Today, I was the only one at workout. While it was a touch disheartening that there were a number of cancellations, it was truly a blessing in disguise.
You see, I set a goal, albeit a small one, to do a chin-up/pull-up by the first of July. So today, we did a lot of one-on-one work especially targeting the muscles that will help me reach that goal. There were curls and hammers and I guess a reverse curl. I did a bunch of those. I also used pull down bands that were doubled to make me work harder and did a bunch of those as well.
Interestingly, the thing that looked the hardest, using rings to pull myself up from a seated position, seemed the easiest. From there we moved to a bosu ball, and from the bosu to sitting almost on the floor. My arms are a bit tired now, but I was able to pull myself to standing using the rings from a seated position about two inches off the floor.
SUCCESS!!!
We're taking something difficult and making it easier. Very interesting how your mind begins to believe you can do certain things when you break the main goal into smaller bits. It's the whole eating an elephant thing.
I managed to get out of bed, but it was still dark out. I really don't like getting up before the sun. I'm trying to do better so I can do my SAVERS work, but early rising is not natural for me. Miracle Morning gives some ideas of how to stay out of bed when those sheets and comforters are begging you to slip back underneath their warmth.
Yesterday, or more like last night we had freezing rain. No one said anything about it lasting into today, but it did.
I left for work at 7:00 am, and it was still gray and dreary. If you live near the Rockies, at least on the eastern side of them, dreary is not how you would normally describe the sky. Dreary happens in places like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio - places further north and near large bodies of water. That was how it was today.
I'm not sure if I've actually said it, but I am grateful for my roommate who has made sure I have a working garage door. Funny, all it took was some WD40. I think WD40 and duct tape can fix a whole lot of things!
So, I opened the garage, got in my car and at 7:00 am like a whole lot of other people in this city, I backed out of my driveway and headed off to work. I got to the eastern corner of our street without a hitch. When I got out onto Buckley, the traffic seemed okay. That was until I was almost at the next major intersection. I could see flashing lights ahead, so I made a right turn into a neighborhood, got through that area and headed onto another major road. I only got about a mile before that one started backing up.
I turned on the radio.
When the alarm started chiming at 5:30 am I had to force myself out of bed to hit the snooze button. One foot at a time thudded onto the twenty year old gold carpet of my bedroom. I wobbled a bit, found my footing and trudged to the bathroom where my phone alarm cycled through it's chime.
I've plenty of reason to grateful and not bitter. Half full or half empty? I've written about this before and I made a choice to look at the positive, the bright side, the encouraging side of life. It makes a complete difference in how you look at life events and come away from those happenings a better person.
I'm calling this day of Dangerous Living "Map to a New Adventure."
For some time now I've encouraged my family to recycle. There aren't many of us - five and a dog but it always amazes me how much trash and garbage we generate. A goodly sum of this is due to the packaging we are forced to endure.
Some of you may remember this from the mid-80's - someone was putting poison, cyanide I believe, into Tylenol capsules. Back in those days, there weren't all the extra layers of plastic wrapping openings, wrapping packaging, wrapping whatever might be able to be tampered with. Think about opening a bottle of aspirin. Once upon a time you could buy the bottle, pop the top and be in the business of relieving your aches and pains. Not so anymore. Next time you open an over the counter medication be aware of how much you have to go through to get to the medication you are trying to take.
I suppose it was bound to happen. Inevitable really. I hit a roadblock. Twice. Head-on.
Most of us do hit roadblocks from time to time, maybe everyday. There should be plans in place when you are forced to come to a screeching halt because of something out of your control. Or, seemingly out of your control.
That's the way it was with this roadblock. The Internet went down. Rather than making alternative plans, I waited in vain that it would be repaired. It was - the next day. A day behind.
So, I made plans to tackle what I missed the following day. Bam! Another roadblock. The same one actually. The Internet went down. I still hadn't formulated a plan to get me around, through, over my roadblock.
I do now.
S is for Scribe because W for Writing or J for Journaling just doesn't work with the SAVERS acronym.
Spending ten minutes a day journaling has a lot of benefits to the author. Early in the morning the journaling process can help you set aside mental garbage that can negatively impact your day. The journal is for your eyes only. This is a perfectly okay place to dump your frustration about friends, family, co-workers, work or anything else that is bothering you. It is a place to be honest with yourself about your thoughts and feelings. Keep your journal safe so that your privacy isn't violated and your secret thoughts are kept safe. Your journal writing helps keep your brain and mind free from clutter.
I've always known that keeping a journal is a good, healthy practice. That knowledge was confirmed in Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Ms. Cameron suggests writing a minimum of three pages a day, as close to waking up as possible. Ideally, the work is done longhand. This has a benefit in itself - scribing longhand is a physical endeavor and it ties motor skills to memory. On another post I mentioned that this was one of the primary ways I studied. I listened, wrote, then read what I wrote.
Some people may not have the time in the morning to write three longhand pages, but you can write for ten minutes. See how far you get. I recommend you get a notebook of some sort that can be standardized by it's size. Spiral notebooks are good but I really like the marbleized composition notebooks that are mainly seen in black but if you are shopping in the fall for school supplies you can find them in yellow, blue, green and red. I like them because they aren't super big, and they are stitched, so the pages stay together. They also stack nicely, or you can put them vertically in a file or bookshelf (remember to keep them safe and private). They have a semi hard cover and so they keep their shape well.
If you are not able to write in a composition book
or notebook for some reason, there is a website, www.750words.comhttp://750words.com/ where you can open an account for about $5. a month and put your thoughts down on "paper" there. The average type-written page yields anywhere from 220 to about 250 words, and the idea is to write at least 750 words or the equivalent of approximately three pages.
The next letter in the SAVERS acronym is R. R represents reading. This isn't just any reading. The reading done in the morning is meant to be short and inspirational. Something that will motivate you to be your best during the day.
Something like a devotion or a one page reading from AA literature or Sarah Ban Breathnach's, Simple Abundance.
A page or two from a religious text - something to inspire you to go forth into your day with a good attitude.
The reading should ideally be between five and ten minutes long. Just long enough to engage your thoughts and set your attitude on a good path.
