Remembering capabilities.

There’s something I’ve been mulling over the last couple of days.

Remembering capabilities. 

I started thinking about it during that solo run I took on Friday after teaching and continued thinking about it while teaching on Saturday and again while running with Scott on Sunday morning. (yayyy #teamsutera!)

My mind was whirring away while running this weekend — thinking about a few things. About how challenging both runs felt — man, running on the treadmill is just NOT the same as running outside. My body made sure to remind me of that this weekend. But that’s the thing — my body is capable of running whatever I want it to run, I just have to let it. Not get freaked out that my mileage is way down, or my endurance isn’t where it used to be, or whatever. Just simply remembering capabilities. This body carried me all 26.2 miles not too long ago — it can sure as hell get through the transition from winter/dreadmill running to spring/summer outdoor running, that’s for sure.

I also thought about capabilities as it relates to all forms of fitness.

…Of my husband pushing himself to work harder at Crossfit, to improve his strength and flexibility and endurance. Of figuring out just what his body is truly capable of — and then pushing for me. Something he’s been doing an awesome job of (proud wifey alert!).

…Of our clients at barre n9ne — who step up to that barre at all times of day or night and push themselves. To work harder, get lower, shake more. I can almost see it in some of them as they work through class — that moment when they think they can’t possibly hold onto the set any longer. I see them squeeze their eyes shut, and either push through or they literally hesitate when I say ‘push lower’ or ‘hang on, you are almost there.’ And it’s that moment between hesitation and remembering capabilities and pushing for it, that I LOVE to see so much in our clients. That moment where they allow the shake at the barre, they embrace it and just go for it. It makes my day when I see a client who maybe hasn’t gotten to that ‘shake point’ before, finally connect with their body in a new way and right before their eyes and mine, they are shaking away, working through that set, relying on their body and remembering their capabilities.

And finally, I’ve been thinking about capabilities as it relates to life in general.

Trusting yourself to go for it, whatever ‘it’ might be. Remembering that your path is set in front of you, yours for the taking, it’s just up to you whether or not you follow that path and truly go for it. And that’s sort of how I’m feeling lately — that this path of mine is shaping up quite beautifully and I guess I can’t say it enough — things are just good right now. And I know that kind of makes for some boring blog posts from me (a lot of the same theme!) but it’s all I got right now — life, my path, our path, kind of great.

And I know that partly has to do with remembering that I’m capable of creating the life that I want to live, my best life right now. Kind of a neat thing to put into words huh? Living your best life now, the one that yes, *you* are capable of living. 

So my advice to get there — to that best life now? Embrace that moment between hesitation and remembering capabilities — and go for it. Do not hesitate. Trust. And just go.

She believed she could.

I’ve seen this mantra floating around pinterest countless times, but for some reason, it popped into mind today:

Source: healthawakening.tumblr.com via Jess on Pinterest

After reading your comments on my post from Sunday night (I owe you all responses, promise I’ll get to them today!), I got to thinking about belief. And believing in myself more. But not in the traditional way you might think of ‘believing in yourself’ but more in the way of seeing yourself the way that others see you. I guess that’s what struck me about how you’ve all responded to my post, the one where I admit that I sometimes do a pretty sh*tty job of maintaining balance, and yes – cutting myself some slack now and then.

One of my best friends on the planet sent me some incredible words of encouragement over text last night. And one thing she said really stood out to me — the concept of not ‘allowing’ myself to let go. She’s right. I often don’t allow it. And it’s not because I don’t think I deserve to chill out, but I guess I hold a very high expectation of myself and never back down from that.

So in that regard, I guess it’s time to believe in me a little bit more. From the perspective of believing that my little corner of the world will not result in catastrophe if I let go…of patterns, of control, of habits. And believing that some change is good change — a concept I’ve always shared openly here: that change is scary but being a little ‘scared’ every day isn’t so bad. So I guess it’s time to step out of my little corner and allow myself to be afraid, but believe that ‘scary change’ like letting go, is actually a good thing, and not so scary afterall.

*****

Another way to consider belief? Believing that you might have an extra mile in you, an extra rep to lift, an extra set of abs to eek out. I haven’t been talking about my workouts lately but this morning? Well it was ‘me workout’ time — a rare treat these days (NOT that I mind, I looove teaching, remember? hehe…) and it was another one of those runs that seemed to go by a lot faster than I anticipated. And when my time was up, I figured ok – 6 miles is great. However. My legs weren’t altogether tired. I felt pretty darn good, actually. And I had the time since I was up so early today. So, I bumped up the pace again and got in another solid mile to round out my run at 7 miles (before 7am!) this morning. Talk about a needed sweatfest….and a good example of believing in your body, and not giving into habit, pattern or practice.

So there you have it, believe that you can. That’s my tidbit for ya’ll today. Apply it however you see fit. 🙂