What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Yes, I did start off this post with probably one of the biggest clichés around, but I felt it was a good introduction. Earlier today I got to thinking about strength and what it means. Your first reaction may be physical strength. Whether or not you can lift a barbell with over 100 lbs of weight on it or if you can pull your bodyweight up a rope. That is not the only type of strength though, and it may not be the most important type either. So let's dig a little deeper into what strength means and what it means to be strong.
The most basic definition of the word strength is "the quality or state of being physically strong," (Oxford Dictionaries). Of course as I mentioned already this is probably the first thought that comes to most people's mind. Physical strength is a pretty good and exciting quality to have. When I first started working out with a personal trainer, he prematurely had me try to do a back squat with a bar on my back. Even with just the bar I couldn't do it. I honestly felt like a failure because of that since you see people doing those at all hours of the gym. Fast forward a year and a different trainer and I am doing back squats with over 100 lbs (including the bar) on my back. I can accomplish so much more now because of the physical strength I have built up. It makes everyday tasks a lot easier as well.
Let's talk about the less obvious forms of strength there are. How about emotional strength? I talk about all of the different types of feelings and emotions we go through day to day a lot on my blog here. As I have said before emotions are what make us human. So what happens when we have to endure something extremely difficult? That is where emotional strength comes in handy. Now I, of course, am not telling you to hold your emotions here. As many of you likely know I am the queen of crying myself. There is, however, a time and place for everything. Always letting your emotions get the better of you is not a sign of strength. Sometimes we have to do things and be in situations we just don't want to be in. Maybe you have had to say goodbye to a loved one either temporarily or even for forever. Maybe you lost your job and need to stay strong as you look for a new one. Maybe you are just overall not in a good environment and need to build yourself up to get out of it. If you have emotional strength and push through, I promise the end is near and it will be much sweeter when you reach it.
The last form of strength I want to talk about is similar to emotional strength, but in a much more specific way. Willpower is something that takes a lot of strength to keep up with. I can tell you just this past week my willpower was tested. On Thursday my job had an event for all of the workers. There was a big presentation and an hour before that they catered lunch for everyone. I decided it would be better for me to just stick with my meal prep rather than indulging in that food. Now it was set up in the lobby of the building, and you could come and go as you pleased. Had it been at an actual event location, trust me I wouldn't have been rude and brought my lunch to a banquet hall. Luckily I had the option to just sit it out. Making choices with your diet and overall health takes a lot of willpower sometimes. It isn't always easy to get the salmon and grilled vegetables at lunch when your friend orders a burger and fries. It isn't easy to only have a small slice of cake at a birthday party when everyone else around you has a nice big slice of cake. Willpower is still something I struggle with myself sometimes (especially since it is Fall and Trader Joe's has their full Fall line of products out). Willpower truly does take a huge load of strength.
All of the types of strength I have mentioned today have to be obtained. One of my favorite things in the gym is doing the leg press machine and he wide-eyed looks I get doing sets with almost 400 lbs. But I built up to that weight over time. Now, I am not here to boast about my strength in the gym of course, but my point is I built up to that. All kinds of strength is built up overtime. It isn't always easy to keep your chin up when you are facing an emotional time in your life. I certainly didn't always have the ability to pass up pizza to eat my broccoli and ground turkey. You are also more than allowed to slip up on those things as well. You are not weak because you break down and cry when something goes wrong. You will not gain 10 lbs because you caved and had a slice of cake. You are not going to lose all of your physical strength if you skip a week at the gym. Continue to move forward. Getting back up after you have been knocked down is one of the biggest signs of strength there is after all!
I am going to be completely honest here. I woke up this morning fully expecting to blow off writing a post today. I woke up in a little bit of a funk. I felt tired even though I had slept in. I felt a little sad too for literally no reason. Overall I just felt unmotivated. It happens to all of us. Motivation only lasts so long, then our drive needs to kick in.
Did I want to do my laundry, meal prep, or write this post at all today? Honesty no, but here I am. Laundry is in the dryer. My turkey broccoli pasta and blueberry oatmeal muffins are all prepped and cooling off for the coming week. And I am sitting here typing away on my laptop. I figured I would use the energy I was feeling this morning to write a post. I say all the time that I use my thoughts and feelings during the week to write these posts so this morning was no different. I know I am not alone. I am sure it is perfectly normal to just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and want to be lazy that day. Sometimes we have no choice.
I am at the age and point of my life that, although I do have a good number of adult responsibilities I do not have nearly as many as some do. Many people near my age are parents, caretakers to older loved ones, even have their own dogs that need their full attention. People with those responsibilities have no choice but to get out of bed and get moving every single day, especially if there is a four year old that has been awake since 6 AM begging for their attention. Some people have to wake up to get to their job or even their second jobs on a Sunday morning. Others simply have tasks around the house they need to get done. No matter what, realize that your effort certainly does not go unnoticed.
So what should we do when we are having these off days? I would suggest trying to get through them as normal as possible, but take breaks when they are available and needed. I started off my usual Sunday projects a little later this week because I was feeling emotional for literally no reason at all. One of the many perks of being a highly emotional person (insert eye roll here). What I did was watch the season finale of a show I have been watching, had a good cry from it, and then I felt a million times better. Sometimes we just need to let ourselves feel these emotions. Sure waking up emotional for no reason isn't necessarily sensible, but it is still a valid feeling no matter what. Pushing it away only bottles it up. Do not do that, you are bound to let them overflow and burst out at the seams.
My best piece of advice is to do exactly as I did. Take a break. Meditate, do some yoga, go for a short walk, watch a sappy show like I did. Anything to just let yourself pause your responsibilities momentarily and reset yourself a bit. I can absolutely attest to that. I spent my morning unmotivated and because of that it was causing me writer's block. Do you know what a break resulted in for me? You are reading it! I just cranked this post out in no time at all and it was all because I took a little time for my mental health. I want to encourage you to do the same. I tried hiding my feelings for years and it only caused me to let them back up. We are humans and we have emotions for a reason. Yes some of them are beautiful and enjoyable to experience, while others are not. When we are feeling the not so enjoyable emotions, taking a small break never hurt anyone.
Did I want to do my laundry, meal prep, or write this post at all today? Honesty no, but here I am. Laundry is in the dryer. My turkey broccoli pasta and blueberry oatmeal muffins are all prepped and cooling off for the coming week. And I am sitting here typing away on my laptop. I figured I would use the energy I was feeling this morning to write a post. I say all the time that I use my thoughts and feelings during the week to write these posts so this morning was no different. I know I am not alone. I am sure it is perfectly normal to just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and want to be lazy that day. Sometimes we have no choice.
I am at the age and point of my life that, although I do have a good number of adult responsibilities I do not have nearly as many as some do. Many people near my age are parents, caretakers to older loved ones, even have their own dogs that need their full attention. People with those responsibilities have no choice but to get out of bed and get moving every single day, especially if there is a four year old that has been awake since 6 AM begging for their attention. Some people have to wake up to get to their job or even their second jobs on a Sunday morning. Others simply have tasks around the house they need to get done. No matter what, realize that your effort certainly does not go unnoticed.
So what should we do when we are having these off days? I would suggest trying to get through them as normal as possible, but take breaks when they are available and needed. I started off my usual Sunday projects a little later this week because I was feeling emotional for literally no reason at all. One of the many perks of being a highly emotional person (insert eye roll here). What I did was watch the season finale of a show I have been watching, had a good cry from it, and then I felt a million times better. Sometimes we just need to let ourselves feel these emotions. Sure waking up emotional for no reason isn't necessarily sensible, but it is still a valid feeling no matter what. Pushing it away only bottles it up. Do not do that, you are bound to let them overflow and burst out at the seams.
My best piece of advice is to do exactly as I did. Take a break. Meditate, do some yoga, go for a short walk, watch a sappy show like I did. Anything to just let yourself pause your responsibilities momentarily and reset yourself a bit. I can absolutely attest to that. I spent my morning unmotivated and because of that it was causing me writer's block. Do you know what a break resulted in for me? You are reading it! I just cranked this post out in no time at all and it was all because I took a little time for my mental health. I want to encourage you to do the same. I tried hiding my feelings for years and it only caused me to let them back up. We are humans and we have emotions for a reason. Yes some of them are beautiful and enjoyable to experience, while others are not. When we are feeling the not so enjoyable emotions, taking a small break never hurt anyone.
I have been having an incredibly good week. There is no particular reason for that. Work is going well but about the same, the gym is going about the same too. I was down around two lbs for my weigh-in this week so that was pretty exciting. It may be because Fall is almost here and if you follow my twitter for this blog (@PWeightless) you will know I am psyched! So maybe the changes in the air are putting me in a good mood. Just because I have been in a good mood lately, doesn't mean that everyone else around me is though. That is partially what I wanted to talk about today. That life always goes in seasons.
I actually had someone in my life this past week who was having a much more difficult week than I was. That is how life goes. We cannot all be feeling the exact same way all the time. To be quite honest I feel like life would be boring and annoying to interreact with others if that was the case. The most important thing is to be respectful of what others are going through. If someone is going through a really hard time, it might not be best to go on and on about the amazing week you had. Sometimes when someone is going through a negative event in their life, we need to put our feelings and emotions aside to just be there. I would much rather be there for a friend or loved one when they are emotional, depressed, sad, etc. and put my good news on hold. You can always put that away in your pocket and bring it back out when things get better. The most important thing to remember is that we all have different emotions at times.
With that being said it is also important to remember that our lives have highs and lows. Just because I am feeling happy and content with life right now does not mean I will always feel this way. Let's be honest I am an incredibly emotional person to begin with. I, of course, am not happy 100% of the time, despite the positive attitude I portray here and have most days in my life. You are not a failure for having emotions other than happy all the time. If you are a mother or father or overall just the "head" of a household where you need to be on top of your game it is also okay for you to get sad. That is one of the most consistent things in life: the inconsistency. Just because something is sunshine one day does not mean that it will not change the next morning. Life is so incredibly unpredictable. The most important part is getting through them and realizing that you don't need to do it alone.
A while ago on a TV show or YouTube video someone mentioned that our lives go in seasons (I cannot remember where I heard it so if you know let me know so I can give credit.) Much like the weather changes every few months, so do our lives. You have to get through the cold and bitter winter in order to enjoy the beauty of new life in the spring. If we didn't get through the hottest most miserable days in summer, then the fall's crisp air would never come. Think of life the exact same way. We have ups and we have downs. If we had nothing but ups all the time and no downs would we ever truly appreciate the ups for what they are? In some ways the pain and sadness we endure make the reward that much sweeter. I am not a mother but so many I know have said that labor and delivery were some of the hardest and most painful moments in their life. Every single one of them says that once they hold their new baby in their arms for the first time that goes away. We have to deal with pain in our life to appreciate the good for what it is. The downs in life are a pretty big part of what shapes us into whom we are.
So overall what is the biggest point I am trying to make here? Embrace all the seasons throughout your life and remember that we all cycle through them differently. Just because I am happily sipping my coffee with pumpkin spiced creamer in it right now does not mean someone close to me isn't trying to crawl their way through a blizzard. Everyone is entitled to their feelings, and they are always valid no matter what. It is important though to remember that someone else may need your support first before you share it. I am not saying to never share any good news at all. People that truly love you will be happy about that news, no matter their situation. I am saying to maybe hold onto your emotions and situations for a moment because someone needs you to be their shoulder to cry on even more. If you are someone that is suffering your way through winter, I want you to always remember, spring is just around the corner. Pull your coat on tighter, cover your face from the snow, and press on. Beautiful things are just ahead of you.
