Have you ever felt guilty about working out? Like maybe that time should be spent on something more important, less selfish? I know I have. People have even made comments. I love when people tell me things like, "I think it's so great that you run all of the time, but my life is just too busy for that."
Here's what I'm thinking when someone says that. Every person I have ever met has filled their life completely. In fact, not just every person, every primate that I've studied does it. We are allotted a certain number of hours to acquire enough resources, maintain enough social bonds, provide enough care to offspring, and it is up to use to figure out the most ideal trade-off and balance between those things. We all do it differently, and we all need to. After all, we are all occupying our own unique micro-niche in the world. Believe me, I am still figuring out how to maintain my own balance. I'm trying to earn a PhD, manage several major research projects in the hopes of publication, taking classes, teaching classes, keeping pets alive, being a partner to my fiance, looking presentable, helping my friends, and I would have much more time for those things if I weren't training for a marathon. Or would I?
My biggest problem with allowing for no exercise in that scenario, is that you will eventually let the entire balance collapse if you have not taken care of yourself. All organisms need rest. We need recovery. We need play. I chose to do it in a way that recharges me, reenergizes me, and makes my body and brain the healthiest it can be when I shift my focus back to all of those other things. I can guarantee that every person who claims to be busier has hours that they fill with some other form of play, and if they don't, they are not performing as well at all of their other life commitments as they would without the time away.
This semester, while training the best I ever have, I have become more academically productive than ever. I've begun to feel like my research is picking up and taking off. Things are becoming clearer, more cohesive, and more focused than ever. When I am running, my brain enters a different form of consciousness than at any other time. I lose control of my thoughts, but I am still aware of them. I shift so much energy to my heart and my muscles and my lungs, that my neurons begin to fire at random. What I get is a sort of cleansing or organizing of my thoughts and worries. I find myself considering my dissertation for a few moments, then my relationships, then back to my research, then onto my house or one of my friends. After several hours, I feel like I've moved through enough worries to move them each aside, and my body is so exhausted, so sweat soaked and sore, that all of those thoughts fall away. This is when I shower, sit down, and find an amazing focus and clarity to my work. This is when my best ideas come to me, when I understand a reading the most.
Most importantly, this is how I've discovered that selfless and selfish are not mutually exclusive. Spending hours upon hours by myself, running just to run, is definitely not selfless, but it is not selfish either. It makes me a more cheerful, balanced person. It makes me a more focused student, a better listener and clearer writer. I inevitably reach an exhausted point in each day where I feel I can't handle the stress, or I'm losing focus on my work. This is when I lace up and run it off. I lose an hour of my workday, but I gain an increase in productivity when I return.
This is why my fiance and I never make one another feel guilty for leaving for a workout. We are both incredibly busy, and rarely get time together. It would be easy for one of us to tell the other not to go out today, to stay and and sacrifice. We understand, however, that taking care of ourselves means being able to take care of one another. I'd like to think that if I ever become a mother I will be able to maintain this outlook. I know mothers that, no matter how difficult it occasionally seems, work to keep their physical health and time away from everything as a priority. I think it makes them enjoy motherhood even more when they're home with their children, and therefore helps their children.
Of course, in the long run, I am already giving any future children a gift. Each year that I maintain a high level of personal health, fitness, and emotional confidence adds another year of physical self-sufficiency to my long term future. It means I'll be there for my fiance, my siblings, my whole family once I'm old. So have you ever felt guilty about taking care of yourself, taking time for yourself? If you have, remember, taking care of yourself only increases your efficiency in all other areas of your life, so make it a priority.
Here's what I'm thinking when someone says that. Every person I have ever met has filled their life completely. In fact, not just every person, every primate that I've studied does it. We are allotted a certain number of hours to acquire enough resources, maintain enough social bonds, provide enough care to offspring, and it is up to use to figure out the most ideal trade-off and balance between those things. We all do it differently, and we all need to. After all, we are all occupying our own unique micro-niche in the world. Believe me, I am still figuring out how to maintain my own balance. I'm trying to earn a PhD, manage several major research projects in the hopes of publication, taking classes, teaching classes, keeping pets alive, being a partner to my fiance, looking presentable, helping my friends, and I would have much more time for those things if I weren't training for a marathon. Or would I?
My biggest problem with allowing for no exercise in that scenario, is that you will eventually let the entire balance collapse if you have not taken care of yourself. All organisms need rest. We need recovery. We need play. I chose to do it in a way that recharges me, reenergizes me, and makes my body and brain the healthiest it can be when I shift my focus back to all of those other things. I can guarantee that every person who claims to be busier has hours that they fill with some other form of play, and if they don't, they are not performing as well at all of their other life commitments as they would without the time away.
This semester, while training the best I ever have, I have become more academically productive than ever. I've begun to feel like my research is picking up and taking off. Things are becoming clearer, more cohesive, and more focused than ever. When I am running, my brain enters a different form of consciousness than at any other time. I lose control of my thoughts, but I am still aware of them. I shift so much energy to my heart and my muscles and my lungs, that my neurons begin to fire at random. What I get is a sort of cleansing or organizing of my thoughts and worries. I find myself considering my dissertation for a few moments, then my relationships, then back to my research, then onto my house or one of my friends. After several hours, I feel like I've moved through enough worries to move them each aside, and my body is so exhausted, so sweat soaked and sore, that all of those thoughts fall away. This is when I shower, sit down, and find an amazing focus and clarity to my work. This is when my best ideas come to me, when I understand a reading the most.
Most importantly, this is how I've discovered that selfless and selfish are not mutually exclusive. Spending hours upon hours by myself, running just to run, is definitely not selfless, but it is not selfish either. It makes me a more cheerful, balanced person. It makes me a more focused student, a better listener and clearer writer. I inevitably reach an exhausted point in each day where I feel I can't handle the stress, or I'm losing focus on my work. This is when I lace up and run it off. I lose an hour of my workday, but I gain an increase in productivity when I return.
This is why my fiance and I never make one another feel guilty for leaving for a workout. We are both incredibly busy, and rarely get time together. It would be easy for one of us to tell the other not to go out today, to stay and and sacrifice. We understand, however, that taking care of ourselves means being able to take care of one another. I'd like to think that if I ever become a mother I will be able to maintain this outlook. I know mothers that, no matter how difficult it occasionally seems, work to keep their physical health and time away from everything as a priority. I think it makes them enjoy motherhood even more when they're home with their children, and therefore helps their children.
Of course, in the long run, I am already giving any future children a gift. Each year that I maintain a high level of personal health, fitness, and emotional confidence adds another year of physical self-sufficiency to my long term future. It means I'll be there for my fiance, my siblings, my whole family once I'm old. So have you ever felt guilty about taking care of yourself, taking time for yourself? If you have, remember, taking care of yourself only increases your efficiency in all other areas of your life, so make it a priority.
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