Sunday, December 26, 2010

No Mind

 

When I started doing spin class, my favorite instructor mentioned something during a class about those moments when the workouts get really, really intense and how you just have to take your mind off of how hard it is and just do it. It immediately reminded me of this scene from The Last Samurai:

No Mind.

It’s weird because I haven’t seen that movie in years, but this has become a philosophy for me when it comes to working out. If I’ve been on the Stairmaster for a while and am ready to throw in the towel, it helps to take my mind off of things by distracting myself with something on Netflix on my phone. If I’m 45 minutes into spin class and start trying to justify lowering my intensity, it helps to just shut off my brain. (Hopefully not at the expense of my workout!)

As I’ve been thinking over the last week about starting 2011 on the right foot, I’ve been thinking more and more about applying this philosophy to more areas of my life. I am definitely more of a thinker that a feeler, and it becomes really easy for me to overthink things. I’m really good at talking myself out of stuff, and while you definitely don’t want to just haul off and do whatever you want, I know for me there are a lot of days that I talk myself out of doing something. Like I start trying to justify laying on the couch instead of going to the gym. Or I over-analyze (like all women do) every aspect of a conversation. Like Shin Koyamada says in the video, I get “too many mind.”

No mind. Don’t think, don’t anticipate, don’t force it. Just let go. You’ll be surprised how much the release makes it easy for you to get to the top of the hill in spin class, or allows you to stop worrying about the future. You’re stronger than you think, so stop doubting yourself and just let it happen. No mind.

Have something you adore? Leave a comment below or email it to adoretoday at gmail dot com.

No comments:

Post a Comment