Yesterday, I went to the gym to attend a barbell strength training class I’ve been frequenting every Saturday for awhile now. I love the class, I love the teacher; she’s a stickler for keeping proper form to prevent injury, and she has teaching the class down to a science. Though she always drives the class to push harder and to go further, she rotates focus on different muscle group areas throughout the class, so we can rest each set of muscles and have enough strength left to do another round for those muscles later in the class. It’s a well-rounded practice… and it feels balanced to me.
Upon entering class this week, I discovered that the instructor was absent, and the instructor for the class was someone I had yet to experience. Very different demeanor, VERY different approach. Instead of the workout I expected, she worked each muscle group for an extended period… until half the class couldn’t even do the exercises any more, in desperate need of a rest.
I have to admit that about 20 minutes into the class, I was a bit irritated.
But then – through what felt like the hundredth set of lunges, with the weight of the barbell making my leg muscles scream – I had an epiphany about the situation. (I understand that often happens when the body is completely depleted of sweat and then brings on the onset of a little delirium from discomfort… LOLLOL!)
Fluidity and acceptance.
Instead of rearing up to “battle” it – the irritation and resentment that the instructor wasn’t running the class the way I’ve come to expect – I had to take away that expectation box, do it differently, and gain from it whatever I was to gain from it, in the highest and best way. From the instructor’s perspective, she was running the class in perfect balance… focusing on each muscle group, in one rotation. In reality, was one way right and one way wrong? No; I accepted that each approach was right… just different. Both accomplished the objective of the class, and though this approach was out of my comfort zone, I finally decided to simply accept what this instructor was doing.
I eventually made it through the class… even though there were several times when I just thought certain muscles wouldn’t work at all anymore. However, instead of getting irritated, I laughed at myself a little, took some deep breaths, zoned out into a semi-meditative state, tapped into my Higher Self, remembered to become more fluid, and pressed on.
Now, I could have decided that the primary instructor’s way is the “right” way, and this fill-in instructor’s way is the “wrong” way…and I could have walked out in the middle of class, or lost my focus on what I went there to do by getting so irritated at this different approach that I couldn’t perform the exercises in class. Instead, I became fluid… and decided to use it as a learning experience. Is it my personal preferred method? No. However, it did give me the chance to look at that class from a completely different perspective, and how to do that workout with a completely different approach. Overall, my muscles probably benefited, as well.
In further processing all of this later on, I realized how the experience definitely provided a mirror into remembrance. I understand the importance of fluidity in our consciousness, and in doing this work, I am very mindful of walking the walk as much as I talk the talk. So, there are three very important lessons that surfaced for me:
- On our spiritual journey to enlightenment, each individual path is “right,” regardless of how different each is from the other;
- Every time we experience something new and different that is apart from what we expect, instead of rejecting it without exploration, it’s advantageous to look for what it is we can learn from it;
- That it is beneficial – and much more “in the flow” – to accept change with fluidity and grace, while also discovering what the change can actually provide for us as a learning experience.
These messages have been coming to me more and more… now even including something as purely physical and grounded as an intense strength training workout at the gym!
As we experience exponential changes in ourselves, in our consciousness, and in the physical world around us, it’s important to remember that the only constant is change. Change is happening, whether we fight it or not… faster and faster, as we go along during these magnificent times! So, remembering to stay conscious, fluid, and without judgment through every challenge, every change in direction, and every experience that comes our way – expected or unexpected – is the key. Because then we will find equilibrium in everything… or we’ll stop feeling like we need to have it altogether.
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