Do you remember when women were all purchasing the cassette , “The Jane Fonda Workout?” Greg and I took our son who was 23 months old to England during this rage and while we stayed at Capernwray Bible College for a week, some of the women decided to get together first thing in the morning and exercise to this cassette. In those days, I often thought about exercising, but all of my other priorities pushed those thoughts away. Therefore, the morning these ladies began to meet, it was my husband who met with them and exercised and I stayed back to take care of our son!
That is just one illustration of how I have viewed exercise most of my life: it was something worthwhile but it was never a high priority. And then I became ill and what I used to take for granted was no longer functioning at optimum level. I have thought so many years that when I became well I would view my body with much greater respect and treat it kindly. It has been difficult to exercise over the years since often that expenditure of energy would have devastating effects. Of course, this problem was exasperated by my unwillingness to listen to what I could do at the time and when I did exercise, I would exceed what my body’s energy could offer.
However, these past 60 days as I am sensing my body gradually cooperating to my doctor’s treatment, I am ready to exercise and develop flexibility, endurance and strength. I believe I have been approaching these goals slowly and cautiously. Therefore, when we decided to go on a road trip I decided I wanted to stay focused on getting my body strong. I knew we would be taking some walks that would count as my “aerobics”. I say that word loosely since I am not at that level yet, but I knew I would be at least moving my body!! Therefore, I decided I would also take my Yoga DVD and yoga mat to continue working on flexibility and most importantly, to stay on my program that I had just started.
I felt a little embarrassed to carry my yoga mat through the hotel lobby, but it gradually became a symbol for me that focusing on my health had really become a priority. As I did yoga first thing in the morning, I found it was empowering since it helped me stay focused on my goal of doing whatever it takes to become healthier. However, toward the latter part of the trip, I no longer practiced yoga since I found getting out of bed first thing in the morning, showering, having breakfast and beginning our day’s drive was more than enough for me to do. When we returned home late last week, I was discouraged that I had so quickly lost my discipline and focus. However, today, I have decided not to judge myself so harshly. Not listening to my body and doing only what I am capable of has given me more setbacks than I can even count. I like to think that stopping this discipline for that last week was actually a result of listening to my body for a change.! I was already expending enough energy and my body just needed to maintain what energy it had to enjoy our sightseeing drive. What is most important is resolving to return to those disciplines as soon as I can. And the good news is that as of yesterday morning I was back on my yoga mat doing that downward dog pose!
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