It seems remarkable to me that the things that do end up seeing us off are probably the comfortable things, and the things that might just help us live long, happy and fruitful lives are the ones that feel the most painful and the most like death at the time. In other words - doughnuts are tasty; exercise is tough.
I was dreading the gym - mostly because I am lazy and unfit. I stopped running a while ago when I buckled into a pothole and since then, I've not done even so much as a lunge. I walk to work but that is it. My stomach is displaying a rather tell-tale middle-aged curve at the moment.
To make it worse, my perception of 'the gym' has always been the kind of place where I definitely wouldn't fit in - muscular trojans with everything bulging, especially their egos, sleek athletic demi-goddesses looking down condescendingly on the skinny guys, and everybody pumping to a kind of vainglorious body-worship soundtrack that's playing in their own heads. It's Ben Stiller in Dodgeball, it's the gym the guys at work go on about, it's a testosterone-fuelled nightmare and it's never been appealing.
However, I have to say that where I was today, CrossFit Toronto, was a million miles away from all that - a million miles. What I found there were people who were encouraging, friendly, unpretentious and awesome. They taught me how to squat, how to bunny hop, how to lift, how to bench press, how to do a handstand - and it was amazing.
It is fair to say though that by the end of the session, every muscle in my body was aching - I had angled some of them in ways that they had never been angled - and that really did hurt. However, even that dreadful shaking pain gets overwhelmed by the adrenaline, the satisfaction and the achievement of having done it.
One of the things I noticed most today was the connection between mind and body. I found myself today, staring down the wall, concentrating on the bricks as though I could melt them with my eyes while I tried to get my body into the right shape for a dead-lift. It took a lot of focus.
It occurred to me then that the mind, the thinking engine I carry around with me, might actually be affected by the condition of the rest of me. I can't relax, I'm always thinking about stuff. Well, at 10:30 this morning, I wasn't thinking about anything at all! - other than trying to do seventy squats as quickly as possible. It was weirdly relaxing to be so utterly focused - and maybe it takes something like the gym to help find that mental focus. Emmie and Nick both agreed that weightlifting (which is what they do) was a perfect example of that - where physical and mental strength are sort of working in conjunction to perform a result which helps build both of those strengths.
As we drove back through the busy streets, I thought about it - and I thought about it in the context of a passage from the Bible which I'd been reflecting on anyway. It says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2). It suddenly seemed remarkable how the Bible was saying the same kind of thing - that a renewing of the mind could lead to a transformation of you - body, mind, soul and spirit. It's all connected.
I smiled to myself at that. We're going back tomorrow I think.
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