Step Two
Step Two – (See yesterday’s Sundrops for Step One)
Do something.
How do you handle your difficulties? We all have them. No one gets to spend their entire life sitting on a cloud like a Care Bear and just shining good vibes.
Life is tough no matter what anyone says. Maybe it’s your own problems that take you down. Maybe you’re fine but the pain your loved one is going through absolutely knocks you out on many levels.
Pain and worry take an awful toll on the body and the spirit. A tremendous amount of stress can build day after day until you are consumed by it.
No matter the problem, you must find a way to release all that building tension. If you don’t, that tension becomes a terrible addition to what already bothers you.
Most overwhelmed people can’t spend an hour at a local yoga studio for one reason or another but everyone can do something at home. There are YouTube videos that can apply to just about anyone. There is even Bed Yoga for bed bound people.
It doesn’t have to be Yoga. It can be anything. Several years ago I met a remarkable woman named Clare. Clare was in her eighties and had a very long list of ailments and just walking to the kitchen was a painful ordeal. Every day she put her problems aside and was the only caretaker for her ninety year old husband. He was afflicted with Alzheimers and was quite a handful.
Clare had always been quite active but a series of operations had made her sedentary. She spent all of her days watching and taking care of her Harold. Outside she looked rather peaceful but inside she used to be filled with stress and worry. Years ago a long walk would have alleviated most of that but it was impossible now.
So Clare worked with what she had. She would take a damp washcloth and roll it up and squeeze it twenty five times with one hand and then twenty five times with the other hand. She also had a small ball of yarn that she kept on the floor in front of her chair. She would take her shoes off and with her toes pass the ball of yarn from one foot to the other a few times. She did both of these exercises several times a day. She called her washcloths and her balls of yarn her “Sanity Trainers”.
No one is going to get to the Olympics exercising with washcloths and yarn but it made an Olympic size difference to how Clare dealt with her stress and ailments.
The takeaway here is that you have to do something physical every singe day to relieve the pressure of your problems. Each of us has different capabilities but all of us can do something. You may think that watching TV or going online takes you away from your problems but they are only distractions. They have their place but they are no substitute for doing something physical.
Your mind and body are linked together.Your mind is always active. Your body needs to be too. There has to be balance. Physically, it’s not what you do once or twice that makes a difference. It’s what you consistently do that that keeps the darkness at bay.
Go for a walk or grab a video or a washcloth or a soup can or a kettle bell and release some of that tension every day. Don’t let stress and tension darken your life and your outlook. Do something.
Tomorrow I will describe Step Three.
Love the Light Within. Patrick
Sundrops On Life – Better Thoughts. Better Days.
(c)2019 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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