Drive and Recovery

Sometimes life is like rowing.

In racing a boat, each rower sits on a sliding seat.  They roll forward on their seat to put the oars in the water, then push back with their legs to pull the oar through the water, finishing the stroke.  The rolling up portion, when the oar is out of the water, is called the recovery.  The pushing portion, when the oar is in the water and you’re moving the boat forward, is called the drive.  The drive is where you push with all your strength, and then you’re supposed to relax on the recovery.

{photo from www.carlosdinares.com}

I’ve felt like I’ve been struggling with this ratio.  I tend to want to give a moderate effort during the whole piece, instead of a hard effort during the drive and relaxing during the recovery.  I’m not sure why, but that doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that I do it correctly: hard on the drive, relax on recovery.

The same goes for life.  We have ratios.

There is an appropriate time to rest and recover (e.g. Sundays, bedtime, etc.) and there is an appropriate time to push at full pressure (e.g. work, exercise, school, service).  Give your all during the drive so that you can fully rest during the recovery.  Really rest during the recovery so that you can give your all during the drive.  We are not meant to row through life at a moderate, unchanging intensity. 

Thoughts from Ellie.  Take them as you wish. :) 

Feel-goods and Feel-bads

Emotions.
They are a peculiar thing.

Whether it's that fluttering you get inside when you think you're falling in love,

The pain of betrayal by someone you trusted,

Or those tender feelings of compassion when you sympathize with another human being,

You notice your emotions.

And sometimes, you struggle with them.

David A. Bednar (shown above) once said:

"In the classroom of mortality, 

we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness,

sorrow, disappointment, pain,

and even the challenges of physical limitations

in ways that prepare us for eternity.  Simply stated,

there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, 
as the scriptures describe,

'according to the flesh.'"

{{Things As They Really Are}}

See also: 1 Nephi 19:6; Alma 7:12-13

My thoughts?
I believe that we all existed as spirit children of our Heavenly Father before we came to earth.
That we did not have bodies before this earth life; and that
a huge part of our reason for coming was to obtain our own bodies.

David A. Bednar said that we experience those feelings in mortality as preparation for eternity.  "According to the flesh" means that ways in which we we experience them are likely unique to our mortal life (where we live in the flesh).

Personally, I think that these emotions we feel--tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, etc.--at the intensity we feel them now, are new to us.  I think we had emotions before, but our physical bodies enhance them to a level that we've never experienced before.  Maybe part of this earth life is meant to be a learning experience for us on handling emotions.

Look around and you'll see all the different ways that people try to deal with their emotions.  We have developed so many ways to suppress, escape, or communicate them. Some examples and/or consequences include medications, art, food, drug addictions, behavioral addictions, posturing, music, dance, prayer, exercise, etc.
{Let me just put a special plug in for prayer!  God hears you.}

We are learning beings.  Always learning, learning, learning...

I don't mean to imply that emotion is "the answer to everything."  I just mean to say that, I believe, the intense emotions we experience might be entirely new to our souls, and therefore it's normal and expected to be a little unsure about what to do with them.

But let's keep this in mind:
Emotion, by definition, is meant to lead to motion.

So let's put them to good use!
"...bear one another's burdens that they may be light.... mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort..."
Mosiah 18:8-10

beautiful things:
our bodies
emotions
learning and growing from the good and painful
love and service to others

and much, much, more.




peace out.

Pain

Wandering into my bedroom--

Alone, weary, frustrated.

I collapse to my knees

And utter a silent plea:

Why these feelings?

With so much to be happy about,

Why do I have painful,

Confused, frustrating feelings?

An image comes to mind

A clear and quiet understanding:

You endure the pain of exercise--

Of resistance training,

Of running--

With pleasure and gratitude,

Knowing it will lead to greater gains in strength.

This is no different.

Resistance training

Disclaimer:  

These are my own sincere thoughts, and do not represent the views of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  (except for direct scriptural quotes).  

If I make a mistake, it is my mistake and not the Church's, or God's.

Just look at this guy.  
What do you see?  (Besides the popping veins.)

In my Exercise Physiology class, we've been learning about resistance training and all of its health benefits.  

(There's a ton)

What is the purpose of resistance training?  

To grow, to increase our muscular strength.  How do you think this olympian got shoulders as big as his head?  By training, with weights.  Do you think he had to put a lot of effort into it?  Please.  Just look at his face.

But what if he had been training without weights?  Try doing a bicep curl with no weight.  It's pretty easy, huh?  But will you get stronger doing this exercise without resistance?

It's kind of like life on earth.  

Here, we experience constant opposition.  Constant resistance.  We need it in order to grow, and increase our spiritual strength.  To come out better and closer to God than we were before; closer to our potential than we were before.  It requires all our effort.  Just look at people's faces, and you can tell.  You can really tell.

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things."
 - 2 Nephi 2:11 -

"Know thou, my son [or daughter] that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."
- Doctrine and Covenants 122:7 -




peace