Last night was another chi-filled, sweat-filled, Level 1 class. Miraculously, I wasn’t too sore from Monday; and while my legs were a little tired, and the mugginess made it hard to catch one’s breath, overall I felt strong. After class, we did an intense cleaning of the turtle tank, which we’ve been putting off for way too long.
While cleaning out the hidden grossness that settles in the rocks at the bottom, I thought it was an apt allegory for this past week and a half. We change the water often enough, but there’s still lots of filth hiding in the bottom and the filter becomes clogged and the water becomes murky all too quickly; I realized the same sort of think with my training and my life in general. Breaks here and there are important for refreshing your body and mind, but if you don’t do a major overhaul every now and again, you miss stirring up and cleaning out the mess that settles and hides further down. You tidy your room, but you still need an intense spring cleaning. You take days off from training, but you need to also give yourself long breaks. So I guess I am extolling the importance of routine maintenance plus the 10,000 mile check up. You can’t only do one and not the other. And if you do neither, as sometimes happens to me… well... you’re gonna pay for it eventually.
Once we finished the tank, and it was shiny clean, the turtles were swimming around gleefully and there was a relief on all sides that there wasn't hidden dirt left hanging over us. So maybe that's why I've had trouble getting back into my groove. And also why I didn’t feel sore on the second day back (as one usually does after a week off). I was actually getting some necessary deep-healing done both in body and in mind. I thought I had it together but there was some unseen dirt clogging up the works. Now that it's cleaned up I can train harder!
While cleaning out the hidden grossness that settles in the rocks at the bottom, I thought it was an apt allegory for this past week and a half. We change the water often enough, but there’s still lots of filth hiding in the bottom and the filter becomes clogged and the water becomes murky all too quickly; I realized the same sort of think with my training and my life in general. Breaks here and there are important for refreshing your body and mind, but if you don’t do a major overhaul every now and again, you miss stirring up and cleaning out the mess that settles and hides further down. You tidy your room, but you still need an intense spring cleaning. You take days off from training, but you need to also give yourself long breaks. So I guess I am extolling the importance of routine maintenance plus the 10,000 mile check up. You can’t only do one and not the other. And if you do neither, as sometimes happens to me… well... you’re gonna pay for it eventually.
Once we finished the tank, and it was shiny clean, the turtles were swimming around gleefully and there was a relief on all sides that there wasn't hidden dirt left hanging over us. So maybe that's why I've had trouble getting back into my groove. And also why I didn’t feel sore on the second day back (as one usually does after a week off). I was actually getting some necessary deep-healing done both in body and in mind. I thought I had it together but there was some unseen dirt clogging up the works. Now that it's cleaned up I can train harder!
