We Believed We Could Fly...
Last night I got everything ready... Clothes to train with Rodja - a towel to wipe the sweat away; clothes for yoga after Rodja, another towel to wipe the sweat away... Clothes for after yoga.. My protein drink ready to drink before I left... My iPad and notebooks galore packed in my bag too.
I am a notebook person. If you ever want to give me my best ever present please buy me a colourful notebook with a nice pen! Notebooks with blank pages give me a feeling of great joy...
Anything is possible on the blank page... This is the space we can be truly happy in; the blank page each day, without a trace of limiting memory that holds us back or makes us sad or angry or fearful.
For as long as I can remember, my notebooks have always represented this clear, still, white, creative space...
So, these were in my bag too; one a 'things to do' notebook, one a 'Running Conscious ideas ' notebook, one a 'goals as they bubble up from within me' notebook.. ! And the blank pages for anything that might arise; for any insights or channelled witing that might emerge...
This was all ready so that at 6am when I got up, I could slip away for my 7am start with Rodja without waking Anadi...
All was going to plan, until I veered off course... On the kitchen table, I saw the bottle of liquid magnesium that I bought from Matt, my PT in the UK... I decided an application might aid my morning's activities. i squirted it all over my legs and then accidentally dropped the bottle...!
Anadi was fully woken by this...!
The silver lining to him having an unusually early start to his day, was that we had an early cup of coffee together before I left; and then he got an unexpectedly early start to his busy day of imedialibrary and imedialibrarysports updates!
I jogged and walked the mile to the gym... Cherisse was already there, and she gave me our T shirts for the independence run on Monday... I then climbed aboard the treadmill for a bit more of a warm up before Rodja arrived...
'I'm going to train with you today' he smiled... 'Oh good!' I said - this felt like a fun thing to be doing....
He started to write the session on the board... 'My workouts have names, so this is the "Julia "workout' he said...
It was five exercises... I can't remember all of the names; but essentially it built up in segments to a full clean and squat and over head press ie) it got harder each round...!
But the repetitions got less...
In between each exercise we ran 400 metres on the treadmill.... So one of us was running, and the other one was exercising...!
If we finished and were 'standing around', we were meant to 'jump rope' (skip) - it is a long time since I have done this, and suffice to say, I definitely need some practice!
It was brilliant fun and 'full on, hard core' as Anadi would say...
I was fully 'de frosting'; this is the way Rodja and Cherisse describe the flowing sweat that happens to us beings, unacclimatised to the heat!
Hard training in the gym is something I totally love...
It is a very different meditation on the move... It is a very different type of endurance, and the effort required asks that full attention is given to each movemnet; and total relaxation of the mind and body whilst in vigourous action is also required... It is vital to be in the moment totally...
If I were to have looked ahead, I could have tensed up as questions can arise...'Can I do this...?' and, then that takes away the fun of finding out... And it was fun, it really was...!
It also asked that I know my capabilities, but also stretch beyond them. I am very willing; I love and respond to challenge, but I also know that this 'willingness' has burned me out in the past, as it was combined with tension and lack of acceptance of the here and now and of myself... My inner tension asked that I strive to be somehwre I wasn't, because the chimera of my redemption, or peace inside was in this mythical place. i didnt know then, it was in the here and now...
So now I relax, and I have no pre-conceived ideas of what I can or can't do...!
When we were very little, we had no self-concept. We believed we could fly; and this state of 'no self-concept', is the child-like one, that in returning to it once more; we discover is a place that is rejuvenating and exhilarating. It asks 'what is possible...?' I wonder if I can...?' "let's find out...' And then there it is again... The blank page, the space, the stillness, where creativity can arise and be made manifest.
We sat on the bench afterwards, and I asked if there was anything I could eat... Rodja shared his grapefruit with me and we planned next training sessions, the Monday run, and he invited me onto a radio show on Friday..
And then I walked up the road to a great yoga session at Sportivo Health and Fitness...
I unravelled and stretched and breathed... And an hour and a half later wandered to cafe Ole to meet Anadi for breakfast...
