“Real change is difficult at the beginning, but gorgeous at the end. Change begins the moment you get the courage and step outside your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” - Roy T. Bennett
Mind over Matter. A term most are familiar with - at least I know I am. Cannot say it is something I have practised in many areas of my life over the years, in most cases “matter” won, lol. But it is funny how as you get older your approach to life shifts somewhat.
There is something enormously satisfying about doing or completing something which your mind has been telling you that you can’t - and it is precisely that sense of achievement which further drives the motivation to explore what other boundaries you can test - within healthy reason obviously.
This is week three now of getting up before sunrise to do a work out as a family and yes, I won’t lie… there are mornings where I would genuinely do anything BUT get up and get sweaty - but we have not faltered yet and I am proud of that! Especially my son.
“Fear and anxiety many times indicates that we are moving in a positive direction, out of the safe confines of our comfort zone, and in the direction of our true purpose.” - Charles F. Glassman
Teens are inherently lazy, haha, so he is not always particularly talkative or cheerful at the start of it all and some mornings he does his level best to try and get out of it, but he has not succeeded yet - and the mood generally improves once we are about thirty minutes in.
I come from a family of runners (including myself in my younger years) and have not only been witness to all three of my brothers and my dad partake in plenty marathons over the years, but have also listened to plenty stories from my dad about the marathons he ran either before I was born or when I was too young to remember.
One of the things which sticks out for me in his stories is the emphasis on how much marathon running changes you as a person. How much it tests you and pushes your boundaries. The antics during a marathon are not exactly pretty and I can completely understand how achieving something like this again and again would grow you on an emotional and mental level.
“Even the smallest changes in our daily routine can create incredible ripple effects that expand our vision of what is possible.” - Charles F. Glassman
I have never run any marathons myself, as I was always more interested in sprint running, and perhaps age had something to do with the fact that I lacked enthusiasm for long distance… but now I find myself wanting to steer in that direction because I have begun to experience how good it feels to push through the “I can’t” to the “I can”.
Things happen in three’s they say and the running was my first “mind over matter” challenge. It is amusing actually, how quickly the brain tries to get you to give up on yourself and sure - there have been plenty mornings when I just don’t feel like I have the energy to push through, but I have. With intermittent walking and running I am now slowly starting to notice that I am able to run for longer spurts each time and it feels so damn good afterward.
The second thing I have managed to keep up with - and probably a bigger mental challenge has been the cold water plunges after the workout. Damn man!!! That water is cold and there is literally nothing pleasant about getting into it at that time of the morning, but the way you feel afterward makes the suffering completely worthwhile.
“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.” - Benedict Cumberbatch
For the last week I have been able to just get in without any screeching and hesitation. I have realised that it really is a matter of mind and getting in slowly, in many ways actually makes it worse. Do it fast and then the worst part is over and all you have to do is sit there until the timer goes off which is the easy part.
Then third and most recent… I have decided to go back to intermittent fasting. I lived like this for three years previously, and it became my norm - though I never did it for as long as I am now. Since Monday I have pushed a minimum twenty hour fast, so the last thing I eat at night is at approx. 7pm and then I don’t eat again until 4pm the following day.
It is not always the easiest thing to ignore the voice of your stomach - especially when you fell off the wagon like I did in terms of just eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted… but I am on day three now. The first day was pretty damn hard, yesterday was easier… and going to Jude’s soccer match was a great distraction in the late afternoon.
“Sometimes it is good to be in uncomfortable situations because it is in finding our way out of such difficulties that we learn valuable lessons.” - Idowu Koyenikan
But it really is a challenge of the mind. This one is a biggie for me because I am surrounded by people who are not fasting daily so there is food in front of me as well as the aromas wafting through the air, lol.
But I want to do this - for me! I was super proud of myself yesterday… making it through to 4pm - at which point I had a coffee with milk while we were out - and that was enough to carry me right through to dinner time without much difficulty at all actually.
It is now… this time of the morning, as I write this… that I struggle the most, because I have become so accustomed to having breakfast and also, have already exercised for the day - so that adds to the craving for food.
“We are so accustomed to the comforts of "I cannot", "I do not want to" and "it is too difficult" that we forget to realize when we stop doing things for ourselves and expect others to dance around us, we are not achieving greatness. We have made ourselves weak.” - Pandora Poikilos
But it will get easier, I know it will and I just need to push through from the I can’t do this, to the I did it. Most of us eat way too much anyway - and often all the wrong things too. Not only that, despite the fact that I have to ignore the hunger pangs… I definitely feel far more alert and productive during the day having not consumed anything but green tea.
It is rewarding to push yourself. As the quote by Roy Bennett goes… “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Onward and upward I say!
And off topic, I took some lovely photos this morning on our sunrise walk, which I have shared in this post.
Hope you all have a brilliant and beautiful Friday!
“I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it's only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail" behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they're shooting stars! That's why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn't know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn't know existed in me... I see myself. I'm a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back.” - C. JoyBell C.
❤❤❤
Until next time...
Much Love from Country Bumpkinland, South Africa xxx
Jaynielea
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Quite a place!