It's just after 11am on a Wednesday morning (two days ago) and I am walking through the gymnasium at Clark College, toward the men's locker room to shower off after a nine mile run at Forest Park. There's a Health/PE class in session and the professor, Dr. Garret Hoyt, is discussing the lab of the day - Relaxation. Interested, I slowed my walking pace to a crawl to listen-in on what Professor Hoyt had to say in his introduction to the class. Eavesdropping, yes, but I was in plain sight, and I am confident that Garret is confident in the topic on Relaxation, so much so that even in my presence - as a peer - his introduction wouldn't skip a beat. It didn't.
Garret was dialing-in on a relaxation principle called Mindfulness, which is an ever-present state of being immersed a moment, where your cognitive and somatic awareness is heightened on many fronts - sights, sounds, touch, instincts, etc. Although I caught just a snippet of his introduction, the impression was a reminder of the importance it can play on daily stress, and the management of those stresses.
When we think about our stresses, the ones most frequently noted revolve around work, bills, relationships, school, daily responsibilities, and more. Today, during my run at Lacamas, I found myself immersed in work and feeling the need to bring my phone on my run. And so I did.
The feeling of bringing my phone with me on my run surely must be like the feeling one would have when eating a 1500-calorie grease-bomb burger, fries, and beverage, right before bed - dreadful! All night - dreadful. The whole run - dreadful. To its entirety, I found myself responding to text messages and answering phone calls to insure that my work responsibilities were going to be okay. What I failed to do was prioritize my running, my health, and my "me-time." Essentially, my run wasn't really a run. It was a failed attempt at what I used to call a run, but instead my work got the best of me. Today.
The picture of the man looking through the Facebook periscope is an illustration of what my run felt like - I really did want to run, but I was shackled in my own doing.
Work 1, Dave 0.
No more.
As I tell the kids when we are performing interval an interval workout: when you're working, really work, and when you're resting, really rest.
Parents, model this: when you're working, really work. When you're exercising, really exercise. When you're relaxing, really relax. When you're with your family, be present in the moment - Mindful.