Strength to Go Go Go – Redo

St. Swartz’s favorite post to celebrate our 2nd year anniversary comes all the way from February 2015, and we can see why she likes it…

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A friend sometime ago said to me, ‘I would like to spend some time with you so I can get to know you, but you are always going and doing yoga yoga yoga.’ We laughed, and I acknowledged that I was busy with yoga yoga yoga. And I love being busy with yoga.

Preyoga I ran for my exercise and to combat depression and anxiety. The willpower to get up early- before the kids wake up for school- and jet around the neighborhood was and is a test of mental toughness, lengthening the stint of my run I quickly learned was again a mental beast. Toughening up my body entailed some tough will and mental conditioning also. A marathoner once told me that 15 miles in, is fitness and the last 11 is mental. I suppose that’s why I have only ever managed half marathons, I am not mentally prepared for pushing through the pain and exhaustion.

yoga_monkeymind

Enter yoga. My yoga journey really has brought home the connection of mind body and spirit. This connection is what has me floating out of a yoga class all blissed out. It is serious mental work to drop the monkey mind- the endless ream of random thoughts- concentrate on the breath, and go upside down.

I like being strong and knowing I can get up and run some miles, make it thru a tough vinyasa sequence and just go go go all day. But equally I like knowing I have the mental strength to push through the ‘I can’t, don’t feel like, tired’ refrain. Mental strength has helped me gain physical strength and a huge portion of gratitude keeps me in grace.

[Img.Src: Chimp Group, 1900]

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