May 1st - Every Day in May

Well, okay, holy moly, I did it, I put myself back out there. Whew, can I just say… before I get into everything, that today was a big day for me. It was a step towards taking back ownership of something I love, my blog. I haven’t stopped writing in the last three years, but I have stopped blogging, and there is a difference between the two. Here’s to more steps in a positive direction, to exploring health in a new way this month, and to gaining insight and wisdom.

Health is Physical:

After spending many years as an endurance athlete, one would think I have a solid grasp on physical health. And, I know some stuff, but there are a few things I want to research this month and learn more about. One is stretching or yoga or something in that vein. I’m getting older and I think it’s going to become a bigger part of staying physically healthy over the next part of my life. I feel creaky, and that doesn’t feel good.

Today for physical health my check the box action was doing Annie’s track workout with her. She’s been feeling lonely and having a little trouble with the painful parts of track work and how to push and enjoy the process, so I joined her today and suddenly she was faster than ever. I think she enjoyed the total beating she was putting on me. The workout ended with 3 all out 50 meter sprints and well, that was one of the most fulfilling things I could have done today. Have you ever tried (after a good warm up) to just run as fast as you can for 8-10 seconds. It is quite the energetic release! I highly recommend giving it a try. It will make you feel alive!

Health is Mental/Emotional:

One of my favorite analogies of the physical/mental/spiritual framework of being a human on Earth is that of the “Astronaut”. Here on Earth, we have a space suit (our body) and our space suit has an operating system (our mind/emotions). The thing being protected inside the space suit is our soul, that amazing thing that is here having a WILD & CRAZZZY time. For most of my life I have believed that I am the space suit plus the operating system. I do not believe that to be true any longer, but that story is for another day.

So, when I think about what Mental and Emotional health consists of, I think of a properly functioning operating system. Is it responding in the proper way to keep my space suit functioning, and my soul safe from Earth? That operating system is adaptive, the backend code is written using the data inputs of my life. Some of it might be buggy, and in need of an update. The more productive data that goes in, the better it can learn to function well/efficiently. We all have bugs!

Today I attended an online Trail Running Film Fest for my Emotional and Mental Health check the box. I did it to remind my operating system of some of the things it loves and admires about people and places. The goal was to be inspired, to light up the neural pathways in my brain that are attached to amazing experiences, and to see if any triggers came up… there were a few there. Some things that felt like unfinished business, some sadness about aging, and some jealousy. These are all important diagnostics to run so I can focus on some positive updates. :)

Health is Spiritual:

Getting in tune and in touch with the dude inside the space suit. This can be both extremely easy and extremely hard for me depending on the day, and I feel the most limited and new to this area of my life. To me, right now, exploring spiritual health means developing tools and practices to increase access to my soul and explore my souls creation.

To take action on this area today I got in a 22 minute sitting meditation. It was of the mindfulness variety where you return focus to the breath after it has strayed. It strayed A LOT today. I actually designed a wooden cat walkway for Annie’s room so her cat can get up to her loft bed without climbing the curtains before I caught myself and returned to my breath. I had a few glimpses of a broader “opening up” but nothing as strong as I tend to feel while physically moving during meditation. So, I’m going to keep trying this, but I also want to explore moving meditations this month. So much more to research here.

Insights

I made it through today, the first day. I checked the boxes and that was the biggest win I could have had today. Things I want to dive into soon are sleep (because I’m horrible at it), moving meditation practices (help!) and Stretching (also help).

Until Tomorrow, In good health…