How’s Your Perspective?


Ah Monday. What is Monday to you? Friend or foe? Do you wake up Monday’s with a sense of dread or longing for just one more day of weekend? Lots of reasons this could be the case, but for me it’s just a matter of perspective.

This morning just before spin class Heidi joked with someone about Today that “It’s here whether we want it or not.” We all chuckled in agreement, but it’s often these little quips that become a catalyst for my thoughts during the workout and into the rest of the morning.

Mondays, just like other aspects of life are going to happen whether we like it or not. Sometimes or perhaps most often adversity or obstacles in life are going to happen whether we want it or not. But how they feel and often how difficult they seem is is a matter of how we choose to handle it. How we react to the situation determines how we move forward and typically how well we do working our way through it.

This weekend I was a pretty good one for me. Friday night I was having some increased pain, so I went to bed pretty early and swallowed one of my pain pills (Toradol) along with the chemo and a sleep aid. I wanted to get on top of it and had a busy day on Saturday. I woke up refreshed and feeling much better, and took that attitude into the day. Spin class with good results dovetailed right into a photoshoot for CSYP (Center Stage Yough Performers) then spending time with my daughters and shooting some media for Taco Amigo Cares day. After a little downtime the day capped off with a nice dinner date with Heather.

Ahh, those are the good days. The ones we live for.

Sunday I recouped a bit with some naps and family time, including our traditional long walk route with the little dog. By the end of the night, that bugger in my side was starting to make its presence known again so I repeated my treatment regimen heading to bed figuring I have this figured out.

This morning reminded me there’s no magic formula. Ouch. That bugger is still pushing on whatever it’s against in my side feeling like an ever present stitch you get trying to run a mile when you haven’t in years but it never goes away. Ok, maybe if it’s been awhile just running up the block? Walking briskly? You know what I mean. It’s just constantly there and while manageable, it just hurts enough to be a distraction and remind you not all is well.

Waking up at my typical 5:15 am to get to spin and start the day is already an effort even if familiar, but with that sharp sensation in my side it becomes easier to get distracted and off kilter. Rather than jumping into the routine with a clear mind, my attention can easily get pulled away looking at the problem and letting it become my focal point. Have you ever been so focused on an obstacle when on a bike that you inevitably ride directly into it rather than steer around? How many potholes or rocks have you hit because of that very tendency of getting focused on the obstacle rather than the path around it? It’s one of those things you learn quickly is to find the path around the problem to avoid the danger or even damage to your wheel.

But I know this pain, this adversity is not unique to me. Well maybe my specific pain and adversity is uniquely mine but we all have difficulties in life. Some are large, some are small and persistent. Some are life altering, some may may not be, but the feel like it in the moment. It’s easy to get caught up in our trials rather than understanding that these are just a part of our day, a piece of our life’s journey. If we can look for that path around or perhaps even through them we can do better through the process. Allowing the problem to be our focus can make it feel much more intense than if we take that little shift in our perspective.

So that’s what I reminded myself as I started getting warmed up today on the spin bike. Rather than let that pain remain at the forefront of my attention, I try to focus on my breathing deep and full in, even breath out. The increase in my heart rate. A like to think of it as an active effort to get centered and find my balance like savasana between yoga poses. The stiffness in my legs slowly starting to work itself out as the muscles warm and I begin to find my cadence. Sending energy to my legs as I remember to light up my hamstrings to give some help to my quads. I begin to find my rhythm and get centered.

That stitch never really goes away, but it somehow becomes less important. When I take note of the pain level, it almost seems to increase. When I let it fall back into the recesses of awareness, while still present it’s now just familiar but a less of an impact. By lessening my focus on it and allowing my perspective to shift to the activity at hand my perspective changes and the nerves attenuate to the sensation and just allow it to be. Without adding to the stress level of the mind and body, the neurons settle down a bit and just accept the sensation rather than overreact.

Really that’s how I deal with most situations of stress and difficulty. If I can take a step to the side, back or whatever I need to gain perspective, even the most difficult situation can be better assimilated and I can approach it with a little better…everything. Attitude, perspective, lessened anxiety and stress. Putting all those things in a better place by choosing how we approach it makes it all just a little easier to handle. In everything there is choice. Maybe not the choice of the situation we are in or the difficulty put on us, but the choice comes in how we react to it. Perhaps not our immediate reaction, but maybe that beat or two later after we’ve first allowed ourselves to feel and then gain some perspective.

It’s not easy to remember this in the middle of the pain or difficulty of any kind, but with practice it can become our more familiar reaction given a moment to apply the approach before the effort. Take a few breaths, maybe even a few more. Find a stillness mentally if not also physically to allow for that shift in perspective. Taking those few extra moments sure helps me. Taking a few minutes to breath, clear your sensations and meditate can be just as valuable as the physical effort of exercise.

And then charge in and give your best effort. It’s a constant reminder to me that in these times of difficulty we are often required to give our greatest effort, and therefore we also end up realizing our best results. We find strength in adversity. We build ourselves mentally and physically not only when we overcome adversity, but also in the process. Maybe we find that greatest within, or just find we are capable of more than we originally thought possible.

“Adversity, it can break you or make you if you let it, the choice is yours.”

I choose to live, and that includes making that choice in the little difficult moments each day. How about you?

Comments