Theme: I Love
Acknowledging our choices
Chapter 3: Compassion, Caretaking & a soft heart
Sometimes it feels like our whole world fits in the circle of our arms. We hunch over to type on the computer. We lean over a table to work on a hard project. We huddle over a warm cup of coffee in the morning. We carry a heavy object up against our chest. We hug our family, or lug an overtired kid to bed, or cradle a baby. We scoop up the cat to snuggle on the couch. A ton of our lives happens in a very small circle of space pressed up against our hearts, and there is a lot of intense energy trapped in that space. It is the bridge between our whole life’s physical demands and all of our emotional aspirations, like we discussed before. So we can either let all that effort and energy weigh us down and break us over time; or we can drop everything entirely and walk away; or we can acknowledge and use what we have to make us stronger.
Compassion
Caring for others, and about others, and taking care of our own needs is important, and relentless at times (we’re all looking at you laundry mountain), but it’s also important to set it all down, take a deep breath, and prepare to begin again. Go ahead and let compassion define you at times, but if you give everything of yourself like Shel Silverstein’s Giving Tree, there will be nothing left for yourself or anyone else in the end but a sad stump. So hold still for a sec. Set down what weighs on you. Plan out your next sets. Do your reps. Listen to what your muscles are telling you. Should you increase the weight next time or take some off? In what areas of your life do you have room to grow more compassion? Where in your life are your muscles yelling at you to set something down, to reassess, realign your posture, or find a better grip? If some part of you is yelling “there’s got to be a better way!!” …then there probably is. But just as it was you who discovered a problem, you have to discover your own answers as well. Just try something. Try and fail. Try something no one else would try. It’s ok. Failure is ok. And it’s ok to be consumed with compassion. But you are a someone worthy of compassion too.
Below are some chest and pectoral strengthening exercises. Think about the pattern of effort and rest, effort and rest, like waves working their way up to crash on a beach, and then gliding back out to sea. There can’t be one without the other. One action isn’t good and the other bad. We have to do both so as not to become a sad stump.
Jet Tries 