Hey hey!
Last week of the training cycle at The Quad. This quarter was fun and even though we ran classes in our centres for only a brief period, we were able to improve on our pretty darn good virtual experience even more. Excited about the final week and some fun workouts, and about next quarter.
On to the 3 things for today.
on crazy commutes and efficiency. My original post was a jumbled mess and I have edited it a bit better, I hope. The core idea I wanted to discuss was about seeing it not just from the other perspective but from multiple perspectives.
3 quotes, as always. Including the empty cup by Bruce Lee.
on learning to pause between stimulus and response. Why is this relevant in fitness and nutrition? The feeling of a lack of motivation or urge to eat a cookie to feel better - is it really true? A pause will help you answer it.
Before we proceed, just want to request you to share ONE post with ONE friend. Whichever you like the best.
on crazy commutes, efficiency and perspectives
At The Quad, we have folks commuting a significant distance to come and train with us (when our physical centres are open.) Spending 30-45 minutes each way is insane to me. Especially in a world where we are all time-poor. But with the narrow view of just time and efficiency, one can lose sight of other things.
To someone, it might mean the hour they get to spend on themselves.
To someone, it might allow for a long conversation with their significant other, before the rush of the day takes over.
To someone, it might be the time for quiet reflection.
To someone, it might be a time where there’s nothing else to do but relax and be in the moment and enjoy the drive.
In my head, I was thinking "efficiency". To train for one hour, someone was spending 1.5 hours in their commute. When you look at it with my aversion for driving, it makes no sense. When you look at it as time being a valuable commodity today, it makes no sense.
Not everything is about efficiency. Sometimes, the shortest path is not the literal shortest path - and I already know this. The fastest path is also not the shortest path.
There’s always more than one perspective. There’s always more benefits and learnings from doing a thing, not just the primary/advertised one.
The more slack we have, the more we stop trying to be efficient, the more we seem to get.
3 quotes for this week
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the centre hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it liveable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
from the Tao Te Ching. Stephen Mitchell's version
I comprehend the English and the words. The meaning and profundity of the first 3 stanzas - gosh! But do I truly know what that non-being is? Nope. I am trying to enjoy being "mostly clueless". These are experiential things and not comprehension-based. Or not. Who knows, coz I certainly do not.
All the same, there’s something about this that made me want to share.
The usefulness of the cup is in its emptiness.
– Bruce Lee
This is one I struggle with. Every conversation or meeting that I can go into with this mindset, I learn. Every time I am harried or too busy or not focusing, my cup is not empty, I am too busy trying to solve problems and come up with solutions and I never learn. I feel drained. I do a sub-par job.
People don't want what you make
They want what it will do for them. They want the way it will make them feel.
– Seth Godin, from This is Marketing
People don't want six-pack abs. They want what six-pack abs will make them feel. Confidence in your body and mind. Being comfortable with your body. The feeling of accomplishment, of making forward progress in a place where you thought you were previously doomed. The feeling of freedom, when you know this is under your control. It is your choice.
The first time I felt strong, my life changed. The first time I finished a CrossFit workout, I was transformed.
learning to pause and not succumb to the first emotion
seeing red
You are driving to meet your friends. Your favourite music is on and you are chilling and in a good mood. Out of nowhere, this idiot in a car cuts across into your lane. You stomp on the brakes and prevent a collision, barely. You see red! From chilling and tranquil to angry, in a split second.
We've all been there. Nothing good comes out of flying into a blind rage. A regrettable decision, a loss of mental peace, a few minutes/hours of agitation. These emotions are hard-wired in us and they come from a different part of our brain. And before we know it, our brain executes the pattern.
Drought
Gafur silently watch Mahesh, whose two deep, brown eyes were full of pain and hunger. ‘Didn’t even give a handful,’ he muttered, patting the bull’s neck and back. ‘You are my son, Mahesh,’ he whispered to him. ‘You have grown old and served us for eight years. I can’t even give you enough to eat-but you know how much I love you, don’t you?’
Mahesh only stretched out his neck and closed his eyes with pleasure.
Some stories you read touch you and leave a mark. One of those, for me, is Drought by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. It tells the story of a poor, indentured labourer living in a village afflicted by drought. He struggles to feed himself and his daughter, and cannot feed his bull whom he loves like a son. He resorts to pulling straw from his thatched roof to sate his bull's hunger. But, as the story goes, the stress and injustice of everything add up and in a fit of blind rage, he kills his beloved Mahesh.
emotions take over
Most of us are lucky enough that we never have to be in Gafur's place. But being overpowered by emotions, and losing your cool - you know that place. And you don't want to be there.
I see this affect my students in two ways. One, when they are unable to show up to class. Two, when they completely lose track of their eating routine.
I am so stressed and demotivated, I don't feel like working out today.
I am so stressed, I want to eat some cake.
And I empathise. Just like Gafur in his blind rage or when we see red when an idiot cuts us off and drives dangerously, we get blinded by emotions.
It happens ALL THE TIME to me. Not just with wanting to skip my workouts, or eat food cravings. But all across life.
It was a long day at work. You gobbled your lunch in record time. You didn't get enough sleep last night. Plus, being stuck at home is driving you all up the wall. Of course, you are going to feel a severe lack of motivation to work out. And of course, you are going to feel like eating some cake.
Why? Willpower is finite. And our body and mind and our life are one piece. Battling that emotional response, battling inertia requires a significant amount of resources. And at that moment, we are waylaid by emotion. We want a band-aid.
We want a momentary break. And so, we eat some cake. We skip our workout.
But if we do this all the time, then that's a problem. This is not in line with the goals that you've set. You are miffed at yourself for doing what you did, once the dust settles and the emotional takeover is over.
take 5 minutes. pause.
Expect the emotional response. Breathe. Slow it down. Inhale. Exhale. Don't fight it. Don't rationalise it. Don't be for or against it. Don't push it away. Don't clutch at it.
Instead, be.
Take 5 minutes. Once the surge of emotions has passed, see what you want to do. Most times, your deeper values will take over. There's a reason you've made a commitment to working out, and that will be visible once this cloud of emotion has cleared. Or you will find that it is a better idea to actually take the day off from working out and instead relax for an hour instead.
There's no right or wrong here. That's why, most times, the only right answer is it depends.
What you can do is pause between stimulus and response.
Thanks for taking the time to read/listen. I appreciate it.
