PDXStrength News

Blog 15 – A weekly challenge update, and a Thank You. 

It’s Monday of Week 7, folks. With May 1 bringing the opening of a few places locally (namely some of our favorite member-owned businesses and coffee shops), we’re a little closer to the prospective future day that we get the gang back together again. But as to not get too lost in daydreams about the future, here we are with an update on our weekly challenge and somewhat of an admission that I, too, have been managing a bit of a motivational wall during this time. 

I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to all of you that have been showing up throughout this process. First with the members that diligently tried to continue with classes, then to all the folks putting in the effort to maintain a routine with so much unknown, and now to all the folks that seem to be finding their new (albeit short-term) normal. Each person in our community has continued to show up, set intention, and move forward. For those of you who feel like it hasn’t been enough, or those who feel that you aren’t doing as much as another member, that’s ok too. We (and the entire community) are here for you. And if you by chance haven’t been engaged much (or at all) with your coach and some how you’ve found yourself here, on Blog 15, that’s ok too. We’re here for you when you are ready and, as you need.

To further celebrate this, and noting that Mother’s Day is Sunday, let’s set the 5-point team challenge as:

• Post a photo this week of those that have been there for us when we were (or weren’t) ready and just as we needed. You know who and what to tag. 

To those of you who are parents or guardians or mentors, Happy Mother’s Day in an especially weird time. To those of you who have lost such a relationship (me being in that category), I try to find comfort in reminding myself that they wouldn’t have left unless we were ready, which includes the feeling of solitude during a global pandemic. 

Now for that admission. As a caveat, I speak solely of my own experience and not for other coaches. But I, too, have had my ups and downs throughout this process; finding a “motivational wall” as some of my teammates put it. I’ve had weeks that I worked out a lot, some that I worked out a little, some where I felt like I wasn’t good enough, some where I felt like a fraud, some where I just went through the motions, some where I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t have the motivation to go downstairs to my gym, and some where I’m unhappy about my body.  This is nothing new. I’ve experienced all of these before and will certainly experience them again, but I’ve learned to keep reframing and re-centering these conversations – These are normal feelings. My body knows that there is a global pandemic and is responding appropriately (even if it is not how I want it to). This is short-term. I am not the person I was yesterday, or the one I was at 10, 20, or 30. Love and grace is something that I can choose. I can choose to show myself, and the people around me, love without needing a reason to. Emotions are very real. All of them are valid. They make us do funny things. They teach us about our selves if we’re willing to listen. It’s easy to spiral with absolutes or self-created (or culture-created) truths, and hard to be vulnerable and connect with others about their perspectives. I change by doing hard things. It’s hard to make mistakes and learn from them. It’s hard to give yourself permission to be human. 

Thanks for being there for me, Strength Tribe. See you all soon!

D

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Blog 14 – AAAAANNNNNNDDDD IT’S MAY.  

Well, here we are… May. And just as they said, “April pandemics bring May pandemics.” Or something like that. And for the foreseeable future we are probably on repeat. While the cycle continues on a weekly and monthly basis, we also are getting into habits in our daily routine (some good, some that aren’t your favorite). It’s kind of our thing as humans. As long as it doesn’t kill us, and it’s relatively simple, we kind of just keep doing it. And we keep doing it. And then all of a sudden it’s engrained, then one day you say, “What the f*ck am I doing?” OR we might not even know we’re doing it and some one else might say, “What the f*ck are you doing?” We are creatures of habit. And we’re really good at it. 

As far as an introduction to a blog though, that’s not very helpful. I haven’t given much direction, just kind of babbled – I know, one of MY habits and talents. At this point, you’re either freaking out that you feel seen or you’re frantically searching for some habitual action that everyone else thinks is blatantly obvious or you’re just in denial. Again, we all have habits. Some great. Some kind of suck. But to the point…

How do we break these habits? Well, I’d say it’s more about starting new one’s and the kind of bullshit ones just get left behind. There are only 24 hours in a day after all. Now you’re saying, “OK, so how do you start new habits?” By introducing something new in the cycle. Really shock the system. You know, like one pandemic decided to. 

Now I’ll grant you that we can’t just go throwing pandemics in throughout the day all willy-nilly, but we can give ourselves a little buzz. “HOW DYLAN?!” Well the easiest way would be to try something new AND giving yourself permission to be a beginner, to be bad at something, to even fail, and then to keep moving forward, keep trying, and keep showing up. Remember earlier, in the ramble, I said we like relatively simple things? Wanna guess what we don’t like? Hard things. When we experience a challenge, by nature, we return to what we feel is safety.  But lucky us, we are highly evolved beings that can make the choice to show up again. 

So what to try? It doesn’t really matter. It could literally be anything you want. Our goal here is to break our patterns and to change our perspective, not be an expert. So by introducing a new perspective we will automatically apply new thinking to the way we approach things. Now it might not show up immediately (hell, you might not even notice it happening), but you didn’t smash the back squat on your first day either. It takes time and diligence. Slowly, but surely you will start looking at things differently and filling your time differently. The cherry-on-top of it all is that you get a whole point in the weekly challenge just by trying. 

In summary, when we try something new, we broaden our perspective. When we broaden our perspective, we learn something. When we learn something, we get smarter. When we get smarter, we start seeing things in new ways. When we start seeing things in new ways, we can no longer exist as we were. When we no longer exist as we were, we break our habits AND we get a whole point in our weekly challenge!!! … And yes When You Give a Mouse a Cookie is one of my favorite books.