Month: August 2023

You already have what it takes

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

There are many theories and entire podcasts / books and resources on what it takes to be high performance. Entrepreneurs and people who are the best in their field at what they are great at can give you ‘10 tips’ or ‘7 things you can do today’ and as a result I’m going to share a secret with you. They aren’t that special, we all are. Yes that includes you!

Whilst a handful of things are helped with ‘natural ability’ if you want something and you dedicate yourself to it – it’s yours and if you don’t get to your final destination with what you want to achieve, I can promise that with practice you will get better. We all will.

Yesterday at the dinning room table my son asked me what pose I found the hardest in yoga, I said I couldn’t answer that but I could if he’d let me reframe the question. At the moment I’m working on my forward fold, it’s not a complex move but years of high heel wearing mean my hand strings are tight and when I go into a forward fold my head and knees are currently worlds apart, as a result I’m working on my forward fold daily until I master it. He smiled and said ‘that’s a good attitude to have’, since I began my daily yoga practise and booked into classes I can feel my body responding, progressing and heading towards the type of practise that I want to achieve, however the destination for my health and wellbeing are hundreds of hours of practises away. Mean while, I’m content in my daily mat time making millimetre progress and enjoying the journey.

What does it take? Honestly, I don’t think it matters what you want to achieve, I think you just need to decide you’re going to achieve it, then take the necessary steps to move towards that goal. If you miss the goal, at least you lived a full life trying. I know I would reach my goal far quicker if I jumped on a flight to India and did a months intense retreat or teaching practice but missing a month without my son is non negotiable and family life and all the responsibilities that come with it aren’t something I’m prepared to ignore, so my pathway to my yogi future will be slower and with my own limitations and priorities. What I will do is what I can. Again, this sometimes means making sacrifices or removing people / objects that no longer serve you or the direction you wish to go in. All I know if my next destination is a forward fold, what do you want to achieve?

Enjoy the journey

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

Quote Anon

This morning myself and family set off to the red woods on a dog walk. The sun was kind and it wasn’t too warm, so we walked further than intended. On the way back (about 20mins from the car) we came across a really wet and muddy area where a herd of cows had been. I wasn’t that keen to walk across as I was wearing some old but low rise white converse. The Mr stomped across with the dog and suggested that my son and I could ‘walk around’ and he would walk on. Without hesitation I accepted the diversion and myself and my son set off, back from the direction we came…

This is where perhaps this post should be titled ‘miscommunication. The Mr literally meant to walk around the field and come in from another entrance, I thought he meant to walk back much further at a point he could pick us up from…so on we walked. About half way over a huge hill I thought I’d better check and gave the Mr a call. He’s phone was switched off. We kept on walking with high hopes and singing some AC/DC that was making my son giggle. We got to the designated place and waited…

Once we waited we waited some more. At this point we had covered at least 8 miles without a drink or snacks, it was beyond lunch time and the ‘hangry’ pains were kicking in. What to do? The plan after our walk was to make our way to a local ice cream place.

I thought of several options, but in the end we decided to walk back the way we came and through the mud. We didn’t stress and we enjoyed the journey, ignoring hunger and thirst we spoke about how the extra couple of miles we had now walked deserved a double scoop…we imagines flavour combinations and enjoyed the scenery. This was mainly the mud causing cows, one of which we named ‘bra’ – this was because I said she looked like a Deborah and my son thought she looked like a Brenda…so we went with ‘bra’ from both our suggestions. Bra was actually confident and a little too quick for my liking, but with the thoughts of double scoops in our minds kept up pace with our feet.

Back up on the high hill again, my phone received a call – the Mr had realised things hadn’t gone right, headed home to grab his phone and we explained we were heading back. He said he would wait in the original spot.

Breathless but safely at the car, we made a victorious and much needed calorie stop at the ice cream parlour – when we arrived I asked my son what flavours he wanted and he said ‘actually one scoops enough’ we then chatted that the miscommunication and chat about the double scoops was much more fun that the reality. It made me think of the quotes that highlight enjoying the journey and life not being about the destination…

Perhaps this August you are setting off abroad on your own adventures, or perhaps you have a dog that needs walking. Enjoy each step, don’t stress about departure times and should you experience delays make them work for you! Grab an extra drink, kick back and enjoy the journey, whilst I’m not against two scoops in life, sometimes it’s the thought that keeps you going.