I watched a movie this summer where the main character shares the 6 rules of wisdom that he learned from his father. The fifth rule was to “lean into it”. He tells his nephew that the outcome doesn’t matter, what matters is that you are there for it, whatever it is- good or bad. I liked that. I used it this summer at Preteen Camp, as we experienced one day of rain and we were running the programs as usual. Jane and I were stationed on Kayaks, standing in the water and loading kids into boats. Some of the kids were worrying about getting wet, and I shared this pearl of wisdom with them, encouraging them to embrace getting wet- they were going to get wet anyway and this was a good day to do it! The lake felt warmer than it had all week and the kids had a blast with swimming, water guns and kayaking.

Sometimes we need to be encouraged to “lean into it”, when a trial or challenge comes our way. We are in September now and a lot of people are bemoaning the end of summer and the approaching autumn. We can spend our energy in anguish for the lost summer days, or we can embrace the coming fall- planning activities that take advantage of the cooler weather and enjoy the changing leaves.

As I started to write this, I looked up the phrase, and it turns out that “lean into it” refers specifically to riding a motorcycle. I have never ridden one myself, but apparently when approaching a curve, the rider must lean into the curve to maintain their course without tipping over. The full expression is when life throws you a curve, lean into it. The urban dictionary now describes “Lean Into It” as an expression to indicate doing something to an extreme- to do it “big”.

When we focus on the negative and don’t embrace the challenge, we can miss out. This summer I finally got to create our lavender garden along our retaining wall. I scheduled for a load of gravel and top soil to be dumped on our side street on Tuesday morning at 9 am. I borrowed a wheel barrow from a kind neighbour, and was ready to work. To my surprise, at 7 am that same day, the city finally chose to tear up the entire sidewalk in front of our house. This was the sidewalk along which my wheelbarrow was to bring my new dirt and gravel! I had been waiting for 3 years for that sidewalk to be replaced, but couldn’t believe it would be the exact day I was creating my garden. I was tempted to focus on the challenge this created for me but remembered my phrase “lean into it”. My legs got a little more exercise pushing the wheel barrow over the grass and bump to our driveway and my arms got an extra work out shoveling it up and over the retaining wall. Not only that, but when I was finished, the city worker allowed me to put my extra gravel and dirt in the hole left by the unfinished sidewalk. I have no idea how I would have cleaned up and gotten rid of my extra without that construction close by. Had I “gone negative” and focused on the inconvenience I would not have noticed or appreciated the benefits.

Focusing on the negative aspects of a challenge can take a terrible toll on our health and wellness. When we “lean into it”, whether it is a work project, health crisis or family stress, we can experience the challenge fully and be resourceful as we go through the trial. We can minimize the impact that the stress takes on our own body if we are present and positive. Doing SRI on our own can help us to recognize where we are storing tension and release stress held in our body. Regular Network Care allows our nervous system to be resilient and to manage and dissipate stress and trauma- be it physical, mental or emotional.

Curves will come along the road of our lives. Let’s prepare ourselves- optimize our resources with SRI and Network Care, meet the curve with a positive attitude and lean into it!

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