As I deepened my stretch into downward dog on Tuesday at yoga class, I heard some magical words: "now is the time to go ahead and set your intention". I was stoked! I have had so many intentions lately and since I was back at the gym after a week of strep throat I decided to focus my intention on "strong body". Yeah, this could mean a lot of things, but to me, on day one of my regular near death experience (also known as a very regular period) it meant that I could feel my muscles (and not just the uterine ones) reaching and stretching and lengthening through the poses........
Having a strong body has been a process for me my whole life. As a teenager I didn't realize what I had, which is pretty normal, most teenagers have a pretty warped body image in one way or another. I spent some time playing on the soccer team (where I wasn't all that great, but it was an amazing workout) and my senior year of high school I mustered up the guts to wear a swimsuit every day and join the swim team, which happened to be one of the best decisions of my young life. I learned so many things that year, but one of my favorites was how I learned to really feel strong and be in tune with my muscles. My favorite stroke was the butterfly and I wasn't too bad at it (no Michael Phelps of course, but not bad). There's nothing like the smell of fresh pool water on a sunny day and the rhythmic sounds of the water as it's enveloping arms that are being carefully and swiftly guided, stroke after stroke down a lane...and then the quiet gurgles and bubbles beneath the water....the spewing of air mixed with water as you catch that instantaneous breath before going back down for more... There is just something about swimming that fills me with life and love. Anyway, I was always pretty active physically until becoming pregnant with my first child and then the rigors of pregnancy set in and that was the end of it--pregnancy spelled disaster for me in so many ways. Luckily, after that was over I was able to get back into shape in about a 15 months and I stayed that way until I got pregnant again 4 years later. That was in 2013 and since I got pregnant again in 2014 I never had a chance to lose the excess weight from the second time around. Being overweight, exhausted in every way, and now with three young children, I joined the greatest gym this side of Olympia in 2015.
Once I started going to workout classes and feeling like I was part of a 'health community', or at the very least a large group of people who were trying to accomplish some fitness goals, I was on a roll. Kind of. Despite attending the gym on a regular basis and trying to keep a pretty varied routine, I haven't lost all the weight I want to, nor is my body where I want it to be, but I feel so much more capable. I have learned that yoga and Pilates are fantastic ways to get strong and lean and build up some cardio endurance, and that shakin' things up once or twice a week with some high intensity aerobic activity is something that my body really responds well to--And my mind gets a heavy dose of endorphins when I do that too....I wish I could bottle that up and save my joints a little more, but it's SO worth it.
(Back on that ol' train of thought...)
Ya see, a strong body doesn't mean you have to be next in line for the try outs for American Ninja Warrior. It doesn't even mean you have to drink protein smoothies daily or eat kale or bench press dolphins on a beachfront. It means that you are in tune with your body and what it can and cannot do. Having a strong body means that you know your physical limits, and that you also know how to stretch those limits to allow for growth. (Of course, to develop better physical strength you also have to eat properly, which is a whole other issue, but one thing at a time right?) For me, one of the greatest things about setting my intention on "strong body" is that I'm not just mentally focusing on my physical strength, but by combining a 'mental' with a 'physical', the two are melding together and strengthening one another. Intentions are beautiful things. An intention begins in the mind as a thought, and with effort and focus, it becomes reality. The more I learn about how important my thoughts are and how much they affect the rest of my life, the more grateful I am that I get to choose what I do with my thoughts. I can keep them, let them go, alter and adjust and tweak them--it's all up to me. I'm not even obligated to believe something I don't want to believe! (And I don't believe in obligations either, if you wanted to know.) It's just that amazing. Thoughts people. Thoughts. Now, think about that. What intention will you set today?
Having a strong body has been a process for me my whole life. As a teenager I didn't realize what I had, which is pretty normal, most teenagers have a pretty warped body image in one way or another. I spent some time playing on the soccer team (where I wasn't all that great, but it was an amazing workout) and my senior year of high school I mustered up the guts to wear a swimsuit every day and join the swim team, which happened to be one of the best decisions of my young life. I learned so many things that year, but one of my favorites was how I learned to really feel strong and be in tune with my muscles. My favorite stroke was the butterfly and I wasn't too bad at it (no Michael Phelps of course, but not bad). There's nothing like the smell of fresh pool water on a sunny day and the rhythmic sounds of the water as it's enveloping arms that are being carefully and swiftly guided, stroke after stroke down a lane...and then the quiet gurgles and bubbles beneath the water....the spewing of air mixed with water as you catch that instantaneous breath before going back down for more... There is just something about swimming that fills me with life and love. Anyway, I was always pretty active physically until becoming pregnant with my first child and then the rigors of pregnancy set in and that was the end of it--pregnancy spelled disaster for me in so many ways. Luckily, after that was over I was able to get back into shape in about a 15 months and I stayed that way until I got pregnant again 4 years later. That was in 2013 and since I got pregnant again in 2014 I never had a chance to lose the excess weight from the second time around. Being overweight, exhausted in every way, and now with three young children, I joined the greatest gym this side of Olympia in 2015.
Once I started going to workout classes and feeling like I was part of a 'health community', or at the very least a large group of people who were trying to accomplish some fitness goals, I was on a roll. Kind of. Despite attending the gym on a regular basis and trying to keep a pretty varied routine, I haven't lost all the weight I want to, nor is my body where I want it to be, but I feel so much more capable. I have learned that yoga and Pilates are fantastic ways to get strong and lean and build up some cardio endurance, and that shakin' things up once or twice a week with some high intensity aerobic activity is something that my body really responds well to--And my mind gets a heavy dose of endorphins when I do that too....I wish I could bottle that up and save my joints a little more, but it's SO worth it.
(Back on that ol' train of thought...)
Ya see, a strong body doesn't mean you have to be next in line for the try outs for American Ninja Warrior. It doesn't even mean you have to drink protein smoothies daily or eat kale or bench press dolphins on a beachfront. It means that you are in tune with your body and what it can and cannot do. Having a strong body means that you know your physical limits, and that you also know how to stretch those limits to allow for growth. (Of course, to develop better physical strength you also have to eat properly, which is a whole other issue, but one thing at a time right?) For me, one of the greatest things about setting my intention on "strong body" is that I'm not just mentally focusing on my physical strength, but by combining a 'mental' with a 'physical', the two are melding together and strengthening one another. Intentions are beautiful things. An intention begins in the mind as a thought, and with effort and focus, it becomes reality. The more I learn about how important my thoughts are and how much they affect the rest of my life, the more grateful I am that I get to choose what I do with my thoughts. I can keep them, let them go, alter and adjust and tweak them--it's all up to me. I'm not even obligated to believe something I don't want to believe! (And I don't believe in obligations either, if you wanted to know.) It's just that amazing. Thoughts people. Thoughts. Now, think about that. What intention will you set today?
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