Exercising is more mind over body than just body. There's that saying - where the mind goes, the body follows. Like any other achievement in life, exercising needs a combination of will power and effort. And that's easier said than done. It takes nothing short of Mother Abbess' exhortation to 'climb every mountain, search high and low, follow every byway, every path you know...ford every stream' to find a dream that 'will need all the love you can give every day of your life for as long as you live.'
Granted, it may be a bit dramatic to apply this score to the slightly mundane goal of getting yourself out of bed at six-thirty in the morning to put yourself through an hour-long gruelling workout. And what is gruelling anyway? It's probably just a perception - your mind telling you that your body can't do those sixteen squats asked of you. But hey, isn't the song about overcoming whatever holds you back from getting where you want to be? And if bigger wins start coming your way because of these smaller wins you're trying hard and achieving by being all fired up from a song, what's so wrong about that?
The Sound of Music is one of my favourite-est movies. Growing up, watching this movie on video cassette a million times with family is now one of the loveliest memories I have and makes up one of the best experiences of my life lived. Last evening adds to those memories. It was a peaceful, happy three hours watching the movie for the million-plus-one-th time with Mom. Throughout the movie, I kept grabbing pen and paper because I just had to write down a line spoken here or a lyric sung there that made me go, "I love this!". Each of those lines meant something to me.
Here's that collection:
'I always try to keep faith in my doubts, Sister Berthe.'
'To laugh like a brook as it trips and falls over stones on its way...'
Maria: 'And what's worse, I can't seem to stop saying things. Anything I think and feel.'
Mother Superior: 'Some people would call that honesty.'
'Well, when anything bothers me and makes me unhappy, I try to think of nice things.'
'The thing to do nowadays is to get along with everyone.'
Saturday, 22 September 2018
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
All the Different You's
It's so interesting to observe the 'you' you are now compared to you a few years ago.
Growing up, spicy food was an integral part of life. The more fiery, the better. Our family had a pretty high threshold for hot food compared to our relatives who were often left surprised at the amount of heat in our meals. I remember our family as being right up there with, or perhaps just a couple notches below the spiciest-food lovers in our region who enjoyed Andhra cuisine - a cuisine well known for its ability to set your mouth aflame. Back then, I could barely imagine eating more than one meal in a day that was bland in taste. Now, I cannot eat more than a few morsels of food that are as hot as the food I grew up eating.
Today, what I would have considered mildly-spiced food, set the insides of my stomach on fire. This stomach-in-flames feeling is not entirely new to me. I've experienced it when I ate food that exceeded the already high levels of heat I was used to in my growing-up years. However, I had a far higher tolerance for that burn too. I could go about my daily chores and be functional despite the discomfort.
Now, all I could think of was a way for someone to use a fire extinguisher in my stomach to put out the blaze immediately! My mind knew that I got through a lot worse than the current situation; that I have it in me to get through this one too. But, something in me didn't want to do it anymore.
I attribute this change to a couple of things. First, as I've gotten older, I've found I've begun having a lower tolerance for s*** in life, in general. (My writing too is undergoing change - I now incorporate profanity when earlier there was none!). Second, life is all about perception. Maybe in that cocooned world of my earlier life, my limited life experiences placed the spice level I was used to at the top of the spicy-food hierarchy. Now, having travelled about and experienced more - maybe the perception of having grown up eating really hot foods was just that, a perception. Maybe I always only ate medium-spiced food all the while thinking that my palette was used to and could brave highly-spiced food.
Well, my changing palette makes me love the fact that I'm having it all. I experienced one end of the food spectrum and I now I get to experience the other.
Growing up, spicy food was an integral part of life. The more fiery, the better. Our family had a pretty high threshold for hot food compared to our relatives who were often left surprised at the amount of heat in our meals. I remember our family as being right up there with, or perhaps just a couple notches below the spiciest-food lovers in our region who enjoyed Andhra cuisine - a cuisine well known for its ability to set your mouth aflame. Back then, I could barely imagine eating more than one meal in a day that was bland in taste. Now, I cannot eat more than a few morsels of food that are as hot as the food I grew up eating.
Today, what I would have considered mildly-spiced food, set the insides of my stomach on fire. This stomach-in-flames feeling is not entirely new to me. I've experienced it when I ate food that exceeded the already high levels of heat I was used to in my growing-up years. However, I had a far higher tolerance for that burn too. I could go about my daily chores and be functional despite the discomfort.
Now, all I could think of was a way for someone to use a fire extinguisher in my stomach to put out the blaze immediately! My mind knew that I got through a lot worse than the current situation; that I have it in me to get through this one too. But, something in me didn't want to do it anymore.
I attribute this change to a couple of things. First, as I've gotten older, I've found I've begun having a lower tolerance for s*** in life, in general. (My writing too is undergoing change - I now incorporate profanity when earlier there was none!). Second, life is all about perception. Maybe in that cocooned world of my earlier life, my limited life experiences placed the spice level I was used to at the top of the spicy-food hierarchy. Now, having travelled about and experienced more - maybe the perception of having grown up eating really hot foods was just that, a perception. Maybe I always only ate medium-spiced food all the while thinking that my palette was used to and could brave highly-spiced food.
Well, my changing palette makes me love the fact that I'm having it all. I experienced one end of the food spectrum and I now I get to experience the other.