On my way back down from the daily run yesterday, on serpentine road, running with my new partner, I was thinking about the icy conditions from build up of compiled snow and thaw. The road was well maintained, there was enough salt and gravel on the ice to make it safe. Many others were making their daily trek. The words of a marathon runner friend came to my mind. Your feet get used to the pavement conditions, somehow the stride adjusts. It got me thinking, while I felt my feet stable on the ice, my mind leaned towards fear, tending to scan the ground for the best patches, thus creating more tentativeness. And I remembered how my first yoga teacher, Kelly, would say as we lay in savasana, “Feel your body resting on the earth”. The words alway trigger an image of my body backbended rounded along the curve of the blue and green globe. Lately, in my run, I’ve been using Stu Mittleman’s technique of picturing the earth turning for me as I take one step after the other, making my work so much easier. Over the years, Jade would often firmly, almost accusingly say to me, “What’s it gonna take for you to understand and believe that the Universe is supporting you?!?!?”. As this chain of thoughts ran through my mind, I began to let go of minding the safe patches, and focused of the feeling I love so much of my feet crunching on the ground in my stride, thinking to myself, the earth is supporting me right now. It has my back. I can let go and enjoy the ride. I imagined the universe supporting my every step, not only supporting, but cheering my body and legs in action. I imagined it turning, morphing, adjusting itself to sustain me. The cramp I always get in my right side, subsided, the air flowed deeper into my lungs, I picked up the pace, I stood taller, extended my stance. I got in the flow. And started to notice the trees, she snow, the beautiful benches and how I love watching them half buried in the snow.
The disturbing feeling of overwhelm I had felt leaving the office for the lunchtime run flashed in my mind. How can I go back to that with a better feeling? A more empowering approach? And then it happened, what if I bled the metaphor of the earth supporting my body into the feeling of overwhelm at work. What would happen then? I could almost hear Jade from heaven, nodding and gently whispering, that’s it! That’s my girl! And so I chose to believe that the universe is supporting me and that everything it brings my way, it does because I summoned it and it is an OPPORTUNITY for me if I only choose to believe and trust that entire universe has my back. From there, I found a focused viewpoint, I remembered that I can prioritize the afternoon to maximize efficiency. I remember that we don’t perform brain surgery in life or death situations. I remembered that the end of the day I can’t get it all done, what matters is that I got the important stuff done. That the world will not end because I will be away for 4 days. That all is indeed well and to enjoy the ride!
Making our way back down to the office, something magical happened, my partner and I got into this magical flow. We both pushed through a barrier we’d had for a while, we ran in silence but you could feel the powerful state emanating from our duo. When we arrived at the entrance of the building, we both looked at eachother and said, I could have kept going and going. It was magical. We hit a new team effort high!
Showered and nourished, I banged out the afternoon, managed to make miracles with the 3 hours I had before having to jet home to make dinner for a friend. I got the top priorities in check to make next week as efficient as possible. All because I noticed that the ground was actually right there under my feet to support me in every single step I take during this lifetime on earth.
Enjoy the ride!
Q♥