Do you have the "doing dis-ease"?

As I sit down to write my letter to you this week, it has become clear to me that I have a lot to say.

Taking the time to really piece together what I hope is helpful for you, is extremely important.

It has been a challenging few weeks in the world. I search for my own answers and come up with few.

The one that stands out the most is that I must take care of myself before I can care for others.

This is where exercise fits in.

Last week I exercised (relatively hard) each and every day. Probably for at least 60 minutes a session. I wondered to myself, why am I feeling drained?

​An essential piece of good exercise programming is rest. The time given for rest is for recovery of musculoskeletal tissue, the regeneration of these tissues as well as time to mentally recover from the work and nourish the body.

As I dive deeper into how my exercise week unfolded, I've become to realize that my mind was busy and my way to cope was to also busy my body.

​Using exercise as a coping strategy isn't something new.​

It is maybe one of your coping strategies too.

In tough times, I use doing to keep me going. I was looking for ease in my doing.

Did I find it? Not really. Too much of anything be it exercise, TV viewing, reading or eating, is never a good long term plan.

Don't get me wrong, it is okay to find ways to cope. Please do - I encourage that. For me, I also need to just be.

By being, I can actually feel what there is to feel, rather than simply pushing past it with doing.

I don't profess to have all the answers. What I do know is that for me getting quiet and being still is much more powerful than doing, doing, and more doing.

I am highly driven and doing is my superpower. Being needs to be present too.

So I share with you one of the ways I am being. Trying to cope with all the chaos outside my front door. I've started using a variation of the Loving Kindness Meditation. It goes like this:
​

May you be healthy.
​May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be at ease.

This allows me to be present. Feel the feels and provide comfort and ease to myself.

And my exercise this week, well, is more balanced.

Ponder for yourself, are you giving yourself enough rest? What allows you to just be?

If you need help finding a balanced exercise routine, I’m here to help! And if yoga is a modality that you are interested in, please reply back to this email and we can chat further about my therapeutic yoga offerings.

Stay well and happy moving,

Lisa