#PV More & Less

By John R. Nocero & Sandy Abell

 John: Sandy, do you have anything that you say to yourself, "man, I should be doing more of this than I am doing?" For example, I picked yoga back up as a practice this week. I had strained a muscle in my back/hip and I remembered the last time that this happened, I got into yoga and almost immediately, I felt better.

 So I got back into yoga this week, and I can say that almost immediately, within three days or so, I have instantly found relief. It has also helped me in a professional sense. By practicing yoga first thing in the morning, I have found that I am calmer, and more centered to start the day, with a greater focus. My mind is clearer, which in turn allows me to perform better.

 Now, I say to myself, why did I ever stop doing yoga?

 What about you?

Sandy: Congratulations John, on taking care of yourself by resuming your yoga practice. It’s wonderful the difference it’s making in your life.

 I think we all have things we know will make us feel better. Whether it’s some kind of exercise, yoga, daily meditation, eating correctly, being around certain people and avoiding others, or just focusing on the joy in life instead of the negativity. However, for a variety of reasons we often don’t do the things we know will improve our life experience.

 It might be that we know daily exercise will help us stay fit and feel better, but we choose to not devote the time to it. It’s often easier to say, ”I’ll get to that later” than to just do it. Also, if it’s something that is initially a challenge, or painful (like exercise might), or denies you something fun (like avoiding ice cream or too much alcohol), we often know we’ll feel better if we do it, but just choose not to.

 I’ve learned that people usually have to reach some kind of bottom before they take action. Things have to get bad enough that putting up with the discomfort of doing something new, or creating a new healthier habit, is more tolerable than the pain of not doing it. As with your experience. Your back pain was bad enough that the alternative of setting a time and doing yoga became more tolerable than the pain was.

 The trick is to remember, once you’ve started a new routine, to continue it even when the pain subsides. 

 They say it takes 30 days to develop a new habit, so if we can do the new thing for a month, it will become comfortable and routine, and life will be better.