I guess everyone has their anxiety switch and I’ve got mine. One of the things that turn on the red light in my head is when my middle (tummy and waist) begins to expand. I’m not a chubby person so it gets to me when I begin to appear to have a big tummy with a small everything else. Well, I noticed I had to fight my way into the top of my church dress on Sunday and then my jean yesterday…red light!
The thing about law school is that your every minute is planned and you do more of mental work than physical activity so except from walking the short distance between the necessary places, you get little to no exercise. So, I decided to start running in the mornings.
In many ways, I saw life in that 45minute exercise and by the time it was over I had learnt some things. Things like:
1) That instant before you start
My plan was to be ready at 5.30am then flash my friend to come out of his hostel (I had made an arrangement with a friend the previous day to run together and he had given me a lecture about how he would leave without me if I wasn’t ready and out by 5.30). Sure I was ready but he wasn’t and didn’t come out of his hall for another 15minutes during which I had enough reasons (or so I think) to crawl right back into the familiar comfort of my bed. The dawn breeze was chilly and surely I couldn’t run with a jacket. Steve (my friend) didn’t appear to be coming and I wasn’t going to risk going round the school by myself at barely dawn when the street lights and the hostel lights were out. It was dark and intimidating and just the right situation for me to relapse into my procrastination business and ‘wait till tomorrow’.
In life, every new or unusual venture comes across as intimidating at first but should you consider that and wait for the perfect union of timing, resources and zeal, you’re simply never going to start.
2) Keeping to the tracks
When he finally came and we set out, the first thing Steve told me was to start really slow (the path from the hostel was untarred and bumpy and we couldn’t see), but me, feeling hyped about my run and of course wanting to prove that I’m athletic decided to go on at my own pace. I’d barely gone a full 60seconds when I tripped and landed on the ground (the guy didn’t even tell me sorry). Of course, I’d learnt my lesson. When starting out on a new path, excitement and previous knowledge isn’t always enough of a match against experience. For a little while, you might want to follow a well laid pattern and take some good useful instructions.
3) You’re not alone
Of course, the only reason I needed Steve around was so I won’t be the only one out by myself while the school slept but as I waited outside my hostel, two people walked past me into the dark, we met two other people after we eventually set out and I later saw an aerobics class going on at the field (they had definitely been there before I came out).
As we set out to take up unfamiliar activities, it’s only natural that we might have to start alone but trust me, you’re never the only one on that path. After a while, you either meet up with people who have gone ahead or someone coming from behind you catches up. Either way, you’ll find like minds at some point if you keep moving in the right path.
4) Out of breath
I’d always been one for keeping fit and exercising but skipping, stretches and sit ups were just about it. I never used to for exercise. So, 5 minutes into my run, I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to make it round the school, and if I did, I’d made up my mind I couldn’t go more than once. It felt like the air was blowing tiny needles right into my throat and with every breath I drew in, my throat burned. My heart was beating so fast it would probably burst out of my chest any minute and my legs felt shaky (especially after my fall) but I kept at it. By the time I was through the first round, I’d started floating (I was light) and so I went the second round. Steve had been running for a while and he circles the school twice; I’d just started and in one day I did just as much as he because I kept at it.
If you stop each time you seem or feel out of sync or breath, you’d never know how far you can go or your potential in that area, field, profession or business but if you push yourself just a little farther with each step, you feel natural at it after a while.
5) Shedding
As the sweat poured out of me, I realized I was each step closer to getting my figure back. I was shedding the excesses in my body which I did not need. When I was reading up on my weight loss options, I’d read that running not only helps you work up a sweat, it speeds up the rate of your heartbeat so that it pumps blood faster and your organs work better at burning excess fat and so on. There’s a Yoruba adage that twenty children cannot remain playmates for twenty years. This is because as they grow, their distinct personalities begin to show and clash, experience and desires differ and gradually they don’t have much common ground to keep together. As we keep moving in life, we shed away the things and people that are not relevant to our moments. Some might be dear to us but if they’re not helping to move that stage of our life along, they’re definitely going to be a baggage and the lesser the baggage, the easier it is to move. But when we don’t move, we unconsciously cling to the present and keep getting bigger in stagnancy.
6) Gaining
While I set out only to run, I returned to my room with renewed confidence and this article in my head. With every step I took and everything I noticed, one new paragraph took shape in my head and soon it wasn’t just a run anymore.
As we move along in life, we begin to see and experience new things while the ones we had hitherto known and seen now have entirely new meanings to us if we’re open to seeing it from a motion angle.
All said and done, keep moving; this is how you thrive.