Winter is Upon Us ...

Winter is upon us. The clocks have been reset, the days are getting shorter and nature is slowly slipping into hibernation. It’s not surprising that during the colder seasons we want to slow down. We want to sleep more, eat more comfort food, drink an extra glass of wine at dinner. It’s also not uncommon to make more and more excuses to not include movement into our daily lives; it’s too cold outside, I have to clean the house, I need to do one more hour of work. While in themselves these excuses have their merit, they are not of great enough importance to exclude movement and exercise into your daily routine. We live in a world that is moving ever faster, and when our focus becomes to intrinsically entwined with life’s daily struggles, we lose ourselves and our ability to step away from the undertow and find pause.
 
Finding moments of pause are a necessity, but this doesn’t mean that we should lose our focus. Allow yourself a moment of silence. Drink a warm cup of tea, read from your favorite book or merely look out at the wonderful beauty that surrounds us every day. Enjoy the moment with full intent, no guilt, no shame. We all need time every day of quiet reflection where we allow ourselves to recharge in a calm and peaceful environment. Without these moments, our energy becomes depleted, those daily necessities which we once found enjoyable become a burden, and our perception of life becomes ever darker. 
 
A pause with intent allows our movements to become more focused. Our brains relax and those puzzles which seemed unsolvable offer up a solution without resistance. Oxygen flows more readily through our blood as our breathing deepens and slows and allows our hearts find a steadier rhythm. This new, calmer state feeds our muscles with a more vibrant energy required for more focused and explosive movement. Where before the pause, the thought of exercise may have seemed a burden, under the new state of calm the body is screaming for a focused release of energy, and the mind easily accommodates the mode of expression instead of offering up an excuse.
 
A Pause should become an integral part of your exercise routine. Don’t think of it as being lazy or harbor guilt. A moment of calm and reflection are in fact the foundation to a workout that is more focused and overall more effective. When we go into a session relaxed, having taken time to enjoy life, we are able to use every moment in the session to focus more clearly on the movements. Our breathing is more relaxed and thus our blood is more enriched and our muscles more capable of benefitting from every exercise. Our minds are calm and sensations are not received as pain but as joy for the pure wonder that is our human body.
 
When you find yourself getting caught in life’s urgent pull, step back. Find a quiet corner and breathe deeply.  Curl up in your favorite chair and read a chapter from a once loved book. Make a hot cup of tea and listen to the sounds around you. Take the time to pause.  Then go out and make every movement count.