Spinspiration: /spɪn/sp/-r/sh n/ The questions, answers, and everything in between that enter one’s mind during and after a session of indoor cycling, commonly referred to as “spinning”.
I don’t like to vent or complain. Wait. Scratch that. I don’t like to vent or complain UNLESS it is a means to reaching a solution. Aimlessly dwelling on the causes of emotional pain is more likely to exacerbate the situation than mitigate it. Furthermore, relaying the Bad over and over again becomes tiresome and…well, annoying. To those around you, yes – but if we stay in that negative place, we’re ultimately going to start annoying ourselves far more than we’re agitating any outside party. The negativity makes us more upset, which keeps us stuck in that roundabout of bitter rhetorical questions, which further aggravates and annoys ourselves and those we love! We unintentionally suck the world into our black hole of melancholy.
We’ve all been there.
Fun loop to be stuck in, huh?
After teaching a particularly challenging class last week, my exercise-high began to quell and I found myself feeling… off. My brain was everywhere, searching for roadmaps and answers and neatly-outlined guidebooks with color-coded tabs compartmentalizing all the information on how to get from A to Z while still looking fabulous and expanding your yoga practice in 21 days or less.
Instinctively, I texted a dear friend for some much-needed facetime and 30 mins later, I found myself laughing over lunch with a side dose of reality. We got to talking about common frustrations and how some people don’t quite understand why we keep on keepin’ on when the situation at hand seems, from the outside, to be nothing but exhausting. We face disappointments; we keep going. We get hurt; we keep going. We scream, cry and yes, complain… but we keep going. I realized, in that moment, that I have never EVER wanted something fiercely and passionately and found it to be a piece of cake.
If something is easy to come by and easy to maintain – sunshine and rainbows 24/7 – then chances are, it’s not truly important. It’s not RIGHT.
And difficulty is the universe’s way of preventing us from taking our truest desires for granted.
So much in life is unavoidably, hair-pullingly frustrating. People. Careers. Money. Braving traffic at 4:30 in the afternoon to attend an important event on the other side of the city. The hill that crept up on you in spin class out of nowhere. We could just fake those turns on the resistance knob and keep it easy, but ultimately, nothing would be achieved. Moreover, the inevitable ‘What If’ would sink in. What if I had just gone for it? Would I have max’d out my power halfway through? Or would I have pushed it all the way to the last downbeat and smiled and thought “let’s do that again”? What if I had stayed on the road instead of turning around with a shrug and a sigh, heading home telling myself I’d “show up” next time, when traffic wasn’t so repulsive?
Well — guess what?
We live in a country of over three hundred million and counting. Every hour is rush hour. Traffic is not disappearing any time soon.
Sometimes, fighting the gridlock and road rage of life is so excruciatingly hard to do. It sucks us in, showing us only the surface levels of negativity and arduousness. Horns blare around us, people start yelling, and it is just enough to persuade us to find the nearest exit and high-tail it home. But we’re on the road. We might have to take a few back roads and unexpected twists and turns. We’ll get there. IT IS WORTH IT.
Me personally? I’m still working on wholeheartedly “embracing” challenge. Consciously saying No to the easy-access exit ramps is a work in progress. Yet I CAN confidently say that I am able to look challenge in the eye with a smile, and deliver a nice firm handshake.
Which is the beginning of any successful relationship, right?
Because if it is easy all the time, there is something off.
And I don’t want Easy.
I want Right.
