Zen (Not Frozen)

by Cheech

One of the ways I respond to stress is to freeze 🥶 in place and stop moving. Even though this is completely opposite of what would really be best for me, the immobility seems to happen before I know it. Then, it takes over and stays too long (like an unwelcome house guest). It's supposed to be about Zen, not frozen. To top it off, freezing never de-stresses me.

It's pretty simple:  
1) Moving always makes me feel better.
2) Not moving doesn't, and it even prolongs the struggle.

But, before I even realize it's happening (again), I am counting weeks (not days, not hours) since my last workout and feeling paralyzed, bloated, guilty, grouchy, and sad. Sound familiar? Oy!

The field of psychology tells us that prevention is a much more effective strategy for meaningful change than intervention. When we extrapolate this theory across groups and organizations, it becomes apparent that prevention is a far more efficient effort, and not nearly as costly as intervention. I can easily apply this teaching to my personal life if I think of my daily movement practice as prevention and take a little inventory of the personal cost associated with not doing my practice.

The pain of the personal cost shows up for me in multiple dimensions of existence. This is by no means an exhaustive list, it's just the first few things that come to mind:

• physical - as joint pain (which can quickly contribute to moving even less) and weight gain (ugh! lifelong struggle);
• behavioral - the eating behaviors that led to the weight gain;
• mental - brain fog coupled with unmotivated bouts of planning, over-planning, thinking 🤔, and over-thinking;
• emotional - all manner of blue emotions, ranging from lightly tinged with wistful 😔 to utterly despondent 😭.

If I skimp on my daily practice, it won't be long until I find myself frozen in place, needing an intervention, and having almost completely forgotten that I love (and need) to move. What kind of sinister amnesia is this????

Waiting until I need a personal intervention gets expensive when I factor in the personal cost of unraveling all that damage. Prevention is truly the answer. Getting help remembering is the cheat code. Doing it alone is nearly impossible. It takes a lot of energy to intervene upon yourself and to “right the ship”. It can be done, but it will probably need a catalyst. Your priceless life force could have gone toward those burpees instead!

“Moving is the second (2nd) most important thing that I absolutely need to do every day. Remembering to do it is the first (1st).”

We, who are accustomed to group practices, need to pull together for rock-solid accountability now. It's been so long without connection to one another that we may have forgotten how nice it is to share the simple experience of a class. Before COVID-19 locked 🔐 and distanced ↔️ us, we (together in a room) held that group intention of moving, breathing, and releasing away the day. It did clear out the cobwebs and changed the vibe. It is often hard to change the vibe alone, isn't it? Dang!

We must just choose to shift in the direction of re-creating community, even if it feels a little forced, with Zoom and online platforms continuing to be our containers.

It will be a daily, but asynchronous (you chose the time) practice. We're going to be using an app (it has both web and/or mobile options) to connect, re-connect and share our experience. It will help you (and me) to remember to move.

Speaking of banding together, I am getting prepped for my Buti Yoga Bands instructor certification demo, so (as a student) I am practicing by doing a bandstravaganza on Buti TV's streaming platform. This is the first of many shameless plugs for Buti Yoga (because I love 🥰 it) and below are three (3) of my most favorite and fast (under 30 minutes) ways to come down outta' my head and into my body. Buti Yoga Bands 8, 9 and 10 are linked below. If you're not a subscriber, they do give you a freebie two week trial.  #yourewelcome  🙏🏽

Check out our schedule to practice with Cheech.