At an online men’s group I am a part of, we were given the challenge to do 100 push-ups before the next time we met. I have been working with weights for several years, so this challenge didn’t scare me at all. However, I haven’t been doing any push-ups because of some recurrent wrist and shoulder injuries. “That’s okay,” I thought, “they’ve been all right lately, I’ll give it a go.” I started out, doing sets of 10, and on my 30th push-up I strained a muscle, not in my shoulder or my chest, but my neck!
I listened to my body and took the rest of the day off. This experience caused me to have a number of thoughts about our health, and about our lives. I injured my neck because it was working improperly while I exercised my chest and arms. I wasn’t even aware that my neck was under stress until I felt a pull. This can be true in other things. When we take on a new project in our career, we can focus on it and ignore the stress that it is putting on other aspects of our lives. Work deadlines that consume our focus can lead to relationship or financial challenges in areas of our life that may have been weaker, out of balance or neglected. These will show up when you are in crunch time! It occurs to me, with the temporary closing of our studio due to COVID-19, I have not done any yoga. I have continued to workout daily, but my regular workout doesn’t have enough of a stretching component and this came back to bite me in the neck during push-up number 29!
When I gently resumed push-ups the next day, having thoroughly warmed up and stretched my neck and other “unrelated” areas, I felt okay. Until I didn’t. When it seemed like the push ups were a lot more work than I expected, I remembered how my whole body was involved (and a tip I’d received doing Chaturanga in Yoga). I tightened my core, contracting my abs, glut and back muscles and made my body like a plank. Suddenly the push-ups became effortless. Okay, I won’t go that far- they took some effort. But they were a lot easier.
We have to do that with our lives. We need to do the work to develop our core muscles (not nearly as sexy as bulging biceps) so that we can support our bodies when they are trying to do the heavy lifting. Physically, we develop our core with a myriad of exercises from planks, to crunches to leg lifts. Not my favourite exercises, but necessary for our foundation. In our lives, we have to develop a strong core with personal habits, relationship development and self care techniques. How do we develop our “life core”? Here are some suggestions:
- Develop and maintain a daily routine with structure. Get to bed and wake up at specific and preplanned times. Eat regularly. Maintaining our body’s natural rhythms helps them to work optimally and to maximize our ability to be alert. Make your bed. Keep your living space tidy. It develops self discipline and is helpful when tackling bigger problems. (and you don’t waste time looking for stuff!)
- Have regular planning times. Make lists. Decide what is important and tackle things in order of importance. We save time and energy when we aren’t playing “catch up” because we dropped a ball and forgot to shop for a needed item when we were at the mall and now have to make an extra trip to the store.
- Dress for success. While many of us are working at home now, it is easy to stay in our pyjamas all the time! Getting dressed appropriately and preparing “outwardly” can help us be more productive and alert. For the past few days I have been power washing the patio and wearing old t shirts and jeans. To write this article (and work on tax preparation) I had a shower, shaved my neck (I’m growing the Corona stay-at-home beard) and dressed in a collared shirt and dress pants. I wasn’t going to see anyone, but it got me in work mode. Ironically, editing the article this morning, I was still wearing my pyjamas because I was waiting to work out. (My wife got to our home gym before I did!) While wearing my pjs, I forgot to add this piece of advice! This applies to exercising as well- wear the proper gear even if no one will see you.
- Take care of your body. Exercise regularly. Eat nutritiously. Get regular chiropractic tune ups (when we open again after this is all over!) to maximize your nervous system function and help you be aware of hidden patterns you’ve been ignoring (like my neck muscles) before you injure that area.
- Develop a financial budget and plan. Stick to it and monitor whether you are on track.
- Develop spiritual disciplines. Listen to podcasts, read books on personal growth, etc.
- Cultivate friendships that challenge you. Have people in your life you can trust who will point out areas that are weak spots and tell you the truth. Build relationships that allow you to be vulnerable and ask for help or share thoughts, dreams and fears in safety and without judgement.
- Consider getting a coach or mentor. You can empower a friend to do this or pay someone to fill this role. It is amazing how much more we value advice and direction when we have paid for it! Having a personal trainer at the gym will help you make much greater progress as they help you push yourself out of your comfort zone. This is true for every area of our life. If you are interested in life coaching for goal setting, time management, budgeting or fitness/diet/weight loss (or any combination of these things) I am taking on some clients at this time. It would involve a weekly session by phone, skype or zoom. It can be for a short term or long term or trial arrangement. If you would like to know more details or to see if this could work for you, email me at WellnessFamilyCare@gmail.com
This is a lot to try and change all at the same time! Pick out one thing you can work on this week. You will never achieve perfection but you will find great satisfaction in making progress in these areas.
Developing your “life core” is a process. No matter how big our biceps are, we won’t be able to lift a weight if we don’t have the core strength to support our body. Similarly, no matter how talented we are at a venture, if we don’t have the life skills to maintain our equilibrium through the stress, we won’t make it. Let’s use this time of isolation for self evaluation and discovery- developing personal habits and discovering where we need to strengthen and grow!