Has it ever happened to you? You do your part and lather on the SPF…only to sweat later and **BAM** you’re squinting through a stinging eye. And it seems to last FOR-EV-ER (please say you heard Squints say this from The Sandlot).
Mike – my awesomely crazy husband – ran a relay race last weekend. For 24 hours, each team of runners takes turns running anywhere from three to nine miles. Awesome. But crazy. And I can only imagine how smelly their team vans must be…
On one of his legs of the race, he experienced the dreaded sunscreen-in-your-eye-sting. For three miles. Doesn’t that sound terrible?? He pointed out that the bright side of the eye pain was that it distracted him from the ache in his legs for three of the nine miles he was running.
Isn’t it crazy how our mind’s focus can adjust the experience we are having?
What’s more intriguing is that we have more choice in our focus than we often realize. Yoga has taught me that my breath as my focal point doesn’t necessarily distract me from other sensations. Rather, it helps me be a more neutral witness to what’s going on internally. Instead of immediately flipping out when I realize the car battery is dead because the door wasn’t closed all the way and now we’re late for gymnastics and one kid is screaming because he hates the car seat and the other one yells for the first to be quiet because it hurts her ears……..
Breathe. In……Out…….
Breathe. In……Out…….
Breathe. In……Out…….
Repeat several times…..
K. We’re going to be late for gymnastics. This isn’t the olympics. I have a solution. Perspective.
Have you tried slow, deep breaths as a point of focus when sh*t happens? And I don’t mean three angry breaths. That will just add to the tension. I mean a good 10 or so breaths, each inhale and exhale being about 5 counts long. It’s magic. (Actually, it’s a choice to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, but magic sounds nice.) Try it. Let me know how it goes.
Love. Always.
Linds
Disclaimer: This car battery example is one time I actually had the mind to remember to breathe. This does not happen all the time. If I wrote about all the other times, you’d never get through all the blogs. 🙂