Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Last week I wrote about how there’s never a good time to be sick. COVID basically sucked the life out of me for about two weeks I guess. I’m still not 100%, but I’m getting closer every day. I’m dealing with everything that got set off to the side during that time, though. And it’s a great feeling to just be somewhat “normal” again. Health can be one of those things we all know should be a focus in our lives, but to truly be healthy means eating properly, exercising, getting enough sleep, spending time on our mental well being… and who has the time for that, right? I can tell you that before I got sick I was really thinking I wasn’t taking care of myself anywhere near where I’d like to be. Wasn’t getting enough sleep for sure. Wasn’t working out enough for sure. Not for me to feel comfortable anyway. And while I was sick, I kept thinking “man, once I get back to being able to do stuff physically again I’m going to really start paying attention to everything”… proper eating, working out, meditating, and sleeping. I want to be as healthy as possible, always. But it’s so easy to make that decision, change things up, start a plan – and give up. I’ve belonged to many gyms over the years – January the people at the gym seem to double, but by February it’s back to normal. Pretty common. There’s never a good time to be sick, but sometimes being sick can be good for us in the long run if it’s the catalyst that gets us to rethink the importance of physical health in our lives. I’m certainly looking at everything anew right now – and I’m determined, even at 62 years old, that my best days physically are still ahead. We become what we think about. I think about being the healthiest 70 year old on the planet. That’s the kind of crazy expectations I set for myself. Could I get there? Sure!… Will I?… probably not, but I’ll be further ahead than someone who sees themselves in a nursing home or not even alive at that age. And we set ourselves up for failure with our lack of belief in what we are capable of. I’m gonna turn this bout with COVID into the best thing that ever happened for me health-wise. A wake up call. A reminder that while we’re out there wasting time online, overeating, ignoring our bodies, not getting any sleep, all tense and stressed from our jobs… life doesn’t have to be that way. We have this amazing vehicle to traverse our lives with (our bodies) – why are we so quick to forget the routine maintenance? And inside the body, we have the worlds greatest super computer (our brains), and what do we focus on? What do we feed our brains? All the horrors of everything that’s going on in the world, and how terrible our jobs are, and how wrong this political person is, and how nothing is fair, and… the greatest super computer in the world can only act on the data it’s being fed. Maybe start looking at what’s possible, how can we learn to love more, to be present with each other, to take better care of ourselves and our attitudes… I thank COVID today because I needed something to remind me what a great feeling it is just to feel good. And how much of that I feel going forward will be determined by the decisions I make on a daily basis. I intend to live healthy. That is, and has always been my intention. But I realize that I’ve been letting my focus drift. Sickness can bring that reality home. Man, it feels good to feel good today. Yoga and meditation will be my first things back. Breathing exercises. Running and weight lifting to follow. And a long, hard look at my nutritionals. Because, I only have eight years to become the healthiest 70 year old on the planet – so I gotta start now 🙂
