Feeding The Soul

You know we as women tend to put ourselves last on the priority list, if we even make the list some days, I wonder.  Lately it has been that way for me.  I have been very busy with meetings and home schooling and the house and, and and.  It never seems to end and an interesting thing happened yesterday that I want to share.

I went for my workout with Jesse.  I had the 15 minutes to think as I was driving there and I knew that I was tired and kind of quiet when I got there.  Jesse puts me on the treadmill and leans on it and starts to chat as we usually do while I warm up.  He looks at me and says, “Okay what is going on, you’re about to cry”.  And dammit I was and when someone says that you well up.  He pushes STOP on the treadmill, grabs a 30lb weight vest throws it on me and grabs my coat and says, “Come with me”.  We head outside and he says “sometimes our souls need attention more than our butts”.

So we proceeded to walk fast and talk and really talk.  I felt so much better, I was sweating like a pig, out of breath (so frankly I still had a good workout) and yet I had attention paid to my heart and my soul.  I felt great.  Someone cared, listened and offered great advice.  We went back into the gym and proceeded to work out really hard.

This got me thinking, (trust Jesse to do it to me again), I am always so worried about feeding and nourishing our bodies that I don’t really think about our hearts and our souls.  Turns out that yesterday that was what I really needed way more than I needed a green smoothie at that moment.

I am learning that getting fit and healthy is really 3 pronged body, mind and soul.  Each being just as important.  Before when I was overweight the feeling that I was experiencing would have sent me to the refrigerator.  I would have stuffed my face, maybe cried (probably not though as eating stopped me from crying and facing my sadness and that was usually the goal shoving the feelings down with the food).  I would have felt terrible after, certainly no better and I would have consumed a ton of calories and the guilt and self loathing would have been huge.  What a productive way to handle things.

Now I had someone to talk to while I was getting major exercise.  The feelings were dealt with, the body moved and the soul, well, I felt free and I know that sounds dumb, but I did not go away feeling I had the weight of the world on my shoulders.  I finally get it, you have to nourish everything body, mind and soul.  Which frankly was a good thing as I came home to Tyson puking all over the floor.  Life goes on.  Until next time.