I have this horrible habit of getting stuck in a loop of Waiting Mode. I used to think it was just the memes I saw: a 2:00pm appointment? Forget doing anything useful before it! Then I noticed there are a LOT of loops I accidentally step into: staring at my phone while a bagel is toasting, decision paralysis while waiting to hear from someone, etc. There were short loops and long loops and the seemingly endless one of waiting for a mythical Better Time to start something. Recently, getting back into my kettlebells.
I’ve been saying since I got back from Louisiana (in JUNE) that I want to do my kettlebell routine. I’ve done a ton of walking, but I haven’t really hopped on a Bixi or swung weights around. Then it came time to register for activities at the Benny Pool, and my friend suggested we do aqua spinning again, and I had something in my calendar to anchor other things to.
See, I was gonna kettlebell last weekend, but then the pool’s opening was postponed, so I put it off again. Then last Friday, I found myself with nothing scheduled and energy inside that wanted to do something. So I hopped on my stationary bike to get my heart rate up, and then hit the kettlebell (singular, one set lol, way better than no sets!).
It’s almost time to hit the pool, and I find the soreness from that one set is almost gone. I miss it, it’s a shortcut for me to tap into what my body is feeling, because I have a difficult time with that. It’s called interoceptive awareness, and it’s impaired in many neurominoric folks, including those with ADHD. I listened to a great podcast episode on it, in the context of intuitive eating, which is also something that I am leaning into. Check out Dr. Michelle Tubman’s podcast Thrive Beyond Size and the episode on Interoception – The Hidden Key to Intuitive Eating.
After I did my kettlebell routine, I got down on the mat and did some stretching. Cat cow, torso twists, everything that was speaking to me after getting my blood pumping and moving a lump of metal around. The next day when I woke to aching soreness, I hit the mat again and revisited my old Makko Ho series of stretches. I did them almost daily last year, but this year not so much.
I am letting go of the guilt I feel when I fall off my routines; that part of me is impaired. I can practice rebuilding them, hanging smaller things off bigger hooks like recurring dates in the calendar, and I can use Metal’s ability to detach to cut through the loops that are tripping me up. Analyse. Discern. Slice. Metal is the element of autumn, and I often visualise a harvest scythe when I want to break out of waiting mode.
No new promo this month, I’m afraid, but remember that I offer a permanent discount to my BIPOC, queer, fat, and neurominoric clients with the code PINKPURPLE.
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