You’re the sculptor. You’re the clay

The Better Self revealed (with help from 7 cliches)

Inside of you right now lives your better self.  You may only be able to glimpse them hidden away under excess weight or emotional baggage, but your better self is there.  Meeting them may take a month, it may take years… and how do we even know what our authentic self looks like?  How do they act?  How do we arrange the meeting?

Chip away the extra marble and…

As Michelangelo aptly stated ‘David was always there in the marble, I just had to remove everything that wasn’t David.’ (cliche #1)

The path to this meeting is as different for every person as the ultimate destination.  We can start with a picture of our better selves, we can start with a self assessment, or we can seek out role models.

My path to a Better Self began with a simple question: who do I want to be (physically) in 10 years?  20?

You see plenty of great runners in their 50’s and sixties but the mileage takes its toll.  Sore knees, bad backs, surgeries.   Many of us run on orthotics, with pain meds, prescriptions.  How many older runners are there who are still running fluidly?  Who can hop out of bed and run an easy 5 to 10 miles without paying for it for days.

How can I continue to run, not shuffle or waddle but RUN, for the pure joy of it?  How does one age like Wine and not become Vinegar? (#2)

Age catches up to lifters as well.  Those who continue to lift heavy all have a knee issue, or a sore back, or their shoulders chronically ache.  Runners and lifters are like Cats and Dogs(#3) (Starks and Lannisters?) but they can agree on one thing: Getting old sucks.  Things get taken away.

Wanting to be strong and fast presents a paradox.  When I increase my strength training I add muscle.  Additional muscle increases weight and requires more oxygen, making me slower over long distance.  So I run more and my body adapts to make me leaner and more energy efficient, quickly erasing strength gains.  My body is constantly shifting between strong Steve and fast Steve.

And neither running nor strength training make me more mobile.  I was so immobile while training for the Marine Corps Marathon I had constant pain in my knees and feet.  Waking up every morning I was a shuffling, plodding, heavy stepped mess.  I was the upstairs neighbor from hell whose heavy footsteps could wake you from a deep sleep. My steps were like a Jurassic Park T Rex: Thump, thump, thump.

Running and lifting are predominately performed in a single plane of motion.  The SAID principle states that your body Specifically Adapts to Imposed Demands.  When the sole demand is movement in the Sagittal plane (think arms swinging by sides, legs moving forward and back) the body ignores movement in other planes and becomes less mobile, focusing all energy on moving in a straight line (the imposed demand).

I’ve noticed in my 15 years as a private trainer that mobility and balance are the first two things to leave older clients.  They severely limit one’s ability to enjoy themselves athletically.

I was strong.  I was fast.  But I was becoming immobile.  What chips of marble should I remove to find my Better Self (fast, strong and flexible)? How can I remove them?

‘Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.’- Alexis Carrel (#4)

We live in a new Renaissance. VIRTUTE is the name of our mission: Highlight excellence in the art of our Renaissance and open it to the maximum of people.

To find your Better Self there must be change.  Change can hurt, so what’s the big deal with adding a little bit more pain?  It already hurt to get out of bed and walk to the kitchen in the morning.

At 34 I began seriously practicing yoga.  I enrolled in teacher training.  My three reasons for undertaking a teacher training:

1- I am a private trainer and want a deep and varied skill set to assist clients.  Yoga would add to that.

2- The personal benefits of yoga practice.

3- Who the hell ever thought I’d become a yoga instructor?

My Yoga Teacher Training Squad

I took a 200 hour certification at Health Yoga Life in Beacon Hill.  It is a great program with great teachers, and I could get there on the T (I hate to drive).  I can’t say enough about this particular Teacher Training.  I found an accepting and encouraging community.  If you take a step towards helping yourself at HYL, the Teachers will take that step with you. (#5)

For the next few months I practiced, I sweated  and I studied with my classmates (pictured).  I chipped (sweated) away the marble that was not authentically me.  I am the marble and the sculptor.  It was not painless.  At times it pushed me to weariness, other times to tears.  You trust the teachers.  You trust the process.  The Better Self emerges.

The first chip of marble to fall was ego.  Yoga is not about who has the strongest practice.  It is about executing the poses to the best of your ability.  I think of my daily practice now as an exploration of where my body is that day.  It is important to seek out the poses in which I struggle, for if ‘I do what I always do I’ll be who I’ve always been.’ (#6)

It is also a humbling practice, especially in the beginning. You have to accept your body’s present limitations and work through them.

A second chip to fall was impatience.  I’ve come to find that almost every pose will unveil itself if enough persistence and patience are applied.

Mindful breath and movement bring you entirely into the present moment.  In order to execute your practice you can’t be thinking about work or home.  You have to be on your Mat and in the moment.  No multitasking.

The chips continue to fall the more I practice.  Bruce Lee said ‘its all about the daily decrease.  Eliminate the unessential.’ (#7)  My better version emerged as I eliminated ego, impatience, weight, fear, instability, tightness, limitation.  The statue becomes cleaner, more refined.

I found yoga strength (true strength): the ability to move your body fluidly (lightly) in any plain of motion.  Not just the linear push pull of weights or the linear controlled forward fall of running.   I remain lean, strong and fast.  I can move silently and in any direction (plane of motion).

I was not born flexible. If I can do it, anyone can.

My flexibility increased.  In no time I was able to move in ways I never thought possible.

My speed remains consistent but my ability to recover has improved dramatically.  No more dead legged shuffle the morning after a particularly long run.   My body is largely free of the aches and pains brought on by overuse.  Some weeks I get in 2 hours of yoga, sometimes I’ll practice as much as 4.

The search for your Better Self is a never ending journey, an exploration that will take you in several directions.  If I had defined my best self as my fastest self then my journey would have ended in college.  But the body changes, the mind seeks new challenges.  Physically my better self is refined with the deepening of my practice and it’s compliment to other endeavors, and my Better Mental Self is revealed through yoga’s continued focus on being present and exploring and challenging the self.