mute.

We all know by now how much I LOVE  Zumba. Well, for Christmas my little sister bought me a set of Zumba DVDs and toning sticks so I don’t have to even wait for a class at the gym to get my “groove thang” on.

The other morning I was shake-shake-shakin it… and all of a sudden:
BAM!

My mind started racing with things that I had to get done for work. The work day hadn’t started and all I could hear were the loud voices of my “to-do voices” talking to me  SCREAMING at me. In particular, there was a meeting I thought I had forgotten to send out a notice for.

Whenever I forget important things, I get a sudden sick-to-my-stomach-going-to-pass-out feeing that hits instantly. Almost immediately I found myself completely tuned out of my fun dance workout and tuned in to a negative voice that was saying, “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why do you always screw dates up? Now no one will show. Not good, staceabase. Not. Good.” 

One of my goals in the New Year is to mentally take better care of myself (that includes be more patient with the times that I’m not perfect), so I made a conscious decision that if I did, in fact, forget to send out that email and flub the dates, waiting just 20 more minutes (enough time to finish my dancing) was not going to change anything; especially considering the fact that most people hadn’t even gotten out of bed by this time of day (6am). So I tuned out the mumbo-jumbo and got back to Zumba.

Surprise, surprise… the world didn’t end!

On my way to the gym tonight, I started thinking of ALL of the things I needed to get done for work. Suddenly I felt like I had no time to work out.

I made a choice:
For the next 60 minutes, I was going to be present while exercising,
enjoying that feeling of challenge and building my strength.
And it was a darn good choice.

There was nothing that happened  while I was working out that couldn’t wait for me to finish. I’m pretty sure that my workout was even better because I wasn’t distracted. I was committed and it paid off.

As you approach your day, carve out some time where you turn off your computer, cell phone, video games (unless they’re those fun interactive dancing or motion ones), and everything else that unproductively robs you of your time.
Fill up that hole with something that will make you feel so good- like exercise! Whether it’s a meditative walk or a vigorously challenging military-type workout, go for it!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
You’re worth it.