(a short series on using yoga and mindfulness practices to support your every endeavor)
I like to run. Far.
As in, sometimes I count miles by the dozens. For example, my last training run was an easy one dozen miles. My next race will be 3 or 4 dozen.
When I say how far I run, people look at me like I’m insane. Then they tell me I’m crazy.
I nod my head, smile, and go on with my life.
Sometimes though, when I have this interaction, the individual across from me starts to light up. I can see it. I can sense it.
It’s a look, or sometimes, a quiet few words that say: “I could do that too.”
It comes out timidly, but behind that wall of “what if” is a deep longing to take on more. To see what their own human body is capable of.
Often times, I hang out on the side of a cliff, clinging to tiny holds and what would seem to be invisible feet. The reason? I want to get to the top of that cliff wall. I want to do what seems impossible – to find holds that look invisible, cling with all of my strength, harness a bit of technique, and move myself against gravity up to what may seem an arbitrary place to hang the final bolts and call the goal complete.
When I tell people this, their first thought is often how irresponsible I am. How could I risk my life like that? Others just laugh that they could never ever get themselves to do that!
Sometimes though, when I have this interaction, the individual starts to light up.
“I could do that too. I could tie myself into that same rope and pull myself up a wall. How cool would that be?”
Running and climbing are my things. They light me up. They give me a deep sense of joy and purpose. They’re a challenge that I can take on each day and watch myself progress, taking on bigger and bigger obstacles. Chasing after crazy dreams and watching them appear, first in front of me, and later, in the rear view mirror as I charge forward to new summits.
Trail running and climbing are my things.
For you, it may be different. Maybe it’s cycling or swimming, a particular sport, or any other physical endeavor.
Whatever it is – that’s not the point. The point is that you’ve identified what you want to do.
Now, let’s make sure it happens, and that when it does, it’s not a fleeting moment, but rather, something that you can engage in routinely over the years… for a lifetime.
Or, until you find the next thing that sets your heart on fire and take that on too.
Shall we get started?
Let’s start real simply. Whatever you decide to take on in this life, there are 2 steps that are best kept in mind if you want to accomplish the goal:
Step 1
Do the thing. Not necessarily every single day (rest is important); but routinely – most days. Go out and do the thing you want to be doing (hit the trails, jump in that pool, ride your bike – just do the activity), and you’ll find that if you do it routinely, you’ll be able to achieve whatever goal you set for yourself.
Step 2
Do the thing safely. Learn to do it correctly. The world is a dangerous place and the human body is quite fragile. Take care that you don’t dive in headfirst when you would best be wading in slowly.
Got those two items?
Great, you’re off to a good start. You’re doing your thing routinely and you’re making sure you don’t hurt yourself.
Now, are you going to reach your goal? Quite possibly. If you stick to the practice and don’t get injured, then there’s a good chance you’ll accomplish what you set out to do.
Now, even better – once you reach that goal, are you able to continue?
Are you able to keep setting new goals, conquering those only to set your sights even further ahead?
Forever chasing an upward slope of progress towards deeper and greater accomplishments, enjoying the hell out of the journey along the way.
Want to accomplish this next level?
This series is devoted to helping you out.
How it works
I have a theory about why it has become common for individuals to go through life in unhealthy bodies, and it goes something like this:
As our society has progressed, most individuals have become increasingly absorbed in technology and further removed from their bodies. Today, most of us spend our lives inside of our heads, often tied to screens, but even when we’re not, we’re entirely caught up in our anxious thoughts intent on the next thing that has to get done.
This is a problem for many reasons, but I’ll give you two for now.
- When we live our lives inside our heads, we neglect the fact that we have a body and, as a result, fail to be active during the day. This sedentary behavior is a leading cause of the poor health and disease facing most individuals in our modern world.
- But it isn’t just about failing to be physically active. It’s about being active in any endeavor from a space that is lodged in thought vs. aware of what is going on in the rest of our own self (i.e. the body). Let me explain this second one further…
For those who recognize the importance and/or joy of moving their bodies, it often is the case that they pursue being active while remaining up in their heads.
I did this for a while. I ran two half marathons, planning out each one with specific plans: how much I would run each day and at what pace to build up to my goal race pace. Then, I forced myself to stick to it. Willpower, as we’re told, is an incredible capability when we harness it fully.
I’ll tell you, it worked. I kicked ass in my first two halves (at least for someone who had never raced before).
But do you know what else happened?
- An IT band injury, one that to this day hasn’t healed completely because I pushed my body too hard.
- A horrible experience in my second race during which I spent the entire race thinking about how much I hated the whole thing and how I’d never run another race again.
So, I accomplished my goals (yay). But was it worth it?
Fortunately, after my second race, I embraced a new way of running. I still had many lessons to learn to get to where I am today (which, I’ll tell you, is still a work in progress), but overall, I’ll tell you what shifted:
I stepped out of the framework that is using precise plans to achieve specific goals and instead learned to tune into my body to help guide me to the best outcome possible.
Now, some of you may read that and think I’m tossing out goal setting in the name of some fun runs where I keep it safe and mellow…
Well, that’s just not the case. Since my time running half marathons up in my head where I would force my body to do exactly what I thought it needed – well, since then, I have continued to up the mileage (remember that whole miles by the dozens thing?), signing up for 50ks that I have increasingly improved my pace on. In the books for this year (could’ve been last year, but nope, the pandemic kicked that out the door), that mileage is going to increase… 50 miles, 100k.
And in my rock climbing world, I spent the past year pushing the grade… 5.11, 5.11+, 5.12-…
Well, that was until I neglected to do what I am about to tell you here and stopped listening to my body – because I was too caught up in the stressed-out thoughts of my head – and I got injured.
Which brings me back to the most important point: when we live lives up in our thoughts, we may be able to micro-manage our bodies to achieve specific goals. But, those goals are often fleeting: you ran the race within your goal time. Great, well now it’s over and it wasn’t really that fun and you have this injury…
Or, maybe you’re able to hit a series of goals while continuing to push your body… but at what cost for your underlying health?
I’ve studied disease progression in the human body for many years now, and I can tell you, one of the top factors driving the progression of poor health and disease: chronic stress. Pushing ourselves too hard for too long.
Which, once again, is why we need to be able to get out of our heads. Logic is great, but it can only take us so far. If we want to take on this life (including reaching our goals) in a sustainable manner, we need the information that our body is always willing to send us.
That’s what I want to help you accomplish in this series: to help you get out of your head and in your body so that you can begin becoming mindful of what your body needs from you to stay fit and healthy for decades to come!
In this way, you will be able to continuously chase after your goals, enjoying the journey, and crushing whatever it is that you want to be taking on.
Practice: Tadasana
To get you started, I have a simple practice to get you present in your body so that you can begin becoming mindful of what it feels like in there.
I know, that sounds funky, but stick with me here. The goal is to get you back into feeling the sensations of your body and to create a two-way street of communication. Your body needs to be able to communicate to you what it needs. You also need to be able to push your body out of its comfort zone so that it will improve.
Most importantly, we need to be able to achieve a balance here, and that is only done by disengaging from your ever-calculating mind and tuning directly into your body.
Here’s one way to do this:
Note: if you prefer, there’s a video of this practice over on my health coaching platform on Instagram. Here’s the link (click here)!
Come to standing in bare feet on a solid floor. Stand tall and upright: hips over your ankles, shoulders back, gaze facing forward.
Turn your attention to your feet.
Start by lifting all ten toes. Feel free to spread them out like a fan. Then, press all ten toes down into the ground.
As you do, rock forward and lift your heal. Then, simply rock back into your heal, pressing both edges of your heal into the ground.
Rock back and forth a few times: lifting toes and grounding into your heal; lifting your heal and grounding into your toes. As you do, tune into what’s happening in your feet. Feel the sensation of the floor pressing into your feet as you move back and forth.
After several (5 or so) breaths, find a neutral position with your weight balanced throughout your entire foot, toes and heal on the ground.
Now, if you’re willing, let’s continue on.
Inhale as you press all ten toes and your heal into the ground.
Feel the line of energy that rises up from the foot into your lower leg? Let’s follow that line of energy up into the leg, gently pulling the knee cap up to engage the quad.
Don’t forget to breathe as we continue.
Now, follow that line up into your hips, taking care to ensure they are stacked over your feet. Lift your hip bones slighlty up towards your navel to gently tuck the pelvis.
Turn your attention to your navel, inhaling as you gently pull it in, exhaling as you contract your abdomen, pushing the edges of your core outwards.
Shall we continue?
Pull the shoulders back, giving them a nice roll backwards if that feels good. Then, drop them down away from your ears, finding a resting place back and down.
Finally, turn your attention to your face and head. With your chin parallel to the floor and your gaze forward, on an inhale lift the top of your head up as if you are a puppet tied to a string, head being pulled up towards the ceiling.
Here you are. Tadasana.
Now, just breathe. Allow the inhale to fill your rib cage, expanding outwards. Exhale and feel that gentle contraction in your core.
Keep breathing. In and out.
As you do, feel free to check in with different areas of your body. How are your feet feeling grounded into the floor. Are you shoulders still relaxed down your back?
Notice any tension? Breathe into that area – no need to force a change anywhere. Just breathe as you relax and release.
Stay here as long as you need, feeling into your entire body as you stand tall, stable, and strong.