I recently had an abrupt change in both my business and personal life, which turned out be be very disruptive. My good friend Chip suggested that I write about dealing with the stress, and how that might help others do the same. At first, I felt distress, as it forced a big change in both my work and exercise schedule. In my mind, where I create my world, I took the change as a negative experience, and my approach to dealing with it was scattered, to say the least. Me, Mister exercise guy, could not get off my butt for the first few days. Then, when I got off my rear end, my exercise routine did not go so smoothly-I lacked motivation and drive. I was frustrated and disappointed in myself for not being the workout maven I’d been all these years. Then, about two weeks ago, I suddenly understood-I guess you would call it an epiphany. I realized how change, if not positively embraced, can really through a wrench into one’s life. In my case, a few days of being knocked off of my routine spiraled into a couple weeks of being a couch potato. I found it hard to get the wheels in motion once they’ve stopped. Issac Newton spoke of it as one of his three laws. It goes something like this: A body at rest will stay at rest unless some force acts upon it. In my case, the force was in my mind, and until I acted upon being sedentary, I too would remain at rest. So for those of you readers out there whose body’s are at rest and you lack motivation to move, I can sympathize with you. But, don’t beat yourselves up. Just start by doing something, a walk, or get up and down from a chair, march in place, anything, however small it may seem-it still counts. You’ll feel so much better, and you’ll find it easier to continue physical activity. The rest of this particular (Newton’s) law was: A body will stay in motion unless acted on by an external force. Don’t do like I did and allow that force to be your own mind.
Happy holidays to all. Hopes for a healthy 2015!
Stay well, John R Blilie, M.S.