Young and Enthusiastic

Exercise is not something that is “in addition” to what we do. It is fundamental. Yoga talks about releasing yourself from your identity. So why does it then focus so much time and energy on the physical body? It does this because the body is the vehicle for our thoughts. It is the vehicle for the obstructions that we have. 

Much of physical yoga is really about learning to sit comfortably. To sit comfortably, you need to do exercises because your lower back or shoulders may be tight. Working on your hips and spine flexibility can help you get to the point of stillness. If you are constantly distracted by muscular niggles, or not being able to breathe properly, it is very hard for your anxieties to fall away because you have fires that keep needing to be fought. 

Building exercise into your daily practice is not the last thing on the priority list for “when you have finished the work that needs doing”. Work normally has the refill option on default. You never finish for the day. You need to look after your physical body and mental well-being to be able to do that work. That can hide and seek you if you haven’t done it for a long time. 

Even if you used to be active, you can blink and ten years can go past since you last raised your arms over your head. When I was a young (enthusiastic if not very talented) rugby player, we used to do those exercises where you spin your arms around. You don’t do that in the office. Suddenly you realise that sitting is the modern day smoking. You can lose yourself at a desk without noticing the cumulative effect of inactivity.

Through the Waves

I started going to “5Rhythms” classes about 4 months ago. I am a creature of the head, and 5Rhythms is an intentional attempt to shift attention to what it is my body is trying desperately to have heard. Gabrielle Roth started the practice in the 1970s drawing from shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy. Pretty much the opposite of my deep soaking. I do remember a phase of “Slain in the Spirit” embodied work in the Church when I was growing up, but it mostly freaked everybody out. To me it felt fake. I desperately wanted to experience God in that way, if it was real, and had a purpose. I wasn’t willing to fake. I didn’t understand the purpose. 5Rhythms isn’t “Slain in the Spirit”. It takes you through waves, trying to connect with the energy and rhythms of your body. Focusing attention in different places. Releasing. Freeing. Giving permission. The Rhythms are Flowing (Feet), Staccato (Hips), Chaos (Head), Lyrical (Hands) and Stillness (Breath). The workshops I go to are about two hours long, and move you through and with whatever emotions you are experiencing. It is powerful work.

Escape the Concertina

There are levels of relaxation. Usually we just touch the surface. Weekends and Holidays are often “Concertina Leave”, where the work squishes up on either side. A rush to finish. A pile to clear. If you have a worry work job, it comes home with you. It sleeps with you. It looks at you in the mirror. Yoga talks of three levels of relaxation: physical, emotional, and spiritual. There is a long-term nature involved that can’t simply respond to the often irritating and counter-productive request to, “Relax!”. Physical relaxation requires the stretching and strengthening of your body. Not just switching off. It is a lifestyle. A practice. Not an event. Emotional relaxation is hard when there are niggles and knots in your muscles. Emotional relaxation is stilling the mind. Having perspective, and the focus to channel your energy where it is creating the meaning you want. Spiritual relaxation is letting go of that constant measuring and angst of who we are. It is letting go of the rat race and focusing on something bigger. It is truly understanding what really matters to you.

Concertina Leave

Jelly

Our bodies are not simply transportation devices for our heads. It is easy to think the thoughts we are conscious of are where our best thinking is done. Magic lies when knowledge is embodied. When our heads are clear, and we can just lean into a task we have mastered. That requires proper exercise. We get this for kids. Managing screen time, indoor time, time on chairs, and various other activities that turn us into jelly. It is important that we are equally good at parenting ourselves. Prioritising things like play, stretching, dance and sport. Not as a way of creating balance. Not as a side order. As a key part of fully engaging with whatever meaning we are trying to create.

Afterthought

Somewhere between narcissism and self-negation, sits self-care. We over-simplify into Good and Bad. Our stories, conversations and play all reinforce the things that make us work better together. One of the things that made us work better together in a world of scarcity is hard work. Effort. The ability to prioritise and focus on things that add explicit, demonstrable value. To avoid things that are indulgent. Self-care is mostly internal. Proper exercise. Proper diet. Proper relaxation. Proper breathing. Constructive and caring thought patterns. None of this is externally obvious. We can't see the growth. We can't count it. So we don't prioritise it. Every day, we get up and go to work. Till we can't because we haven't looked after ourselves. Self-care is not indulgent. It shouldn't be an afterthought.

Saucepan

Half of our job is looking after ourselves. Even if we care deeply about something, half of our job is protecting that ability to care. My friend Galeo introduced me to the idea of being a 'Half-hearted fanatic'. I use a tool I learned through Yoga. 5 simple points. Proper Exercise. Proper Breathing. Proper Relaxation. Proper Diet. Postive Thinking and Meditation. These are all things we do anyway. We have to do them to survive. But do we do them properly? Consciously? Sometimes the thing that drives us becomes such an obsession that we forget to survive. Life is water, but if it slowly boils, the frog figures that out too late.

Check the Temperature

Independence Day III

My brothers and I like to tease each other about our oddities. I have a big head, the middle brother a big chin, and the older brother can walk under limbo bars. All of us, and my parents, lean towards intensity. Thoughts and emotions tumble around in my Orange on a toothpick. 

Today is my  'Independence Day'. Three years ago, I decided I had enough to move on from being employed. As long as I was frugal, and I spent less than my money made, my engine could be the breadwinner and I could become a homemaker. In a world where everyone who was important to me seemed incredibly busy, I would be 'the guy with time'.

A downside of 'free time' is you become aware of those thoughts and emotions. Work can allow you to put things aside even if they matter to you. Every day the alarm clock goes and you go to work. Thinking time can wait. Feeling can wait. Till you have free time. Then, like in 'A Beautiful Mind', if you search for patterns you will find them everywhere you look. You can end up being trapped in your own personal cabin in the woods of your head.

Nash's cabin in "A Beautiful Mind"

Of my immediate family, the one with the chin has the best ability to get out of the woods and onto the road. He runs regularly, and it definitely lends him an aura of calm. Some problems can't be solved in the head, or in the heart.

I have gradually been working myself up to becoming a runner. But, my chosen form of getting out of my Orange is Yoga. Yoga transforms how I feel, and how I think. When I am practising regularly.

Late last year, I decided to dip my toe back into doing work. We are interdependent rather than independent, and I wanted to help build engines for others. To strengthen our sense of community.

My problem is, I get too binary. On and off. Huge work guilt kicks in, and anything that isn't work feels indulgent. Even exercise. Reading for pleasure. Time with friends. The bottomless pit of work that could be done takes priority. My natural default in these situations is to climb back into my Orange and neglect my toothpick.

I don't find public declarations a particularly effective way of motivating myself. I know the theory is that we will be embarrassed if failing to meet the target we have told people of. I have written posts about learning isiXhosa, eating fruit, and getting back on my bike. All of those are unfulfilled ambitions.

Rather than doing that, what I am more aware of as I try to pull myself out of my head once again by getting my yoga practice back on track - is that everyone is struggling. I know no one who isn't. There will always be challenges to think and feel our way out of. All we can do is be honest about it, and do the best we can.

Part of that is looking after yourself. In the literal sense of making sure your bits are maintained. That part, at least, isn't rocket science. You just have to do it.

In Your Head

I don't believe people are wired for specialisation. Good schools build people. But then we tend to specialise. I have always been more of a head person than a body person, but in my school days that didn't stop me. Each year, I would try out for stuff 'just in case' a new super power had blossomed. 'Yes last year, I was in the 7th team, but I am bigger this year'. Once we hit work, the danger is we pick one thing. We become that guy in the gym who only exercises his biceps. We stop being competent at life, because we are excellent at one tiny aspect. The irony of self-defining as a 'head person' is you can disconnect from the world you are thinking about.

What's in your head?

Caged in Homework

Cause and effect have an interesting dance. Lots of things are random dance partners. Tyler Vigen has a fun website on Spurious Correlations. One shows how the number of people who drowned by falling into a pool is correlated with the number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in. A lot of people don't run because they get injured. Because it hurts. Because they are 'not natural runners'. Not completely spurious, but the running isn't causing the injury. It is the sitting. It is the inactivity and neglect, then followed by use which is the problem. Starting is hard, but is very disconnected from the activity once it becomes normal.

I went to my first formal Xhosa lesson today. It was pretty dry stuff despite a very lively, and entertaining teacher, kindly giving of her time. I then had to start my (still to finish) homework which feels very much like a flashback to school days. It isn't all that fun. It is like the first few runs when slowly starting to get moving. The muscles don't work. 

The fun bit of the language is singing songs with the kids, or banter that happens because of a connection. None of that happens without a little bit of effort. A little discomfort. A little homework. We don't learn purely by falling into knowledge.

Red Love Train

Unogwaja and The Red Love Train coming together from all over the world

You have 12 hours to finish the 89km Comrades Marathon. I would like to finish somewhere around 11 hours 45 minutes. Walking as much as I need to. Just keep moving. I will be part of the 'Red Love Train'. A group from Brazil, Germany, Britain, Canada, Portugal and (of course) South Africa will be running alongside the Unogwaja team. That team of 14 (adding Australia and the US) led by Nathaniel Mabetwa will be cycling about 1000 miles from Cape Town to the start of the Comrades over the 10 days before the race. We will then run together. The race is a part of a much wider project to walk together through life. To see each other. To build a community of which we are all a part by coming together, with respect, and seeing how we can release the energy within us. Not charity. Unogwaja is about light. It is about removing obstacles.

Click here if you would like to donate to the effort

In It Together

One of the primary aims of the Comrades Marathon is to "celebrate mankind's spirit over adversity". Well being isn't the absence of difficulty. My Utopia wouldn't be a world without any stress. We struggle because we strive. We struggle because we care. We cope. For me, that has been what the 89km race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban has always symbolised. The Camaraderie of a vast mass of humanity (14,313 finished the race in 2010 - the world's biggest ultra-marathon)  running together and supporting each other. Uncles. Aunts. Grandparents. Family. Teachers. Friends. In two weeks time I will be attempting my first. I will need the shouts of support. It is not something I could do alone. Neither is life.

In It Together

Chariots of Fire

I had a grand blog post bubbling in my head as I started my first Marathon yesterday. It was 400 years since the death of Shakespeare. I was running the Stratford-upon-Avon Marathon with my brother as his 40th birthday present. We were aiming for 4 hours. 400-40-4 seemed to have a beautiful rhythm. One that was meant to be. But it wasn't the real goal. The real goal was time with my brother, and qualification for the Comrades. Until two weeks previously I had always been aiming to run just fast enough to qualify. So 6:30 min per kilometre would get me to the finish line with a little buffer beneath the required 5 hours.

Marathon Route

It was both of our first Marathons but my brother has been running plenty of half marathons. He is doing the build up to longer distances properly. 18 months ago I hadn't even run more than 10km. I then got challenged to run a Marathon, and that got bumped up to a challenge to run the Comrades after I had a long chat with John McInroy and got inspired by the Unogwaja story.

Two weeks ago, I ran my first official Half Marathon and I surprised myself on the positive side. I had no idea what sort of time I could run other than from my training runs which were close to the slow qualification time required. A speed at which I could chat. A speed at which I could breathe easily. A speed at which running is comfortable and enjoyable. I had slowly built up distance by long walks and gradually venturing further. No rush. It turned out that with the additional motivation of others on the road, I comfortably ran faster while still breathing properly.

This meant I was pretty confident yesterday. I had upped (downed?) the goal target to 4 hours, while emphasising that qualification was the real aim. But, I would have like to reach the 4 hours. I kept the pace up till around the 20 mile mark. With 10 km to the wheels fell off a little. They didn't fall off so much as slowly, they just refused to turn at the steady pace. My breathing was still fine. My energy was still fine. My legs just started saying, 'Not so much Trev you muppet.'

The last 10km were at closer to 10 minutes per kilometre than the 5:41/km I had been running for 3 hours at. I was still smiling. Mostly. My brother was doing most of the talking though. I am a lucky guy to have someone who enjoyed his birthday gift being helping me qualify. We pushed on and finished with a glorious rendition of Chariots of Fire. My lungs were fine. The exhibitionist in me was still fine. The song choice was fine. It made the slow motion look intentional.

I have a month to go. When that comes, I am going to have 12 hours to finish 89km. If 20km of that is at 10 minutes a kilometre, I need to run the rest at 7:30/km. It will be about preservation. It will be about the Comrades around me. It will be about the race I grew up watching. Not just a run. A story.

I will be part of the Red Love Train. This will be a group running with the members of the Unogwaja team. They will have cycled from Cape Town to the start of the race over the 10 preceding days. Roughly 100 miles a day. All this is not about a cycle and a plod. The team members and the Unogwaja Light Fund aim to release the passion and potential of those who need help to help themselves. To walk with them because people have walked with us. To see them because people have seen us. The focus is on primary school education. 

I write a lot on my blog about Community Building. I have more questions than answers. Like my running, I don't think you wake up one day and decide to head out and run the Comrades. It is a long process. Understanding the obstacles. Slowly chipping away at them. Making sure you enjoy the process. Making sure you breathe properly while doing it. My first marathon didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I made it across the finish line.

Time for the next step.

Click here to donate

Breaking Possible

As a grand finale to my two months in the US and Canada (Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), I went to a show - Absinthe. Somehow the performers manage to move in ways that don't seem possible. Through concentration, strength and flexibility they do things that bend physics to its limit. I don't believe most of the stuff I see shared on line. Photoshop means things that aren't real can look real. But this stuff was flesh, bone and muscle! 

Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality are soon going to be a part of our lives. We are going to be able to share experiences like we share information. We will be able to experience what it is like to fly a wingsuit from the safety of the ground. We will be able to feel like we are walking around in Paris when we are in Parys. What we won't be able to share is the hours of effort that go into that level of controlling the body. The ability to zone in. To focus.

Different Worlds

Our worlds are already a mixed reality. A mixture of what we believe is possible and what is possible. A mixture of fact and fiction. Sometimes we see things that break our reality. That break possible. Then we can take that spark and go out and make possible. 

You can't share flow. You earn it.

Come the Rain

One of the most interesting bits of long distance running is how much of a gender equaliser it is. Ann Trason won one of the most hard core 100 mile events 14 times (Western States), and twice beat all the men bar one.  At the very long distances, it is less about brute force and more about the story going on in your head. The strongest people in my life have been women. The idea that they would be able to push on as the men drop out resonates with the world I have seen.

Ann Trason

Technology has the effect of being an equaliser. Guns meant the physically strongest no longer got to dominate people who were smarter. So the stronger lighter skinned barbarians from the North didn't get to sack the smarter darker skinned city dwellers from the South again. Eventually ideas and knowledge win out. They also spread since an idea used is an idea shared. A rock lifted is just a rock lifted.

Imagine a world where there was hardly any water. The richest person would be the one who controlled the water supply. She could have whatever she wanted, since people would exchange anything for water. Without water, nothing else they have has any value since try as you must, you can't drink dust. Then one day the rains come. The rain changes everything. The previous rules of engagement change. Suddenly the same water that was priceless has a price of almost zero. The richest person in the world is suddenly the same as everyone else.

Got Water?

I believe it is possible the rain is on its way. I believe that if Artificial Intelligence is really smarter than us, it would realise that keeping people trapped below their potential is crazy. I can imagine an AI that is better than any person at anything digital, or anything that can be done with a machine, or anything that once done can be repeated. That AI could realise that it could deposit a Universal Basic Income into everyone's bank account. It could become an individualised coach for every person. It could learn what motivates them and help out. Like rain falling on dry lands, it could release the creativity they are holding beneath the earth. By the AI spending a little on watering, it will gain multiples out of the creative fruits of people.

If the rains come, the rules change. Like the internal strength that makes women less likely to drop out in the long races. I believe that the days where our ability to release potential is based on competitive advantage, where it is based on transaction costs and lack of transparency, are numbered. The rain is coming.

Rain Releasing Internal Potential

(Photo: Flickr/ Viktor Dobai)

More Kews

I grew up amongst a few monsters. Their names were Carlton Ave, Dawncliffe Road, and Kew Avenue. The fact that Vista avenue was the choice is like a Republican choosing between Trump and Cruz. My excuse is that I moved age 13, but my block of choice was just 1.8km. Just over a mile. I could be done and dusted with any training I was doing before people knew I was gone. I knew that instead of Vista-Trevor-Carlton (loved that I had my own road nearby), I could brave Vista-Hillside-Cotswold-(Kew-)Carlton, but I left that up to my big brothers. You only added Kew if you were nuts. Even cars struggled with the climb. The hilly nature of Westville shrunk my world to about a 5km radius. The beaches of Durban were 14km away and became a rare visit.

Trevs, Trees and Hills

I often tried out for things. I would have been called a 'Try Hard'. I seldom really trained hard. With my body changing so much, I figured maybe I will have become good at something that I wasn't good at the year before. I would sometimes make the reserves of the B team for athletics. By pitching up for practice week after week, someone would fall out and I would get a chance to run in the team. Or jump. Or throw. Whatever team didn't have enough players.

About a year and a half ago, I read 'Born to Run' in which one of the main characters is Scott Jurek. He is like the Lance Armstrong of Ultramarathons without the money, and without the drugs. The interesting thing is that he wasn't ridiculously awesome at short distances. He just enjoyed it, and carried on doing it. His trick was that he didn't do a little less than those who were talented. He did a little more. The theory being that if you want to do well, just carry on running. People slowly drop out.

A friend of mine who is ridiculously spider-like on walls and has ranked highly in both South Africa and the world said he wasn't very good to start. He just carried on. Jurek's best marathon time is 2h38min. That isn't very quick. The world record is 2:02:57. Jurek just carried on running. My friend just carried on climbing.

I don't regard myself as even close to a natural athlete. I have always spent more time on reading and creative pursuits than exercise. I will admit to buying into the western separation of the body and the mind. This can lead to exercise feeling a little like a distraction from work or study. I now believe the opposite. That if you just treat your body as a transportation devise for your head (see Ken Robinson), your head won't work as well. So I am chipping away at the years of sitting at a desk slowly.

Today I ran my first half marathon in Las Vegas. In two weeks time, I will be attempting my first marathon, with my brother, in Stratford-upon-Avon (The Shakespeare Marathon). I really enjoyed seeing the range of people running, and the range of goals. The winner shot home in 1 hour and 10 minutes. More impressive to me are the people still coming home well after Jurek would have finished a marathon. Pushing on after 3 hours. Trying to catch the person in front of them. Just trying to run the next 100 metres before thinking about the following 100 metres. I tried to run while keeping my breathing ok. Feeling comfortable till I got to halfway. I then focused on the runner in front of me... using my breath as my pacemaker. If someone past me, I tried to pass two people. Chip. Chip. Chip. 

On the floor after my first half

My goal wasn't competitive. My time would still make me reserve for the B team, waiting for someone to drop out. But by taking on more hills, more Cotswolds, and with the help of my brother, more Kews, whether or not I regarded myself as an athlete at the start is irrelevant. I will be able to run further, with more comfort, and expand my world beyond a 1.8km block. 

Take the Kews life presents.

Edge of The Lake

Yesterday I went for a run along the edge of Lake Michigan. I was wearing dodgy camouflage print leggings a friend bought for me when I went on a Yoga course in the cold of the Austrian mountains. I was wearing white rugby shorts that are definitely long overdue replacement (I haven't played a rugby match since 2001). I was wearing long red socks as a way of connecting to friends all over the world (see Red Sock Friday). I looked silly. But it didn't matter.

The run was beautiful. Patches of melting snow shone under a blue sky. I could run on the edge of sheets of ice and get child like pleasure as they cracked. It always amazes me how in a city of so many people, there can be such stillness. The occasional runner came past. A cyclist every now and then. But otherwise I had quiet.

Sometimes thoughts get trapped. You may think for an hour, but the thought takes 30 seconds and then repeats itself 120 times. What I love about these long, quiet runs in nature is that the thoughts tend to work themselves out. The spin cycle stops. It calms. 

And when thoughts are calm, we can focus on the stuff that matters. We can give problems the time they deserve, but no more. Life is more than its problems.

Thank you Chicago you little beauty.

Building Habits

I was a little worried about my next two months of travelling. Historically, I have not been very good at maintaining exercise habits when I travel. Without interruption, I can get into a groove of doing something I want to learn, but bumps send me off. I am a creature of habit. I always think of Jan Ullrich v Lance Armstrong (I need new metaphors). Ullrich built up momentum like a steam train. I don't like the last minute stuff. If there is something that needs doing, I like doing it over a long time. I hate rushing. I don't run for trains if it's my choice. There is always another one. If I am late, it is my problem. If I run, it doesn't hurt enough for me not to be late next time.

Seldom a reason to rush

Armstrong was good at handling it when things didn't go smoothly. The example of him going off-road on Stage 9 of the 2003 race in order to avoid an accident. Life does sometimes throw curve balls at you, but I think there is a difference between being able to handle problems and handling problems becoming a habit. I hate the stress of being in a corner, and while an impending deadline often is an incredible motivator, I way prefer the less stressful version of getting a little bit done over a longer period of time. If something really matters, it deserves time and space. A permanent corner is just a time bomb. Building momentum is a much better option.

I am busy training for the Comrades Marathon. My first. So I don't have the option of putting training aside for two months. This has to be a running trip. Fortunately on this first stop, it looks like it won't be a problem. Chicago has a wonderful cycle/run path along the banks of Lake Michigan. So this afternoon will see the start of me changing the bad habit of letting travel get in the way of keeping fit.

A Little Further

I started doing Yoga in 2009. When I tried to touch my toes, I missed by about half a metre. I had only been working at a desk for just over half a decade, but I was not in... good nick. A few years later, and now being a Yoga Teacher who helps other beginners, I don't feel too bad. Seems most desk jockeys can't touch their toes. They say desks are this generation's cigarettes. We are meant to move.

One of the things I love about yoga is the feeling of going a little further. Just a little. When I am practising regularly, almost every session takes me slightly deeper into the posture. My breath feels a little more comfortable. I come out feeling a touch more relaxed. Even in my very first class I learnt how to relax enough to shave a centimetre off the distance to the floor. Do a little.

A Little Adds Up

Now I am trying to apply my Yoga approach to training for the Comrades. This morning I took a train trip to visit my brother. My brother is awesome. He discovered a love of running a few years back, and said he would pace me for an attempt at edging my distance record forward. My pace goal was not ambitious. I am trying to go at almost the slowest I am allowed to go in order to qualify. We headed out at a comfortable 6:30 minutes per kilometre. At this pace, you can chat. You can look at the scenery. You can breathe comfortably.

And like my Yoga sessions, I edged a little further. Today, I ran 30km in 3h15m. The farthest I had run was two weeks ago at 27km. The farthest I had run a year ago was 10km. 

A little adds up.

-- I am running the Comrades with the Red Love Train in support of Umsilinga Primary School ---

Click here to contribute

Parallel Joy

We run along parallel to many sources of joy, meaning and fulfilment if we define ourselves to narrowly. If we aren't able to overcome some of the barriers built of a lack of awareness or discomfort. If we aren't able to get to experience the other side. 

I tried some Capoeira classes last year. It was a wonderful experience that I definitely want to get more of. The teacher described the place where the beauty of Capoeira lies as a dance between the forces of gravity pushing down, and our strength pushing up. Each movement up goes down first. Each movement down starts by going up. There is a flow. When the forces equal each other, there is a lightness. Music. Poetry. 

I am training for the Comrades Marathon. At 89km long, there are going to be a lot of forces flowing through my body. It is famously difficult and yet famously open to everybody. You qualify by running a Marathon and entering before they hit the limit of 20,000 people. I grew up on the route. We used to cheer the leaders as they flew by. Bruce Fordyce and Frith van der Merwe were childhood heros. Fordyce winning every year for the first decade of my life, bar 1989. In 1989, van der Merwe obliterated the woman's record and finished 15th overall in a time of under 6 hours. Most people aren't uber athletes. Their cheers were a mixture of awe, sympathy, support and a transfer of any will power possible. They are parents, uncles, aunts, friends, colleagues and teachers who are waking up early or going for runs after work. Transforming their bodies. Slowly building up to finishing the race in under 12 hours. On the road almost twice as long as the legends.

Bruce Fordyce and Hosea Tjale (Comrades Marathon)

The Capoeira feels relevant as I slowly build up. I have been doing it very slowly. Following the advice that your breath is your best coach. If you aren't breathing comfortably, you are running to fast. As my muscles strengthen, and my joints get stronger, there are passages of running where that balance of gravity and my force seem to be in sync. When I am comfortably moving along. Breathing easily. Outside. Floating.

Wandering the routes around where I live, it feels like as my body slowly builds resilience, I am also growing into the area. Not quite like hoping on a train under the ground. I run past unusual shops. I recognise side streets. I discover alternative routes. Where I live becomes more a part of who I am, in the same way as I am becoming a runner.

Beyond some discomfort, lies a broader you. A stronger you. A you where the ups and downs of life find lightness of being.

Inhibiting by Prioritising

In saying 'I think, therefore I am', Descartes lifted our identity into the world of our heads. If you cut off your hand, are you still you? If you lose both legs? What makes you you? Is it our thoughts? Do we lose someone when their thoughts start to fade? A division in Eastern and Western philosophy is the role of the body in philosophy. There isn't a separation between the mental and physical. In Vedanta, the philosophical arm of Yoga, everything from exercise, breath, and food to relaxation is fair game. Existence wraps all the connection and relationships. Our identity is all inclusive.

By elevating thought, we can inhibit it. If we prioritise it to the neglect of other things. The broader practice of Yoga also focuses on thought. The stilling of the mind ('Yoga chitta vritti nirodha'). It all starts with being able to sit comfortably. To sit comfortably starts with having control of the body. Having control of the body starts with what you eat, how you move, and learning to relax.

The irony of only focusing on 'the most important thing',  is that you may never reach it. The simple things, the basic competencies of life, are the first step on the journey.

Starting with the Basics