I am feeling VERY good today. I am also feeling very motivated and inspired. I bet if I started logging it I would find out that my motivation comes in different waves or cycles. Yesterday I did not feel like doing anything. Even things I love to do, I just wasn’t feeling it. Today, I wake up on fire. It’s weird how that works sometimes.
It’s been almost two months since I left and went to Canada. I was reflecting on that experience yesterday a lot. I had gotten an email from someone and it got me to thinking about all of the changes that experience has led to. There are a good number, but I thought I would share a couple of things with you that I thought were important.
First, I make it a point to meditate every morning. I use the oak app and it literally takes only 10 minutes. I also breathe. Sometime the breathing happens at different times of the day or even multiple times a day (see below for the breathing routine I do). I cannot tell you the difference it makes in my days. The oak app has three different options. Mindful meditation, Loving Kindness, and Unguided. I haven’t donee the unguided one yet. I usually do the loving kindness. It really changes my attitude and how I look at and listen to people. The breathing I believe also has a lot of great benefits. Too many to get into on this post, but you can go dive into the Wif Hof website and go down that rabbit hole.
Second, I have a greater sense of love and appreciation for my family and friends. Honestly, I am still trying to get my brain around this one. It’s not like I didn’t love my wife and kids before, but I now have this even greater appreciation and love for them that wasn’t there before. It’s like a level of love that I have never experienced before or that I didn’t know was there.
Third, I want to listen and understand what people are saying. If there is an opportunity for me to ask questions and help I want to do that as well. There is a great deal of selfishness that I have managed to lose, get rid of or just don’t have anymore. It makes me sad to a certain degree when I look back at certain conversations or situations where I just wasn’t listening because I was thinking of myself instead of what someone was saying to me. I’ve missed so many opportunities because I just wasn’t paying attention. I was being selfish.
There are a lot more changes and things that I could probably talk about, but these (I think) are the biggest things that have changed for me in the last two months. So, the next time you find yourself in a conversation with someone, ask yourself, am I REALLY listening and paying attention to what this person is saying? Is there anything that I can add that will help this person? Also think about your loved ones and how little time you actually have with them. Make that time mean something. Make it a great experience for you and them. Tell them that you love them. 🙂
Strength
Work to heavy set of 5 Deadlifts and Pendlay Rows
Then…
12 Minute Ping Pong at those weights
- 5 Deadlifts
- 5 Pendlay Rows
This felt fantastic! I worked up to 185 for the deadlifts and 115 on the Pendlay Rows. If you’re wondering what a Pendlay Row is it looks like this:
So glad to be getting back to lifting. It makes me happy! 🙂
Conditioning
“Run Annie Run”
- 50 Double Unders
- 200 Meter Run
- 50 Sit Ups
- 200 Meter Run
- 40 Double Unders
- 200 Meter Run
- 40 Sit Ups
- 200 Meter Run
- 30 Double Unders
- 200 Meter Run
- 30 Sit Ups
- 200 Meter Run
- 20 Double Unders
- 200 Meter Run
- 20 Sit Ups
- 200 Meter Run
- 10 Double Unders
- 200 Meter Run
- 10 Sit Ups
Ok, this is actually a really fun WoD, but I cut myself off at 15 minutes and ended up scaling the sit ups. Around rep 45 of the 50 sit ups, my abs started cramping so that spooked me. So I switched to single unders and just knee raises on my back instead of sit ups. Right now I think it’s important to make sure that I don’t push myself too hard on workouts so I’m cool with just letting this one go and giving it another go sometime in the future. You can give it a shot though. Let me know if you do and how it goes.
Breathing
30 Deep and fast breaths. On the 30th exhale, hold as long as you can.
Love,
The Rev