I attended my first session at GB3 today with my personal trainer, Lindsay, a lovely kinesiology major at Fresno State. Lindsay introduced me to a lateral eliptical machine, which imitates the movements in cross-country skiing. It has a built-in fan. I love it! For all of the 30 seconds that I can do it until my legs give out underneath me. I actually did a whole minute on the machine when she first showed me how to use it. But when I went back to work out by myself, my legs let me know that they were utterly unaccustomed to this style and pace of movement, and, that if I ever wanted to walk again, I had better take it slowly. So, I worked the machine in 20-30 second increments, for a total of five minutes today. Then, I did stretches. Then I went home and drank lots of water because I was very thirsty.
While I was doing the lateral eliptical, I really couldn't think about much except how to do the eliptical. But, after I got off, I thought about how hard it is to begin a new discipline to work muscles that have not been worked like that in years, or maybe ever. I observed my 18-year-old son after he came home from his first workout at GB3. He was sore for several days. Really sore. Like, hard to move, sore. So, I knew if that's how it affected an 18-year-old young man, I'd better start slowly in my out-of-shape state.
We have been discussing spiritual disciplines for several days on my blog and I believe there are some similarities, here. If you hope to begin developing a deeper spiritual life, you don't overdo it on the first day. You don't sit quietly with God for an hour when you haven't developed the endurance and the spiritual muscles for that. You start with reading a Psalm, then being quiet for a minute or so, allowing God to bring thoughts to your mind. But, that's about all. Work at this level until you are ready for more. That's my advice, and I'll stick by it!
--Posted by Mama O.
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