1/6 Committing To Yourself
Photo By: S. Duquet
Yesterday morning it took a herculean effort to extricate myself from Chloe and our cave of covers in our toasty bed to go to the gym to swim. When it is dark out , below freezing and there is a chihuahua bed magnet, it feels tantamount to scaling Everest to purposefully leave the house to get in to a bathing suit.
We did it though and as Sandy and I were traversing our lap lane doing some stretching, we were talking about commitment and the willingness to commit to ourselves and what that means to us. What it means to me, is a commitment to begin treating myself as a loveable and cherished friend. A commitment to get to know myself as I truly am and not as I have seen myself through the eyes of others or through my past. A commitment to allow myself to accept that I am worthy of all things wonderful, exciting and abundant including joy. Swimming always brings me great joy and abundant health.
So here we are, discussing all of this in our lap lane and I see a woman in the pool that I have seen a hundred times before. She is covered from head to toe over her swimsuit in a lycra-esque suit which covers all of her skin and hair, something we believe is of religious choice. Everytime I see her I silently marvel at her commitment to herself. She wants to exercise and enjoy physical activity even though she has (what I perceive to be) roadblocks to easily, effortlessly, putting on a bathing suit and doing some laps. She really has to work at it to make it happen.
So twenty minutes after our laps we are in the locker room and she happens to be in our row. It is in that moment that I realize that she has a BROKEN LEG and is replacing her air cast with a cane at her side. I am absolutely not joking. I wanted to beg her to share her secrets of self love and self care, but thankfully I was stifled by awe and just said “hello” instead.
Experiencing this really spoke to me and fed my emerging and growing desire to commit to myself. Not because I think I need to be fixed, but because I want to experience, enjoy and grow. I want to be dazzled by food and amazed by how my body and health can be awakened by plant-based foods, exercise I truly enjoy and new experiences I couldn’t have imagined….all because I believe I am worthy of those things. Committing to yourself and trying new things can be an awe inspiring, challenging and thrilling journey back to yourself. Together we are changing our lives and the world one meal, one decision at a time.
Have a delicious day.
Tags: committing to yourself, compassionate eating, going veg, trying vegan, trying vegetarian, vegan, vegan challenge, vegan transition, vegan wannabe, vegetarian transition
