Can You Ruin A Healthy Thing?

When you undertake a new healthy thing, you usually like it.  There is the sense of self satisfaction and you start feeling better.  Sometimes things get a little out of control.  We start to push the activity a little further, trying to make it better.  Or maybe there is the need to get approval and attention for the really awesome job we are doing.  We all love a little attention and feeling of accomplishment.  But, we can quickly ruin an activity we love simply by forgetting why we love it when we push too hard. 

I read a super post by Laura Schwecherl on how she ran the Boston marathon and how she will never do it again.  She started out by running to get some exercise and release some stress.  It worked.  Moreover, she absolutely loved running.  Then, she had to uber size it to make it great or meaningful.  She decided to train for the Boston marathon.  As she began training, she felt fabulous and accomplished.  She had a goal and a purpose.  Then, she started feeling tired, sore and cranky.  She lacked energy and was not herself.  Laura was determined and she continued to train really well.  Strangely, instead of feeling even more accomplished, she felt broken somehow.  The thing she had loved, running, had turned into this horrible taskmaster.  After the marathon, she stopped the heavy training and just did the running, the thing she really loved.

Most people may have trouble just getting started with exercise.  However, exercise is just an example of how people tend to make something they love so good and so perfect that it gets ruined.  We all have the thing that was once a sweet pleasure and became a taskmaster.  I have done it many times myself.  The minute I start to resent that special thing or it doesn't bring me the initial happy result, I know I have gone too far.  Then, I remember my Ayurvedic and coaching training.  Balance is the key.  When we become too invested in one thing, we miss out on the other aspects of our life.  We may even become imbalanced and our body will talk to us in the form of ailments and symptoms. 

Laura said it best when she decided to run for herself, "I’m not doing it to prove anything to others or myself. I do it simply because it’s a part of who I am."  This is the place where we want to be.

Stay healthy & well,
Lisa