Yesterday was a Monday. I was still feeling high after the second Sinhagad trek the earlier day. Monday is our review day. But I was sure that we weren’t go have much to talk about and would mostly spend the session with a nice stretching or some exercises. Oh, was I wrong!
We looked back - and realized that I’ve lost almost 4 kgs in the last month. And so that means that the body is now beginning to let go of the fat.
On Sunday during the climb, I had made a couple of claims - First was, I am not emotional and the other was that I am a positive person.
My trainer, GG tried to show how both of those things need a lot of work.
He gave an analogy of a football game. One side is positive, other negative... The teams spend time with ball either on the positive side (and feeling good) or the negative side. Where the team spends time in, and who wins are again different things. It is possible that most of the time was spent in the negative side, but sometimes with the right hit, a goal was made on the positive. What is important is how much time was spent on what side. If too much time is spent on negative side, then too much energy is lost, even if the game is won. As opposed to the time spent on positive side, then the game is enjoyable as well. For e.g On Sat when I spent such a long time worrying about the Sinhagad trek - more than 12 hours - hours when the stress hormone, Cortisol must’ve been predominant. And this stress hormone leads to the sugar in the liver being converted to insulin and supplied to the body, where it is rejected - and finally stored as fat. So many hours of stressing about the trek must’ve contributed to some fat stores.And then on Sunday, there was a good sustained activity of 2 hours - which definitely helped in the weight loss, but compared to the many hours of stress earlier, the net effect might turn out to be negative.This is how much stress can play havoc with the body - and we keep wondering why even after so much activity, and diet, the weight still remains high. In my case, I believe that there’s been long term stress - and that has affected the body and the hormones.One of the strategies to overcome this stress is to detach emotionally. Generally, we are very involved with our problems, and add a lot of emotional drama (masala) to it. First, look at the issue from our angle (doesn’t need any extra efforts). We do that anyway. Then look at it from the other person’s point of view. And then look at it from the newspaper’s point of view. Newspapers point of view is the neutral view with no emotional attachment on either side. When we can look at a situation from this point of view - the newspaper’s point of view, then we’ve achieved the ability to detach ourself from the situation and looking at the situation as is.
A story to illustrate this point: Once there was a old Chinese man. He had a very beautiful, white horse. He loved the horse and liked taking care of the horse. All the other men in the village were jealous of the old man with the beautiful horse. The king offered the old man lots of money to buy the horse. But the old man refused. One day the horse was gone. All the men in the village began to talk about how the old man should’ve sold the horse to the king. At least he would have a lot of money. Now, he was left with no money and no horse. The old man just said, “Earlier there was a horse, now there is no horse. Other than that nothing else has changed.” Few days later, the horse came back with 10 little horse (foals). Now all the villagers also gathered and said how lucky the old man was that he’d not sold the horse. He now had that horse back and also 10 more beautiful horses. But the old man was equanimous. He said, “Earlier there was no horse, now the horse is back with 10 other horses. Other than that nothing has changed.” One day, his son was riding the horse, and while riding, he fell down and lost his legs. Again, the villagers started talking about how unlucky the horse was since the old man's son lost his legs. The old man calmly replied, ' Earlier my son could walk, now he can't. Other than that nothing has changed.' Few days later war broke out, and all the young men were called to fight the war. But the old man's son was not called since he had lost his legs.The villagers were back saying how lucky the old man was since his son was still with him and did not have to go fight the war. What I've understood from this story is that we should take or accept life as it happens... No need to add extra emotions to it and start worrying about the future. Accept each moment, each day, each event as it happens.
One other method of dealing with stress is to write down what we feel. Once the thoughts are written down, they will not increase, then later when you read them again from a distant point of view, you'll be able to convince yourself that these are just thoughts and feelings - no need to give importance to feelings which will keep on changing. If negative thought cycle start, get up and move out of the room - go for a walk if possible...this will change the vibrations. And you're distancing yourself from the negative thoughts that you've sent out in the room.
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