My dad died a little over a year ago. I’ve been thinking a lot about our relationship recently as I prepare what I want to say when we bury his ashes next month.
How do I describe a relationship that lasted 54 ½ years?
As I’ve been pondering this I realized that my dad and I didn’t have a relationship but many different relationships—or perhaps just many different versions of the same relationship. At any rate, over time—as I grew up, he grew older, and then so did I—our relationship changed.
I can’t describe it in one word.
Think about the relationship you have with yourself. Has it stayed the same over time? Of course not. You have changed and will continue to change.
To live to is change.
You might be longing to find just the right diet, just the right exercise routine, just the right—you name it—so you can stop thinking and put it on autopilot. Sounds great, right?
Might work for a while. But I can pretty much guarantee there’ll come a time when it’ll need tweaking.
One of the skills you refine with ongoing study of the Alexander Technique is self-observation.
You learn to more accurately listen to what your body is telling you.
When you can listen to your body, you can make smarter choices.
It’s a skill you can use for the rest of your life.
I started running again five years ago when I turned fifty. It had been thirty years since I’d run regularly. When I started running I followed one of the Couch Potato to 5K programs you can find on the Internet. The program was okay. I tweaked it a bit and it worked to get me started.
I ran for three years and then decided after I slipped on some ice and hit my head one fall day (not when I was running) that I did not want to run in the winter anymore. Too risky. And because I don’t enjoy running indoors on a treadmill, I run seasonally now.
I started up again this spring around April 1. My number one goal with any exercise is to enjoy myself, feel good, and not get injured. I started with the slightly tweaked Couch to 5K program I’d used before and decided to do it with a running buddy.
I listened to my body. It did not want to go at the pace my slightly tweaked program suggested—even though it had worked before. So, I started doing my own thing. And my running buddy ended up doing his own thing, which was to follow the program.
I signed up for a 5K race that I ran this past Saturday. My goal was to enjoy the race, feel good when I finished, and not get injured.
I listened to my body. I achieved my set goal. And I will continue to listen to my body and run for the rest of the season.
What about you? Have you tweaked your routines over the years? If so, how? Let me know in the comments below.
Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay
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