothing.
Do you fell like playing the “Blame Game”? “I could had run a personal best BUT … This amateur yoga mom b!tch was in my way!” Gosh does it feel good putting blame on someone other than ourselves?!? Blaming others is like having good sex: Awesome. How about we entertain the thought of taking responsibility for having some degree of responsibility for what happened and look to how we can turn the situation around, rather than blaming all the yoga mom runners of the world?!?
Saving the best for last …
Are you hopelessly a perfectionist? Perfectionists will be displeased no matter what, anything that isn’t perfect or doesn’t meet their extremely high standards? Weak sauce! Breaking News: Achieving a state of perfection within any walk of life is an impossible goal. Perfectionism turns us into pawns of success, by narrowing our focus on failure which then kindly results in a lifetime of self-doubt, pity and dare I mention? Depression. We might as well say then that perfectionism allows us to be more efficient at finding the best deals online, keeping an organized and tidy inbox or prepared for anything that may come walking through the door. However, having high standards and goals will help us achieve “things” in life, these standards can get in the way of the pure happiness of doing something we enjoy and yes, perfectionism can and will impair our enjoyment of this thing called life.
Notes:
Today marks a day of change here, a day of change in tone and added clarity. A day of asking questions instead of “Liking” and walking away.
The guest is inside you
Posted: May 23, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: exercise, family, fitness, free range, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, Jain, Kabir, life, love, lululemon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, paleo, passion, Poetry, running, trail running, whole foods, WOD, yoga, Zen 4 Comments… and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.
The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world.
I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside “love” there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.
The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.
How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!
Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.
The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.
With the word “reason” you already feel miles away.
– Kabir – The Kabir book: Forty-four of the ecstatic poems of Kabir
Notes:
Important post tomorrow, I hope you stop over, until then? Take care and be well!
CultFit 