Give In To The Moment

by Jason Campagna, M.D., Ph.D.

Fitness is about many things– and can mean different things to different people. I have a suggestion: whatever it means to you, live in the moment and enjoy the journey. Fitness is a process, not a destination. The prevailing way of living in our Western societies is to plan out our lives, both for the long term and on a day-to-day basis. We have planners and digital calendars that map out our lives, sometimes to the minute. We feel we’re in control, with plans like this.

But it’s an illusion.

We cannot control our lives to this degree, no matter how we try. Things will always come up to spoil the best-laid plans, and the more detailed our plans the more of a guarantee that something will go wrong.

And what happens when the plans go wrong? We are stressed out, because things get out of our control and don’t live up to our expectations. This is one of the greatest sources of stress for most people, actually.

Think about how often your days actually go according to plan, exactly — it’s pretty rare, because we have no way of predicting the future. No matter how hard we try. There’s always an email that will disrupt things, a last-minute meeting, cancellations and postponements, emergencies and fires to put out.

So if plans will almost always go wrong, and when they do we get stressed out, isn’t all the time we spend creating the plans a bit of a waste?

But what’s the alternative? Giving yourself to the moment. This will not work for everyone, I’ll admit: there are those who will have a hard time giving up the illusion of control, and others who are controlled by their bosses or peers and cannot work or live this way.

Still, it’s something worth considering. Here’s how to do it — starting with the don’ts:

1. Don’t plan. Planning is an attempt to control the world around us, but it’s a futile attempt. Throw out your plans, for now at least until you’ve decided this method isn’t for you. What do you do instead? More on this below. For now, just stop planning.
2. Don’t worry about the future. Will something bad happen? Are there things coming up that we must anticipate and prepare for? Of course, if there’s a massive hurricane headed your way, you should probably get ready. But otherwise, just realize that the future is unpredictable, and worrying about it is a waste of time. Focus on right now, and you’ll always be able to handle what comes.
3. Don’t have expectations. If you expect people to act a certain way, or hope that things will turn out a certain way, you’ll always run into problems. Forget about outcomes for now. Go into things without expectations, and they will always turn out perfectly (if a bit messy).
4. Don’t get annoyed when others act a certain way. Don’t expect people to act any way other than how they actually act. They are exactly the way they should be — even if that’s selfish or weird or aggressive. Those are their problems. Your problem is figuring out how you should act. I’d also advise you to try to understand others — why do they act the way they do?
5. Don’t overreact. This is a major problem when people plan and things go wrong — they overreact, and get upset and emotional and blow things out of proportion. Stay calm, because if things “go wrong”, they didn’t actually go wrong — they just happened. More on how to react below.
6. Don’t try to be proactive. This is a common prescription (being proactive) in management and business literature. And while I think the general idea is fine — do something to prevent problems from recurring rather than just fixing them after they happen — one of the problems this creates is always worrying about what might happen. And creating solutions before there are problems — if there never is a problem, you’ve wasted a lot of time creating the solution, and a lot of energy worrying about the future.

And now for the dos:

1. Do be open. What would it be like to go into each day without a plan, but just to see what happens? A bit scary, because of the lack of security and control, a bit chaotic perhaps, a bit like we’re a piece of driftwood floating in the middle of a churning sea. But in truth, this is what it’s like to go into each day *with* a plan — it’s just that we normally fool ourselves about the amount of control we have. So start the day with no plan, and be open to what emerges in each moment.
2. Do what you love. So what should you do, now that you have no plan? Do what you’re passionate about, do what excites you right now. Create something amazing. Pour yourself energetically into a project. Build something new. And what you think you’re creating might turn out to be completely different from what emerges, but you’ll have fun doing it and something even better might be revealed.
3. Do act, in the moment. Giving yourself to the moment doesn’t mean being passive and just letting life happen. It means acting, but doing what is best at this moment, what you are excited about right now, what needs to be done, in the present.
4. Do respond appropriately. Life happens, and we must respond. But instead of overreacting, we can respond calmly and appropriately. We can take the action that’s required, fix the problem, do what’s necessary to prevent it from happening again, and move on without it ruining our day.
5. Do accept. Accept what happens. It might not be what you considered ideal, but it’s what life has given you, what has resulted from your actions in an unpredicatable world. Accept it, respond, act, move on. Don’t get caught up in things not going your way, but accept that’s what has happened.

Again, this way of living won’t be for everybody. Some don’t have the freedom to live this way, and others just won’t give up control. Some will think this is a passive way of living, but it really isn’t: it’s just a way of living in the moment without being caught up in the future (or the past) so much.

And when we live in the moment, we’re really living life to the fullest. This is the gift of the present.

This entry was written by jcampagna, posted on November 5, 2009 at 9:16 pm, filed under Fitness, Life is Fitness, Lifestyle and Spa, Santa Barbara and tagged Fitness, jason campagna, Lifestyle, SOMA GET FIT. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Retreat Press from Your Daily Thread

In our everyday busy lives, our body maintenance is often the first to go. Unfortunately, without strong bodies we don’t work to the best of our ability. If you too have fallen off the workout bandwagon, then Soma Get Fit Retreats might be the cure.

Soma is the Greek word for body and at Soma Get Fit your body becomes the number one focus. Located in Santa Barbara between majestic mountains and a peaceful coastline, it is the perfect location to work on your self from the inside out. Soma Get Fit was created by Scott Crawford, an elite fitness specialist who is dedicated to providing holistic wellbeing. He and the Soma team create personalized experiences that integrate outdoor fitness with wellness practices, bodywork, relaxation activities and nutritious organic eating. In other words, Soma retreats aren’t cookie cutter – you get to discuss your preferences with the team before you arrive to make sure they book exactly what you want.

YDT was lucky enough experience a Soma Get Fit weekend retreat and here’s a snapshot into our 3 amazing days. By far, the best thing about Soma retreats is that we didn’t have to worry about anything—we just showed up and it was already planned, organized and scheduled for us.

DAY 1: When we arrived in Santa Barbara, the Soma Team met us at a local wine bar to grab a drink and discuss the weekend’s agenda (per the preferences form we had filled out a week prior). Afterwards we were whisked away to do some light yoga and receive amazing massages that targeted our problem areas. For dinner our personal chef Jennifer prepared—wild Alaskan salmon served with delicious Israeli couscous followed by tasty organic soy ice cream for dessert. Local Santa Barbara wines were plentiful as well. The night ended shortly there after as we had an early wake-up .

DAY 2: The morning started off with a healthy breakfast of goat milk yogurt, organic peaches, and blueberry muffins. After breakfast, we met with our chef at the largest farmer’s market in town to pick out our dinner (we wanted it to be as fresh and local as possible). Once dinner was settled, the training staff took us up to the hills of Montecito to do some hiking and see breathtaking views all the way from Summerland to Northern Santa Barbara. The hike was challenging, but not too steep for novices. Little did we know that this was only the beginning.

After our hike, we were transferred to the beach for some serious Pilates and core work all while looking at beautiful Butterfly Beach. Exhaustion did not get the best of us however, especially when we heard that we were getting local lobster tacos for lunch. After our massive tacos, we headed to the Santa Barbara Harbor for a three-mile kayak ride around the Santa Barbara Pier. We were greeted by sea lions who we fighting amongst themselves to get on a warm dingy, one of which toppled Lauren over in to the cold water.

Slightly tired, wet and sore, we headed back for some soothing yoga followed by relaxtion time in the spa and sauna . Santa Barbara local Jaqua products were used for a foot soak and facial, which was followed by another round of bodywork and massage. By the time all of our pampering had finished, our dinner was ready. Our meal consisted of grass fed beef skewers, organic spinach and beat salad, savory olive bread and of course, more local wine. It was a perfect way to end an enjoyable, but physically challenging day.

DAY 3: Normally after being so active one would would wake up quite sore. Not the case thanks to the bodywork and massages we received the night before. This was also ideal as we were about to go and try paddle boarding for the first time ever. Paddle boarding is often best early morning while the water is calm. So after our organic breakfast we were quickly taken to the beach for our personal lesson. If you’ve never tried paddle boarding before, it’s sort of like standing on a giant surfboard, only you have a paddle and move around like you’re in a canoe. Unlike with surfing, from a standing vantage you can see all the way down into the ocean (which is cool, but kind of scary.) We spent about an hour and probably ventured a good mile and a half past shore. We we’re able to see some dolphins swim by too.

After a final stretch and meal on the beach, our retreat was sadly over. But thankfully Soma Get Fit helped reinvigorate my workout habits and I’m currently training for a half marathon.

What we gained most from the Soma Get Fit Retreat was the ability to turn off the technology, the crack berry, the constant need to stay “connected” and really just connect with ourselves. Each day we get 24 hrs and there’s no reason that one of those hours can’t be used to improve our body and spirit. So if you’re looking to make an escape, get in focus and in shape, head north to Santa Barbara—and let Soma Get Fit get you focused on your own Soma.

This entry was written by jcampagna, posted on August 18, 2009 at 11:02 pm, filed under Press, Retreats and tagged Bodywork, Farmers Market, Hiking, Kayaking, Lauren Johanson, Pilates, Retreat, SOMA GET FIT, Summer, SUP, Tracy Hepler, Yoga, Your Daily Thread. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.