Where the mind goes the qi will follow.

I thought of this while I was at the gym yesterday morning slogging it out the elliptical running machine. It’s a thing that you “run” on and your arms pump as you go. It is not as boring as a treadmill or stationary bike and yet harder than a walk in the park. It also gives you feed back on things like your heart rate, calories burned and how far you have travelled. (while actually not going anywhere.) I like to put a towel over the info and focus or distract myself with the music playing in my ear buds.

Side note… how many words in the above paragraph did my grandmother never say?

Anyway – I think it’s my body that is the first to tell me that I’ve done enough. That I want to quit before the set time I’ve programmed, but perhaps my qi followed my thoughts. I am so convinced in my mind that, 20 minutes is good enough. “Why go for the 30? Who could do this for an hour? This is hard, I could be doing something else today — after all I’m busy. Perry Mason comes on soon. I need to do, fill in the blank_____. My legs are screaming, my breath is short, it is all I can do to stay on the thing and finish the work out. My body tells my mind enough! Or is it the other way around? Here’s the old chicken and egg question.

When the body and the mind work together the spirt soars and all is right with the world, but when the two have different ideas – pure hell.

The gym is at the O and I get to use it as a benefit of my job down there. So just before I suit up for it, I have been with the clients talking to them about staying. “Stay two minutes longer – I know you just wandered in your mind — you don’t have to follow the distraction — come back, stay with it — stay with yourself. Do what you said you would do.”

No wonder I’m a teacher, I have so much to learn.