Most of us have a love hate relationship with exercise, due mostly to its promotion as a gateway to reaching our ideal physical appearance; as if our current physical existence is not enough. The truth is exercise has and will always be an opportunity to love your body for what it can do today.
We all know the physical benefits of exercise, but did you know it also helps us relate to our lives in a more positive way? “Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning,” Says Harvard Medical psychiatrist John Ratey, author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. If exercise is so beneficial for us and the definition of the term blessing, according to merriam-webster dictionary, is a thing conducive to happiness or welfare, doesn't that make exercise a blessing vs a job?
This week try using exercise as a way to say thank you. Record and state out loud one blessing. For example, before I begin a run, I state out loud, “Thank you for a healthy fully functioning body, in honor of this blessing, I will run for 3 miles today.” I begin my run and anytime I want to quit, I go back to my blessing and remind myself that this is my way of saying thank you for my blessing.
We live in a time where we expect something back for everything we do. Spend sometime behaving blessed instead of behaving like you're missing something or like you're not enough.
“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson