“I do not whine – kids whine.” ~ Exerpt from Tough Mudder Pledge

This past Saturday I strapped up and took on the Tough Mudder challenge here in Wisconsin.  It was so nice and convenient to participate, because the event was only about 25 miles from home.  How could I resist?  You may recall, back in February, I wrote a post about how I was gearing up for the event, and my thoughts about taking on this challenge.

In my post, I asked the questions, “Am I fearful? Am I worried?”  I answered with a resounding “Heck yes!”  It’s funny to look back on those words, now over six months later, after I prepared for this major challenge.  I was thinking about how I would have to consciously change my habits and adopt a new workout and eating regimen to prepare, and how I was going to have to beat my subconscious mind into submission.

So what was the end result?  Over six months of physical preparation — I faithfully did the exercises “prescribed” by Tough Mudder.  There were sixteen exercises that were recommended.  I remember the first day I started doing those exercises — I was huffing and puffing and sweating profusely.  That wasn’t the worst of it — I experienced that the next day, when the soreness set in!  I could feel the areas that were weak and just begging for mercy from the punishment of the new routine.

I kept pushing myself and didn’t give up.  The exercises became easier and the soreness subsided.  I could soon do them without being sore the next day.  I could then start to increase the weight resistance, and increase the number of repetitions.  I could feel and see my body get stronger and leaner.  I started to gain confidence that I was going to be in the proper shape to take on the challenge.

I purposely didn’t revisit my blog post until after completing the event, because I wanted to have the opportunity to look back at my “concerns” regarding the challenge.  I wanted to see what “really” resulted, compared to what I “thought” was going to happen.  Looking back, I am absolutely astounded at how relatively “easy” the event was…Okay, it wasn’t easy easy, but it was easier and less intimidating than I thought it would be.

So, what happened?

First of all, I was prepared; I never slouched or slacked when it came to the physical preparation.  I changed my diet and I changed my exercise routine.  I was physically ready for the challenge.  By being physically prepared, I minimized the anxiety in that area.  I no longer feared the physical task, because I knew I had done what I needed to be ready.

As I was progressing through the course, and completing the events that seemed so daunting at first, I realized that it was all mental.  It wasn’t so much that the obstacles were physically challenging; it was actually the mental challenge.  Once I realized that by controlling my mentality I could overcome my fears, I was no longer intimidated by the challenges.  I actually looked forward to them.

I was able to overcome my claustrophobia and crawl through underground tunnels and tubes filled with water.  I was able to do something that I had never done before, which was jumping off of a platform and landing in water over fifteen feet below!  I submerged myself in ice water; I crawled under (and got shocked by) electric wires (over and over again); I scaled walls that were well over ten feet tall.  I met and overcame all the challenges — and it felt damn good!

I also met these two scantily-clad guys — the two “Presidential candidates,” as I called them.  They were standing right in front of me as we waited to start the race.  The event organizers kept telling us to keep moving forward to let everyone get into the starting gate, and so I was subsequently thrust closer and closer to their briefs!  I asked them if they had brought along any spare underwear, just in case they lost their current pair, and they said n0 — no pockets.  I got high fives and hugs from them right before the race.  I still don’t know how I feel about that.  It was a bit awkward. 🙂  I was trying to bribe some people to pull down their briefs and throw them into a nearby dumpster when the race started by putting some money on the line, but nobody took the bait. 🙂

In the end, I would say it was definitely a fun time.  Sometimes we look at the challenges that lie before us, and we fill our minds with all sorts of preconceived notions of how terrible or hard it’s going to be.  Sometimes we look at those around us, and sensing their fear, we adopt the same fears.  What’s even worse is sometimes the fears of others, planted in our own minds, paralyze us and keep us from even attempting to tackle the challenge.  My experience this past weekend taught me that as long as you make the necessary preparations and do what you can to make sure you are in a position to take on the challenge, sometimes all that’s left are the fears you create in your mind.

If you can win the battle of your own mind, there’s no stopping you.  You can go after and get anything you want.  Once you get what you want, the self confidence and self esteem that you gain from accomplishing your goals and overcoming your fears will propel you to new heights and new levels of ability.  You can realize how truly great you can really be, once you allow your true self, free of fear, to shine through.

I’ll do it again!  Tough Mudder, I’ll see you again in the future.  You don’t stand a chance. 🙂

This was a very interesting article that I happened upon, and I wanted to share it with you.  Check it out by clicking the link below:

Blood Sugar Levels On High End Of Normal Tied To Brain Shrinkage: Study.

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” ~Angela Schwindt

The other day I was taking a jog with my wife.  The jog quickly turned into a walk because of the heat and humidity, and quite frankly, because I had run out of gas.  (If you are a runner, maybe you can relate, when you just don’t have any more fuel left in the tank)  I’m glad we had the opportunity to make a walk out of our outing, because we had the time to spend alone to just talk.  It just so happened that our older daughter’s birthday was this past weekend, and we were marveling at the fact that she was already seven years old.  Our discussion turned to talking about how remarkable children are, and how their personalities, in some ways, mirror their parents’, but then in other ways, how they are their own unique personalities.

As we had talked about our daughters, I got on the topic of “why” we are here, on this earth.  I was sharing something that I had read recently, how an author suggested that children don’t “belong” to us as parents.  The author had suggested that, instead, children enter this world “through” us, but they have their own independent place in this world, and while we parents are “vehicles” for their entry, they are their own unique spiritual beings, ready to make a difference in the world.  I had never thought of it this way, but it really helps start to sort out why some children come out of their mothers almost like “adults in a box;” they seem to have a sense of maturity and a sort of self-confidence that is so intuitive and unlearned.  Our older daughter, Brianna, is one of those people.  She knows what she wants, and she has such supreme self confidence.

Our younger daughter, Ava, wears her heart on her sleeve.  She definitely lets you know how she feels.  She is extremely bright, just like her sister, and she is so emotionally in tune with others.  She is a supreme empathic being, who really sorts out the feelings of others and draws upon that to formulate how she interacts with those around her.  This is a remarkable feat for someone under the age of four, and no doubt it’s a talent, but how can you teach empathy and compassion and understanding of other people’s feelings to someone that young?  You really can’t!

As our conversation about our girls continued, we talked about how we as parents are important in the development of our children, because we are responsible for teaching them life’s lessons.  I wrote two posts about the lessons I hope to teach my daughters, and here are the links, in case you are interested in reading them — “Life Lessons I Hope to Teach My Daughters – Part 1” and “Life Lessons I Hope to Teach My Daughters – Part 2”

While we need to teach our children life lessons, we also need to take the time to realize that lessons are to be learned from these little spiritual beings as well.   My wife was saying that she can stand to learn from our older daughter’s supreme self-confidence and assertive skills, and I was saying that I can stand to learn a bit of patience and understanding from our younger daughter, as she takes time to sort out her feelings and as she responds empathically to others.

These are just two life lessons that we are trying to learn from our children, and it’s important that we get all we can from them before they get too old.  Children provide a wonderful example of how we can get back in tune with our true, great selves, free of ego and prejudice and judgment.  If you watch and listen to children, you can see how pure they are.  They don’t have an ego; they ask lots (and lots and lots) of questions (sometimes so many I get frustrated); they have a sense of wonderment in regard to their environment and animals and the laws of nature; they always want to know more, and know there is more to learn.

If we can just learn some of these lessons from these wonderful teachers, we will go a long way in getting back in touch with our inner child — our true spirit, who was meant to do great things, before we learned from adults how to be critical, judgmental, concerned about our ego, and thought we knew it all, filled with understandings of limitations and impossibilities.  It takes time to “unlearn” all that we have “learned” from the adults who supposedly “knew” how the world works.  While parents and adults are valuable in teaching children important social and interpersonal lessons, we adults need to realize that we are on this earth to learn from the little ones that grace us from time to time and have the potential to change us into something greater than we already are.  We need reminders from these “short” teachers; reminders of the greatness we possessed as younger beings — greatness we still have within us.

If you have a “short” teacher in your life, take some time to ask yourself what you can learn from them, spiritually pure and full of limitless potential.  Children are truly remarkable beings, and it’s our job as adults to continue to remind them of the greatness they possess, without tainting their pure waters with limited thinking, judgmentalism, and ego-centrism.   We can learn much from these “short” teachers, as they can reacquaint us with the great spirit that resides within us!

I wrote a post about a year ago on some lessons I have learned from my older daughter, Brianna.  It was on my old “Blogger” site, so I copied it over to this blog.  If you’re interested in reading it, here’s the link: “A Winning Personality”

“Great minds have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ~Albert Einstein

Earlier this week I had one of those days.  Have you ever had one of those days — those days where sometimes it seems like you are met with bad news or bad energy from other people?  I had one of those days when around every corner there seemed to be negativity, complaining, or just disappointing news.  It’s that negativity — that heavy feeling that drains your energy and makes you either doubt yourself, feel bad about something you did, become filled with regret, lose energy, or want to give up.  While I knew that positivity and good things were occurring as well, the negative still lurked in the shadows, repeatedly reminding me of its presence.

It’s not easy getting pelted with negativity, complaining or disappointing news.  No doubt you have been met with criticism or resistance sometime in your life (some more than others!).  It sometimes seems as if people are bent on feeling miserable for whatever reason, doesn’t it?  Doesn’t it seem as if they have a problem with people who have a positive disposition or people who are generally happy, and want to bring them down too?

While we may prefer to be liked by everyone, and while we try to reach out and get along with others, unfortunately there are some who don’t have the mental maturity to be at that same point in their life, or their mental mediocrity and ego get in the way.  Regardless of the source of negativity, I always remind myself that as long as I am not doing anything to intentionally harm anyone, and as long as I am authentic and true to myself, I don’t have to feel bad or guilty about anything.  I’ve come to realize that whenever I am met with negativity or a critical comment, it is a “cry” from the subconscious of that person to have a need met.  Usually it’s a fear of something.  I ask myself, “What is it that I think the person is fearful about that is resulting in their comment?”  Usually the complaints that arise or the negative comments are symptoms of the problem, but not the problem itself.

Criticism and negativity, fortunately, have little to do with us.  We are usually just the recipients of misdirected frustration over something.  It’s not about us — it’s about the other person, and more particularly the fear and scarcity mentality that resides within them.  Their negativity is a result of their internal processing of the world around them, and when they are living their lives feeling they are victims or that people are trying to take things away from them, there is little we can do to convince them that this isn’t the case at all.

However, while this may be true, it still doesn’t remove the “sting” we feel when we are criticized, or the uncomfortable feelings we experience when we are faced with negativity.  It’s that negative “energy” that we feel when someone is critical or complaining or negative, which has an effect on our energy levels.  Have you ever experienced a situation where you were feeling good about things, and then someone entered the room, and you felt that your energy was sucked right out of you, because of their negativity?  I have, and I am sure you have too!

Remember that the thoughts that enter our conscious awareness are just that — thoughts.  Thoughts are energy.  Thoughts can either carry positive energy or negative energy.  It’s obvious that the negative comments are energy.  Sometimes the negative thoughts come from external sources, and sometimes those negative thoughts come from internal sources.  Sometimes our ego tells us that we aren’t good enough, or that we aren’t worth it, or that we might as well just give up because it won’t be worth it or nobody cares anyway.

We are not our thoughts!  We are the observers of our thoughts!  We have the power to consciously choose what we believe to be true or not.  We have the power to become energized by our thoughts, or to become demoralized and lose energy because of our thoughts.  We have the choice.

The next time you are met with negativity, try telling yourself, “It’s only a thought — it’s just negative energy.  I don’t have to accept it.”  You can also pass that negativity on to the universe.  You can say something like, “Universe, I give you to these negative thoughts…I don’t want them.”

You may have to tell yourself this over and over again.  It does sting initially, and the negative thoughts keep on coming, believe me.  You’ll find that if you’re new to the technique of not accepting the negative thought and energy or passing it along to the universe, the negative thoughts come right back and still viscerally affect you.  You still feel awful.  However, as you continue to basically say, “Enough already — I don’t want to hear it,” you’ll find that that negative voice becomes smaller and weaker.  After some time, you can even start to laugh at how ridiculous it sounds.  The negativity starts to become less prominent and less important to you, and the visceral effects of negativity start to wane in time.

Additionally, I have found it helpful to not only denounce the negative thoughts, but to give energy to the positive thoughts that directly oppose them.  For example, when the negative thought that you’re not good enough creeps into your mind, tell yourself you are not going to accept it, and then tell yourself that you are indeed good enough.  Tell yourself that you are worthy!

It takes time to “bulletproof” yourself from negativity.  It takes hard work and determination.  You can do it.  You are worthy, you are positive, and you are good enough!  Don’t give the mentally mediocre the power to suck your positive energy away from you.  Hang on to it and let your positivity shine unto others and inspire those around you to adopt positivity as a way of life, day after day.

Remember — As Albert Einstein stated, “Great minds have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”  That’s very true.  You also don’t have to accept what the mediocre minds have to say.  Just saying…

Put up your shield, and let your greatness shine!  Shine on!

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