I am the type of person who once they put their workout clothes and particularly sneakers on, I never decide not to work out. However, there are times where convincing myself to put on those sneakers can be a challenge.
Anyway, I made it to the gym after a long day at work. It's been the type of week where my brain hurts, my eyes feel like they might pop out of their sockets, and I'm always in need of a nap. I told my colleagues today that "my life is a giant spreadsheet," as I am managing a really large department project brimming with millions of details. In fact, the ways that stress is affecting me this week is just crazy.
I'm so tired that I fall into a really deep sleep. In that deep sleep, I dream. Supposedly this is a good thing because I am going through each section of the REM cycle. However, I am dreaming about work. Talk about not restful. I wake up in the morning trying to separate reality from my dream world and I feel like I never leave work. This was a real problem for me in graduate school in particular. Sometimes if I had been really concentrating on a specific project or was really deep into work, my professors would come to me in dreams. I had really wonderful professors, but they are not the type of people you want to see in your dreams. I would also write papers in my dreams. Waking up was confusing because I didn't know what I had written prior to falling asleep and what I had written in my dream. It was also a pain because a brilliant idea in a dream can be brilliant, or completely fictitious and lacking sense be seem to be brilliant at the time.
The nice thing about an intense workout is that I get to leave work behind. I drove to the gym and was waiting for my Body Pump class to begin. The equipment changes every class so I asked my instructor, Maria, what we needed -- a bench or a BOSU. These are both things that I normally really enjoy. She asked me what I wanted, and I said that I didn't know. I think I have been in charge of a lot of decisions lately and my brain couldn't process another one, and I was just TIRED. She asked if I was okay and I said I was tired. Fast forward 15 minutes and we are doing a series of side steps, hops, jogs, and jump ropes. I didn't feel like the tired, exhausted person that I had come to class as. I had a little more pep in my step and really tried to get my knees high and pushed harder. It felt really good to have the strength and energy to attack the class in a way I hadn't thought that I would be able to. I even upped my weights on a few exercises.
This same concept was one that I especially appreciated in college. The ten-fifteen minute drive from SU's campus to the boathouse made me feel like I was world's away from the stress of my academics. Coach always used to say to not take your problems with you on the water. I can't say that I entirely followed the rule, as I sometimes used my frustrations or stress to pull harder or push farther in a piece, but that kind of thing is productive. Whether you are erging in a basement somewhere or rowing on a beautiful stretch of river, there is an opportunity to be transported from your everyday cares and worries. Exercise can be so transformative and transcendental.
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