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So, if I’m being honest, I posted my “Do You Suffer From Hurry Sickness?” post on Sunday accidentally; it was originally supposed to post today. Since I know that lots of you miss posts on the weekend, I thought I’d link it up again. If you missed it before, make sure to check it out! I talk a bit about hurry sickness, along with some steps we can take to help avoid falling prey.
Happy Wednesday!
There were several problems- I was staying at Melissa’s and I had forgotten my compression sleeves (compression sleeves are right up there with my running shoes as a necessity for running). Then I realized I had forgotten headphones (no big deal- I could just turn my volume up on my phone), and then my GPS on my phone wouldn’t work. So, I ended up getting out a little later than normal.
The first 5 minutes I was running against the wind, and tears were streaming down my face, and I almost turned back (the idea of running almost 5 miles like that made me wanted to cry a little bit…and I guess, technically, I was sort of crying already). I kept going and fell into my groove as my body warmed up.
Running has been… difficult… in February. It hasn’t gone as I would’ve liked, and I have some nagging things that I just can’t resolve. Therefore, there hasn’t been too much of it going on lately, and I’ve been sad about it, but Saturday’s run definitely helped!
I enjoyed a 4.8 mile run in the chilly morning air. After my run I stretched, ate breakfast, and hydrated a bit while watching House of Cards. Melissa convinced me to try 9Round Kickboxing on Saturday as well, so we headed out to that later in the morning (I needed to run on Saturday due to the winter storm, and kickboxing is closed on Sundays, so unfortunately I had to do that back to back). If you haven’t read my review of kickboxing yet, check it out!
By the time we were done, I was officially more than ready to eat! We headed to 5 Guys, where I devoured a hamburger with two patties on it, along with their delicious cajun fries! Melissa and I went after one of our long runs this fall, and we reminisced a bit about the run as we sat there.
I’ve really been missing my structure of Saturday morning long runs, so this Saturday was good for my soul 🙂 Plus- it made my relaxing day on Sunday even more worth it!
Now it’s your turn to share! How’s exercising (or running) been going for you lately? What do you crave after a workout?
I’ll tell you a bit about 9Round itself, and then tell you about my experience (and no- I wasn’t compensated in any way for this post- I’m just sharing my experience). So 9Round Kickboxing (you can see all the locations across the country here– they are in most States) is a 30 minute workout with 9 stations (hence the name) that you’ll go through. Each of the stations lasts for 3 minutes, and includes core work, squats, burpees, jumping rope (or some variation of similar activities), along with punching and kicking stations (apparently these stations change up each time, so you’re not doing the exact same workout). My heart was pounding the entire time, and would occasionally have to stop and try to bring my heart rate down (thanks POTS :/ ). After the 3 minutes at each station, the trainer would give me something else to do (side kicks, flutter kicks, crunches, or something like that). There was great music going the entire time, which definitely helped me keep my energy up when I desperately wanted to stop punching (3 minutes is a REALLY long time!).
Here’s my experience- I walked in with Melissa and one of her other friends, and the trainer immediately greeted us. We filled out some basic paperwork (the first time you go is FREE, which is really why you should try it out!), and asked us if there were any concerns he should be aware of. He told us how the workout would look, and put us each on a station (there was another woman there). He would go through each exercise with us as we started our round, making sure we weren’t doing anything that would injure us. He walked around for the entire round watching form and encouraging each of us. He asked my name at the beginning and didn’t forget it, which was surprisingly encouraging as we worked out.
On my 7th (out of 9) rounds, I glared at Melissa (who was doing burpees at the time) and might have told her that I hated her a little bit and that I was coming after her later. So yeah, it was certainly a tough workout, and I could feel all sorts of muscles burning, and I was sweating pretty badly. But- overall, I really loved the workout, and am looking forward to the next time that I can go. Kickboxing is definitely a fun workout, and one that I think could be a great cross-training activities for running and biking.
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever tried kickboxing before? Is there a new workout you’ve tried that you’re really enjoying?
That sounds stressful, doesn’t it? And yet so many of us choose to enter into a life where we engage in hurry sickness, defined as “a behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness; an overwhelming and continual sense of urgency” (source).
I’m sure many of us can relate to this definition. Of course there may be a few days, or a week, at a time where this is just the reality of how we need to live. However, when we live out of a place of hurry sickness day in and day out, week after week, we start to put a huge strain on ourselves and our relationships. When we put our bodies under great stress without breaks, we create severe problems for us in almost every realm of our life. Furthermore, we can’t function well under “hurry sickness”, so what we do to try to be more productive actually makes us less productive.
I’ve alluded to the fact that these next few months are really busy for me. I’ve got a lot to do, and I jump into the week hoping that everything goes ok so that nothing falls apart before the next weekend. I know this is for a season, and that helps. However, in this season that is busy, I want to avoid hurry sickness as much as possible.
So, what do we do to avoid or decrease hurry sickness?
1. I make it a goal to be mindful. I stop the rushing to connect to my present experiences, even if it’s just for a few minutes. That means that, even when I’ve got to be somewhere, I take a few seconds to pause and take a few deep breaths of fresh air before going on with my life.
2. I make the time to connect to others. It’s easy to start cutting out the casual conversations we have in order to get more down. Conversing with my friends is life-giving to me, so I know it’s important to continue to engage in these things. I pause in between sessions to have a few minute chat with a co-worker. Yes, I know this takes away time to get a session note done, but I also know that I need to re-charge to get through my day, and these conversations do that for me.
3. I engage in mind-body exercises. Lots of people enjoy yoga, and I do mat pilates. Both of these slow us down, and force our minds to connect with our bodies in the present moment, focusing on our breath and how we move. Sure, these types of exercises might not seem as fun as getting a good sweat from cardio, but mind-body exercises are deeply healthy for our minds and our bodies.
4. I focus on slowing down, as I shared about in talking about my new morning routine.
5. I spend some time away from screens each day. Luckily, my job allows for a lot of that time, as I spend it in face-to-face conversation, sans any need for screens. I LOVE it.
6. I make the time to walk, and notice all sorts of aspects of nature around me. Growing up, I grew up walking with my family. -20? Put on a warm coat and you’re good to go! 90 degrees? Grab sunglasses and water and let’s go. We went on nature walks, enjoying what was around us, and I do the same today. I can physically feel the franticness and stress of life falling away as I walk.
7. Take stock of life and see if there’s anything that isn’t actually beneficial that you might be able to let go. Perhaps a volunteering position is adding more stress to life, and you need to step away for awhile. Perhaps you need to set better boundaries at work or in a friendship. Whatever it may be, look for things to say “no” to in a healthy manner.
Yes- there are plenty of other things you can to do address hurry sickness, but these are a few suggestions. When I focus on taking the time to slow down, breathe deeply, and take stock of my current thoughts, feelings, and actions, I notice myself slowly doing a little. I’m not slowly down so much that I become unproductive, but I am able to let some of the frantic feelings go, and live from a place of peace instead.
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever experienced “hurry sickness” before? What to do you do to try to decrease or avoid hurry sickness in your life?
(Picture from a different week. Weather and color are the same)
Throwback Post For This Week: What POTS Taught Me About Comparison <- Worth a read even if you don’t have a chronic illness!
And here are some random facts for the week:
1. One of my favorite winter candles is this candied caramel pecan scented candle. It seems absolutely divine, and I’m quite sad that it is gone. Le sigh.
That bouquet is from Valentine’s Day, and still looks beautiful (I took this pic a few days ago)!
2. My last two bike rides, I’ve fueled with candy hearts. Am I going in the direction of fueling every workout with candy? Absolutely not! But once in awhile, sometimes you just need to, you know?
3. Confession Time: I like gas station coffee! In fact… I like Speedway’s black coffee more than Starbucks’ black coffee. Judge me if you must- I’m not even sorry about it! This past weekend I paired my coffee (it was free!) with a blueberry cake donut. It made for a perfect snowy winter Saturday snack!
4. Sometimes I like to dance around my house instead of walking like a normal person. You know- after being at work for 12 hours, sometimes I just need some extra excitement 🙂
5. I’ve been enjoying Snyder’s pretzel pieces lately. Have you ever tried them? They’re delicious and such an easy snack!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one random thing from your week?
I’m thankful for a beautiful snow fall this past weekend! On Saturday we got a few inches of beautiful, white snow, and I loved it! It was almost a Christmas movie snow, and I helped a friend shovel her driveway just so I could spend some time outside in it!
I’m thankful for a delicious Saturday morning breakfast with a friend. There was no running that could happen on Saturday due to the weather, so I enjoyed a long breakfast with a friend at a local cafe. It had been a few weeks since I had seen her, so we got to catch up and I enjoyed some delicious breakfast tacos!
I’m thankful for cozy blankets. Blankets help make winter SO cozy and warm, right? I love coming home from work and immediately grabbing one (I keep a few on my couch so that I can be cozy no matter how cold it is!) to wrap around me!
I’m thankful for the ability to see great progress in some of my clients. It’s so fantastic to see the “ah-ha” moments and steps forward that my clients take, and I feel so proud of them when they are able to do something that they couldn’t have done before! I’m thankful I get to be a witness to that.
I’m thankful for good friends. Enough said.
What are you feeling thankful for today? Is anyone else looking forward to House of Cards?
The story is about Miles, a teenager who is a new student at a boarding school in Alabama. He’s on a journey to seek a great perhaps, and this is a theme that plays out throughout the novel. The book follows Miles and his group of friends throughout their year at school as they tackle various problems related to living life not only as a teenager, but also in the setting of the boarding school. As in The Fault In Our Stars, I think that Green is able to put deeply into words the experiences of teenagers, but uses themes that we as adults also struggle with today. Questions of life after death, the purpose of life, and confronting suffering are woven throughout the book, with an edge of mystery and suspense as well. Overall, I really enjoyed the book!
The inside covers of the book are covered with the following two phrases (one is in the front and one is in the back). These are questions and themes found throughout the book:
“I go to seek a great perhaps” and “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”.
The book I own has a reader’s guide section at the end, and this is a quote by Green in this section as he is describing the book:
There will be questions around deaths and friendships and romances and religion and mysteries of every variety that never get solved to your satisfaction. The interesting question to me is “Can you go on in the face of that uncertainty? How can we go on in a world where suffering is distributed so unequally and so capriciously? Can you live with integrity and hope even with these unanswered questions? Finding a way to live with that ambiguity matters” (p. 9 in the Reader’s Guide in Looking For Alaska).
I hope that quote not only provides some reflection for you, but also piques your interest in reading Looking For Alaska!
Looking for other great books to read? Here are a few other suggestions:
But then I decided to let go of some of the negative soundtrack I had created in my head about winter. Since I couldn’t change winter (without moving, at least!), I chose to change myself instead (since that’s all we really have control over anyways). When I started to complain about how cold it was, I’d try to throw something in that I was thankful for because of it (i.e. “AGH- I really don’t like this cold, but at least it means that I can drink hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows in it!”). I started to focus on some of the good things within the season, and I began to notice a change.
Last Wednesday I was driving someone in my car, and I let out a long sigh and said “Gosh- I really love winter.” WHAT?! WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? Seriously- I shocked myself, especially since it was single digits and quite chilly. After years of anger and “hatred” being my response to a season, out comes this outpouring of enjoyable feelings instead. I checked myself to make sure things were ok (that wasn’t just a fever talking, was it?) and sure enough, that’s how I was actually feeling at the moment. It seems that my hard work of changing my attitude over the past 2-3 winters has started to pay off, and my attitude is changing.
Is winter my favorite season? Not even close! I don’t like my skin hurting when I go outside, I don’t like being afraid when I have to drive to work on ice, I don’t getting up 15 minutes early to scrape my car, and I don’t like having to give up my outdoor activities. I miss the long days of sunshine. But just because there are things I don’t like about it doesn’t mean that I can’t have things I love about it too!
I love the coziness of being wrapped in a blanket. I love drinking hot tea and hot chocolate in the evenings. I love white lights (especially under snow), and I LOVE how beautiful and peaceful it is to take a walk outside in gently falling snow.
Like I’ve said before- things aren’t all-or-nothing, and we can also choose to be happy even in circumstances that we aren’t the most thrilled with. We can choose to thrive in the winter if we want. I’ve put in the effort, and it’s starting to pay off.
There are actually things I like about the winter. I can choose to be happy in the winter. Woah.
Now it’s your turn to share! Tell me one thing that you enjoy about the winter season?
“It is very telling what we don’t hear in eulogies. We almost never hear things like: “The crowning achievement of his life was when he made senior vice president.” Or: “He increased market share for his company multiple times during his tenure.” Or: “She never stopped working. She ate lunch at her desk. Every day.” Or: “He never made it to his kid’s Little League games because he always had to go over those figures one more time.” Or: “While she didn’t have any real friends, she had six hundred Facebook friends, and she dealt with every email in her in-box every night.” Or: “His PowerPoint slides were always meticulously prepared.” Our eulogies are always about the other stuff: what we gave, how we connected, how much we meant to our family and friends, small kindnesses, lifelong passions, and the things that made us laugh.”
It’s easy to get caught up in life with the “to-dos”, worries, fears, tasks of daily living, and whatever else fills our time. It’s easy to live in passivity and reactivity than in intentionally making choices about how we use our time, making sure that those choices are lining up with our values and our ideals.
Sometimes I wonder what will be said about me in my eulogy, and I hope that it’s not just a list of accomplishments that I’ve had in the work world (even though I’m pouring in a huge amount of time and energy into my jobs to make things happen right now- and I love that!). I hope that when people think of me after I’m gone, they think of me as so much more than the accomplishments that I’ve had. Maybe that’s why this quote stuck out to me so much. It’s a great reminder that it’s important to live our life in the ways that we actually value in our lives, in a way that we would actually want to be remembered. I want to continue to place value in the things that are actually valuable and actually last in life.
I gave the eulogies at both my grandpa and grandma’s funerals, and both times I can tell you that not an ounce of me thought about their lists of accomplishments. I jumped to the funny stories and memories, the moments I felt valued and loved, the things I learned from their lives, and what they inspired within me. These are the things we remember.
While it seems a little morbid, it’s not a bad idea to think about how you want to be remembered, and what you want people to say about you as they stand up to give a eulogy at your funeral. What would you want them to say? Are you living life in a way that lines up with how you want to be remembered? Only you can live your life, and you, in large part, get to determine how you are remembered. It’s wise for each of us to live in ways that allow us to intentionally choose the things we value and live out of those things.
Indoor lighting
I think that Essie’s Smokin’ Hot is honestly one of the prettiest colors out there, especially for winter, and I’m a huge fan. The purple-ish gray is so shiny and looks fantastic. Unlike some grey polishes, this one only took two coats to completely cover, without streaks.
Throwback post: This post is from February 2014: “I Choose BioSkin”
And here are some random Friday Facts:
1. I seem to forget how healthy flowers seem to be for me. I don’t forget that I like them, but once I’m around them again, I realize how calming and good for my soul they actually are. I need to do a better job of keeping them around in the winter, since my pots only stay alive until October 🙁
2. On Valentine’s Day I decided that any and all treats I wanted were fair game for the day… so naturally I started my day off with a chocolate chip cookie at 9 am. YUM! While I did eat real food throughout the day too, I certainly enjoyed more than my fair share of goodies. I don’t regret this.
3. There was a storm on Valentine’s Day, so I couldn’t go out to get a holiday donut (sad!), so I figured I’d end up getting one as I left church the day after. I walked into a gas station, and immediately smelled subway sandwiches, as there was a Subway in the station. I diverted my path and ended up getting a sweet chicken teriyaki sandwich stuffed FULL of veggies. It was delicious, and I think I made the right call 🙂
4. I’ve noticed a trend in the reviews of books I’ve written on goodreads lately: I say that I really liked some part in the book (either the beginning and end or something in the middle), but felt like I had to struggle through another part. I don’t know if it’s the books that I’m choosing, the mood that I’m in, or something else, but I just want a book that I enjoy from start to finish!!
5. Today is a retreat day at work, meaning that I only am seeing clients until 11 am. The rest of the day I’m spending with my co-workers catching up, eating good food, and some other things thrown in there too! I look forward to our mid-year retreat every year!
Now it’s your turn to share! What nail polish are you wearing right now? What’s one of your favorite books you’ve enjoyed reading lately?
