Becoming Fearless

Have you ever felt like the universe was trying to tell you something?  Like, you were thinking of traveling to a remote location and then all of the sudden you see articles about it everywhere and then an email appears advertising a special promotion to that exact location. Or you had a family member diagnosed with a rare condition and then the New York Times runs a week-long series on the disease and Oprah has a special episode to discuss it?

Ok, well those things didn’t happen to me, but I’ll tell you what did.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that is holding me back from achieving my fitness goals.  Of course, I’m continuing to exercise 5-6 times a week but not quite as hard as I could be.  And my eating habits are good but I could be better about making sure that I fit in healthy snacks and water.  But, there’s something else.  Something that’s keeping me from really pushing forward.

I talked to a couple of trusted friends with the hope of teasing out the issue.  But besides stepping up my exercise intensity and adding more whole foods, I couldn’t come up with much.

And then I went to a meditation session for children and their parents.

The meditation facilitator read a children’s book called Peaceful Piggy Meditation about the benefits of meditation in this increasingly hectic world.  Instead of human characters, there were anthropomorphized piggies running from one activity (ballet) to the next (soccer) with everything in between (homework.)  So, how is a little Piggy to manage all of this?  Meditation.

And then she read this one page, with a little pig jumping off a diving board.  The page read, “When we are at peace, we are fearless.”

Bam!  It was like I was being hit over the head.

Fear. That’s it.  I’m afraid.  Afraid of success? perhaps?  Afraid of failure? More likely.  What if I can’t reach my goal?  What if I do?  So, it’s the what ifs that are keeping me from taking the plunge.

But then I thought a bit more.  About everything that I have achieved on my fitness journey.  The pounds lost, the lower body fat, the strength gained, the new career path, the overall sense of well-being and I realized that fear had no place in my life.  Fear needs to go.

I must become fearless.  I need to practice mindfulness and be at peace.

And so I decided to enlist the help of my favorite person, my husband. I asked him to give me 30 minutes of listening.  And he did, and he smiled and nodded and said I could do anything.  And that he would support me.  That there was nothing to fear.

And then, if that wasn’t enough, this article showed up in my inbox from Whole Living on fearlessness.  Really, I’m not kidding.

Bam, like a club on my head again.

And so, I’m setting new goals, knowing that I can achieve them.  I put my heart rate monitor back on and started pushing myself harder at the gym.  I focus on eating all my fruits and veggies and healthy snacks such as nuts.  Another triathlon is in my future as well as additional advanced fitness certification.  I’ve started to meditate 5-10 minutes each day.

And when I feel doubtful, I say to myself, “I’m at peace.  I’m fearless.”

And guess what, it’s working

Be well.  Be fearless.