Last week I posed the quandary, if everything is a gift, then what is the value of a cold? (2/5) After struggling with this "gift" for over two weeks, today finally, I have the answer. When it is all over, it feels so good to just feel "normal." Most of the time, I don't even think about how I feel when I am "normal." Today I did, and I really liked it.
I didn't bound out of bed feeling great, but "gained speed" as the day moved on. My snow day allowed me a full night's sleep, and being home alone rested my voice that was mostly absent by the end of a day of facilitating yesterday. I struggled with computer problems all morning, but like a cold, a computer that works make "normal" remarkable.
I started hitting my stride by early afternoon and took a long lunch break for hall-walking again (2/6,) putting in a full hour. I got my heart rate up enough to cough out the last of the remaining congestion. That's not all it did, though. For 30 years, I've been an athlete. My body responds well to movement. Yet, I haven't moved regularly for a long time. Between injuries and long hours, exercise has taken the back seat in my life. Like the end of colds and working computers, the feeling of movement was a great "normal."
All afternoon, I felt supercharged as I plowed through the rest of the afternoon of teleworking like a breeze. When I finally stopped at 6:30, I could hardly believe how quickly the time had flown. This isn't new for me. Whenever I pull myself away from my desk to exercise at noon at the office, the afternoon always goes faster, I am more productive, and to me even more important, I am more creative. I am "in the zone," and exercise is the trigger. So, why have I let everything else come first? That shall remain among life's great questions, but I suspect it has something to do with thinking the work is more important than I am.
As soon as I got moving today, my body ached to move more. When I contemplated a cookie for dessert, it said to me, "If you eat it, you want to work it off!" Not "have" to work it off, but "want" to, and I did. I got out my stop watch and walked five floors before eating my cookie. And, I ate the cookie, I really enjoyed it. But unlike other times when one cookie makes me want another and another, this time I was satisfied. Instead of wanting another cookie, what I really wanted was more movement. I flipped on the Olympics and lifted some light weights and did 115 crunches while watching some free-style skiers give "movement" all new meaning.
Today was rich with Aha! moments. None of these were really new Aha! moments, but perhaps the biggest Aha! was recognizing how quickly I forget what I know in my heart to be true. You see, I believe that our intentions don't come from our brains, but they are born in our hearts. We don't make them up, but we hear them pleading for us to re-member who we are through our intentions. We choose to listen moment-by-moment, all day, every day.
Although no one who knew me as a child, or a teenager would believe it, when I started listening to my heart three decades ago, one of the first things I learned about me was that I am a healthy person. I just needed to find the healthy person, and I did, soon running 50 miles a week and bringing consciousness to my eating for the first time. For much of those 30 years, I have eaten very healthfully and exercised regularly. Today I listened to my heart again, and what it was saying was "Please remember to move! I want to me 'normal' again." Yes, there is something most remarkable about "normal."
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