Discipline And Practice
We are sitting on the terrace in Stefanos Place... Spiros and Ionna are here too, their two children Aphrodite and Anastasios are playing near us; there is beautiful music playing... The sun is shining very brightly and much warmer than yesterday and I have just finished a wonderful Greek salad - swimming in olive oil - while Anadi enjoyed a late (1pm) cooked breakfast...
We have loved catching up with our Greek friends... As we chatted, they invited us to their family Easter feast on Sunday....
We travelled across the world, and not only juggled about with those five hours, but as we played with time we found that we caught another Easter... Two Easters in one year....!
Tonight we plan to go into Corfu town to see the celebrations unfolding... Paschal is a very big occasion on the island...
This morning we ran six miles along a winding road overlooking the beautiful Ionian Sea, with springtime arriving here... We ran under trees with red and white blossoms, beside pink and purple flowers twisting and dancing in the hedgerows... The sun warm on our bodies as we ran along in our vest and shorts, without needing to wring the sweat out of them at the end!
And I am noticeably fitter - with my new Tom Tom watch I can see my heartrate and witness, as well as feel, how much stronger, fitter, faster I am...
Here at Stefanos Place there has been much change, the restaurant has been transformed and looks fresh and new... On one wall there are quotes and phrases... Spiros handed me a black marker pen to add my quote...
Citius, Altius, Fortius.... Faster higher stronger, I wrote the Olympic ideal... When in Greece...!
It feels rather like emerging from a chrysalis - the training camp of St Lucia with the heat, the high humidity and the hills, the difficult terrain, the new exercises for my leg... And it is now that I truly feel the benefit, and can appreciate fully the gifts of transformation both within and without from our island in the sun, I am feeling... Faster, higher and stronger!
And I love my Tom Tom, Anadi has bought it for me as an early birthday present; I believe it is going to help me a lot... Already I feel more in touch again with the inner workings of my body...
A Heartrate Monitor can have the effect of a conscious meditation.... Letting go of any attachment to outcome of time over distance and running to a heartrate that encourages the body to deepen its aerobic fitness - running intervals at a level that are really right for our system allows for a deepening of running in the moment, in the step, on the agreed HR....not giving in to any temptation to 'push the pace' - it becomes impossible to kid yourself in any way...
Running a distance on a HR, training optimally for a few weeks... And then repeating the test on the same HR allows for truthful feed back...
Too often we 'hope' for changes in many areas of our life, running is just a very simple action. - one foot in front of the other - that can be used to notice patterns and tendencies that are also in other areas of our life....
By seeing clearly the effects of our training on our HR and pace - we cannot kid ourselves - we are challenged to take responsibility fully for our own progress, the effect of everything else on us in our life, we see what works and what doesn't and we are asked to observe and reflect and understand ourselves more deeply....
Our changes, our transformations, our actions, our results are all our responsibility and it is our attitude to the outcomes that will help us simply try different approaches and techniques until we truly discover what works for us...
We are all a study of one and by deeply exploring our own processes and what works for us - rather than this being in any way selfish or self absorbed... The process of self understanding and self awareness opens the door to have greater understanding of others....
'Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness'.
~ Lao-tzu
