September 27, 2015
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weekend. Most weekends I am incredibly fortunate to go out for a long run with my posse of fabulous women. This is my mental time – worth many many hours saved in therapy bills. Plus, I get all the benefits of keeping up with a weekly endurance run. Yesterday, however, my posse was out of town, so I ventured out by myself and was reminded just how rich an experience a long run party for one can be. You see, there is no self pity on a long run party for one, too many endorphins for that! Just stream of consciousness thought running like a ticker tape, generating many minutes of problem solving ideas, random thoughts, solving the problems of the world, or something like that. I thought I would share with you a small sampling of the random thoughts generated by my run yesterday:
1. Who the hell can “have it all” and why is that question asked so often? My friend and writer extraordinaire, Sarah Eisner, posted this blog she wrote for Fast Company a couple of weeks ago to FB which was the stimulus to this conversation in my head. What does it mean to “have it all” and why do women get asked that question all the time? That is like asking someone how or why they are so successful. Doesn’t that depend on your definition of “ALL” or “success” which are both incredibly subjective. And how can anyone “have it all” when there is way too much “ALL” (aka, choices) to be had by any one person! Do you have to have children to be asked that question? And why aren’t men asked the same question even though many men run their own businesses, pack lunches for their kids, drive them to school, help around the house, and coach their kids’ sports, etc. We should be asking men and women, “what does an ideal day look like for you?” “What is your definition of having a productive, successful, purposeful life?” There are far more meaningful questions than the “having it all” one which is a farce.
(Here is Sarah’s article – http://www.fastcompany.com/3051001/second-shift/5-huge-misconceptions-about-startup-life-revealed-in-private-email)
2.Where in my life can I give an extra 5%? This was also inspired by another blog I read recently by Brian Johnson. Brian was referencing Nathaniel Branden (The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem) idea that trying to change everything at once can be overwhelming and impossible, so just start with the question, “where can I give an extra 5% this week.” I will definitely be asking my cross country kids this question tomorrow and hopefully, planting the seed that they can always find an extra 5% effort to put into their workouts, sleeping a little more, eating a little healthier, studying for their upcoming test – whatever it may be. So where are you going to put in an extra 5% this week?
3. And last but not least, I was thinking about the power of forgiveness. We are so fortunate to have Fred Luskin in our backyard. For those of you who are not familiar with Fred, he is a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University. “His research has shown that learning to forgive helps people hurt less, experience less anger, feel less stress and suffer less depression.” Forgiveness is such a powerful remedy for the miry, body, and soul. Holding onto bitterness, pain, guilt, shame, etc. can be toxic. We all have the capacity to forgive, to make peace with painful experiences from our pasts. So please, if you are holding on to painful experiences, I urge you to familiarize yourself with Fred Luskin’s work and his 9 steps – http://learningtoforgive.com/9-steps/
There will be no class on Friday at 9am at Stanford Hills this week. Otherwise, we have a full schedule and I hope to see you in class and giving an extra 5%! 😉 You can sign up online at www.stellafit.com
Cheers!
Stella