Have you wondered why new tasks or physical exercises throw you off? Your supervisor at work wants you to use a new electronic project manager when you used to just make the same updates over a cup of coffee, or the decades of long commutes in the car followed by sitting long hours at work have left you with sciatica/carpal tunnel syndrome/general weakness and fatigue in your entire body, or a long list of reasons why we haven’t used it and now feels like we have lost it…
We all have heard about doctors instructing their patients to eat healthy and get exercise. But what is the reason for that, especially when used as a prescription to repair a physical problem like muscle pains, general energy fatigue, or nervous energy that won’t let us sleep at night resulting in more fatigue the next day?
Finding balance in how we use our body is key to having an efficient body that is both supple and strong, energized and able to relax. Using our mind and body in all aspects of the physical/mental/spiritual realms is how we fully engage with ourselves and others. While any given activity has elements of these three realms of communication, we can agree that a person who works at a desk job on a computer works primarily with the mental realms, an athlete works primarily with the physical realms, and when we look for the positive in others and all situations we are working primarily with the spiritual realm.
I am enjoying my lifetime of active exercise that includes participating in a diverse list of sports activities. I became immersed in music after years of teamwork building as a member of a competitive swim team. Being active in sports has always been part of my life experience. During my years of playing violin and viola as a professional musician, I have watched the slow demise of my fellow musicians’ ability to move in their bodies or sit for extended periods of time. Problems such as TMJ (from gripping the instrument so as not to drop it), carpal tunnel/tendonitis/bursitis/extreme hypnosis (hunchback) has happened to my colleagues as young as their early 30’s.
While I do not suffer from these things, I am very much aware that my body does not recover as quickly from vigorous exercise as it used to. The main thing I neglected in my youth was a mindful stretching routine before and after strength training, which I included in my recent study and now daily practice of yoga.
My absolute favorite practice now that simultaneously offers up strength/flexibility/balance training is acroyoga. The combined challenges of conditioning one’s body for strength, flexibility, and trust in one’s own abilities and the abilities of your acro partner are for me the quintessential definition of a perfectly balanced workout that incorporates the physical/ mental/ spiritual.
Teamwork is what makes the dream work. Without embracing a team player thought process, one is truly isolating one’s self. Even a soloist must know how to play well with others. Thank you to all of my team building teachers who are all beacons of love light energy, showing all of us how to literally lift each other up to greater heights.
