Integrating athletics into your life harnesses the body's natural tendency to thrive on eustress, fortifying a sense of sovereignty that aligns with the energetic rebirth of April.
This is the first of a series on our month's theme of The Athletics of Action.
April is when the year's rebirth finally makes itself amazingly felt, like a magnificent sunrise of energy breaking across the broad sky. The world is getting both brighter and warmer, the sunrise is getting earlier and the days longer, and the whole landscape seems to invite you to come out and play and get active in ways you haven't been since last fall.
As such, our April theme is The Athletics of Action. For me, as a longtime athlete of long-distance endurance efforts, my goal is to open up to you how athletics assists you in maintaining and growing a healthy body-mind-soul and a healthy sovereignty. Athletic activities in the outdoors, activities that you truly love, help you connect with your self, the ancestral wisdom of your body. They also provide the eustress -- the powerful and necessary "good" stress -- that the human body is designed to thrive on.
The heart of The Athletics of Action is about reconnecting with the self within you that craves and loves the outdoors, the movement, and the satisfying long-arc athletic effort that too often we let other life interruptions prevent.
When you do this, you both #healworklife and #reclaimyourwildness in positive, and powerful, ways in both work-life and life-life.
Awakening the Body: The Rejuvenating Power of Athletics
Your body is designed for activity. Tens of thousands of years of human life and living relied on the body's capacity to move, move, and move some more -- and thrive doing so. The "optionality" of movement in our modern life is a new thing, and it's not at all healthy. Consider it from the point of wildness: your human body is a wild thing, and it wants, craves, needs, and rejoices in what a wild thing wants. It wants to move, to hunt, to flow, to thrive, to reach, to extend itself across distance and landscape. When it can't get this, it gets stressed in subconscious and inexplicable ways. You don't have to suffer that -- just reintroduce the power of athletics as essential, not optional, for your day.
Eustress - The Beneficial Hard Effort
Your body wants positive hard effort to push against each day. You are descended from hunter-gatherers for whom daily movement was a natural and ongoing flow -- bending, squatting, hunting, gathering, carrying, flexing, running down prey. The word for such positive effort is "eustress", i.e. "beneficial stress". It is one of the primary things that is absolutely missing from the typical day, and yet, one of the most important.
How many times have you heard "take it easy", "do less", "don't walk on that aching knee", "don't overdo it". And yes, in some contexts, there are times for those words (you absolutely never want to go so long or hard that you injure yourself, so be wise in all your training). But the main thing the modern body is craving is not 'taking it easy', but MORE EUSTRESS in each day. Your body is a magnificent machine. It craves mental and physical release, to run, walk, hike, lift, tote, cycle, swim, paddle, carry workout sandbags -- whatever your favorite movement medicine is.
Your body also wants long efforts at least once or twice a week to switch things up, to mimic the days out on the grasslands, steadily and enjoyable running prey down. If you've never done a long athletic effort, then just take care to enjoyably train for it. Long efforts engage and challenge the body and the mind in ways short efforts can never do. The wisdom they'll give you is invaluable to growing your sovereignty. Ideally, you would do at least one a week. Do be sure to train up to the distance! But also, play and explore! What's a long effort? Whatever your farthest distance is.... times 2, 3, 5, 10, whatever figure most intrigues you.
Outdoors - The Place of Great Healing
Your body also wants to be outdoors. Let's realize that there is no substitute at all for the body's need to be outdoors for long periods of time. Mentally, physically, you as a human being need, thrive on, and respond to the non-linear, non-man-made, naturally growing and flowing sights, sounds, sunlight, freshness, and movement patterns that can only be found in the natural world, all year long, all season round.
Running on a treadmill is a kind of mental death -- there is always a level of your subconscious that knows you're absolutely going nowhere with all that effort. Running and other activities out in nature give you the challenge of wind, chill, dealing with the mental reality of distance from home and your need to resourcefully manage your energy. Being outdoors reveals the ways in which nature changes, every day, all the time, bringing you both the sameness of familiar parks or forests, and the endless change and shift of the season. Especially in springtime, when the trees are leafing out, the change can be amazing day over day!
I'm not going to go into how to start (or restart) a running practice (or a kayaking practice, or a sandbag practice, or a hiking practice etc.) -- there are plenty of resources out there for you to get the wisdom on your favorite activity of choice. My takeaway would be to keep it fun and exploratory, and to always listen to your body. Go hard when your body wants long effort, go easy when your body wants recovery days, absolutely stop when your body feels it's about to overtrain, and most of all, get outdoors in the most enjoyable way possible.
Sovereignty - The Total Reward
When you engage properly with eustress (and the outdoors), you give the body what it craves. And through this, psychologically, as well as physically, you reinforce your ability to hold the energy of sovereignty. Setting a goal, let's say a suite of running goals for the week, and meeting them with the power of your own will and the capacity of your own capable body, is one of the fastest, easiest ways to feel sovereignty directly inside you -- internally, core-focused, kinesthetically, and in a way NO ONE can take from you.
The short form of the question to work with today is: where do you need more athletics, movement, and eustress in your life?
Metaphors for Exploring The Athletics of Action
Metaphors are a fun and powerful way to play with these ideas and surface unexpected insights. They allow you to interact with your inmost thoughts in an insightful, yet indirect way. Here are a number of metaphors you can play with as you explore this important life area. Get out your favorite journaling method, and work with the following questions. Let any answers come up.
"If Your Body Were A Racehorse, What Would It Be Wanting?"
Just as a thoroughbred yearns for the open track, your body craves the expansive freedom of athletic expression. It desires the eustress of the race—the exhilarating charge of energy, the heart-pounding sprints, and the rewarding recovery after a challenging run. The care given to a racehorse, from nutrition to training to rest, mirrors the holistic approach we must take with our bodies. Providing opportunities for exertion and embracing the natural stress of physical challenges, we not only honor our body's innate needs but also cultivate its sovereignty—the power to surge ahead with grace, strength, and enduring vitality.
"If you opened an antique trunk and found a mysterious journal with your perfect athletic life written down, what would it say?"
Imagine coming upon an ancient trunk, weathered by time. As you lift the lid you find a mysterious journal, its pages opening easily to your touch. This journal, curiously enough, details your perfect athletic life—a chronicle not yet lived but wonderfully imagined. As you leaf through the pages, the words paint vivid scenes: perhaps of mornings spent jogging along dewy trails, afternoons cycling under a canopy of whispering trees, evenings mastering yoga poses in the twilight. The journal speaks of strength gained, limits tested, and a deep, satisfying exhaustion that only comes from fully exerting oneself in nature's embrace. It recounts a life where eustress molds your resilience, crafting a version of you that’s not just fit but also mentally unassailable, sovereign in your own right. What does your personal journal say?
Future-Focused Question for Exploring The Athletics of Action
You can also use this future-focused questions to explore the richness of athletics vs. inactivity in reclaiming your sovereignty.
"If You Felt Sovereignty As A Body Power, What Would It Feel Like?"
"If, in the midst of hoisting a heavy gym weight, you were suddenly infused with an electrifying sense of sovereignty, what would it feel like? Would it be as if every muscle fiber and sinew became alight with purpose and power? With each lift, would your body affirm its dominion over gravity, a declaration of strength that resonates to the core of your being? Would you feel how the the steel in your hands felt less like a burden and more like a scepter, a tangible symbol of your authority over your physical limits? Consider this an experience of sovereignty as it cascades through you—a potent rush of autonomy, control, and the invincible feeling that comes from conquering the inertia of the lifeless metal, transforming it into a testament to your resilience and enduring will. Now, what life activities can you engage with that bring that rush of sovereignty into your life?"
Understand that curating your work-energy and pouring it into the opportunities that grow you isn't just a fleeting choice, but a pivotal decision that defines the richness and fulfillment of your life's narrative.
Key Learning Points
Understand The Benefits Of Eustress: Learn through personal experience the positive effects of eustress, the beneficial stress that comes from physical challenges. Feel in your own body how it enhances resilience, mental clarity, and overall well-being.
Use Athletic Activities as a Path to Sovereignty: Explore how regular athletic activities can empower you to reclaim sovereignty over your body and mind, fostering a sense of control, accomplishment, and autonomy that translates to both personal and professional spheres.
Seasonal Synergy: Discover how aligning athletic pursuits with the natural energy of the seasons, particularly the rejuvenating qualities of spring, amplifies your motivation and maximizes the benefits of outdoor activities.
Action Steps
Schedule Regular Athletic Activities: Start by integrating simple athletic activities into your daily routine. Choose exercises you enjoy, whether it’s a morning jog, yoga, or an evening bike ride. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week.
Set Ambitious Long-Form Athletic Goals: Define clear, measurable goals that motivate you. These could be running a certain distance, mastering a new yoga pose, or cycling a longer route. Tracking your progress towards these goals will reinforce your sense of accomplishment and control.
Embrace The Outdoors: Make a concerted effort to exercise outdoors as often as possible. Whether it’s hiking in a nearby park or gardening in your backyard, the connection with nature can significantly enhance the psychological benefits of exercise.
Play With Your Capacity For Eustress: Educate yourself on the concept of eustress and how it differs from "bad stress". Understanding how to harness eustress through athletic activities can transform your approach to stress management.
Embracing the Athletics of Action is about realizing that movement, athletics and the healing power of the outdoors are not optional, and never were.
How will you explore The Athletics of Action as you #reclaimyourwildness and #healworklife?
See you in the next post!
Be well,
Katherine
