Sunday Story...No Rainy Day

There are some things you should save for a rainy day…these are usually things that are hard to get or hard to renew on a daily basis, like money, for instance. You should save some for a rainy day, for a time when you need to put your hands on it in a hurry. It wouldn’t hurt to have some food stashed just in case some calamity happens and probably a good idea to have some water in case that fails. These are things you should save for a rainy day.

A lot of people talk about saving time. Now, I don’t know about you but I have never owned a “time bank”. I have had a piggy bank but never a time bank. If you know how to save time I would love to chat sometime. The fact, as I understand it, is that once the day is done that 24 hours is gone and will never return again. Each of us has received 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week to spend however we see fit. I get the same as you; you get the same as the person ½ the world away. And once it is gone, it is gone. There is no reason to think you can save time to be used tomorrow when you need 25 hours in your day. Can you be more efficient? Of course you can. You can figure out ways to be more efficient, to use your time more wisely, to squeeze more activity or more action in your minutes but you can’t save them up and spend them another day. It just isn’t possible.

Another thing you can’t save for later is sleep. I don’t ever remember seeing a sleep bank either. It would be nice, though…if I only get 6 hours tonight, I could just go down to my sleep bank and grab a couple hours and get caught up. Nope, I think not. I think once I get up and start moving I slept what I slept. I might get a nap later in the day but that isn’t like having a sleep bank I can make a withdrawal from.

Probably the one where almost all of us think we should save some back, not use it all up, keep some in reserve is our vital energy. Guess what? When I got up this morning I had a store of energy. How I slept what I am eating, who I am being, how my activities run will affect how much energy I have to expend today but when I go to bed I will have used what I used and I don’t get to save what’s left for a rainy day. There is no energy dish on my night stand where I get to put what I didn’t use like I do with the change from my pockets. So why do we think we should save it for later?

I see this all the time in my fitness classes. People who are trying to “game” the workout so they have enough energy for later. Really? What are you going to save it for? Why are you not giving it all you have right here and right now? Leave it all on the mat. Give it all you have. When you are done with the workout you should be all in…nothing left. And when you are finished you might feel like you got run over by a Mack truck or you may feel like you just won an Olympic Medal but you will know that you didn’t save any for “later”.

Because “later” isn’t coming. Winter is coming. Death is coming. Later is never going to arrive. Later will always be out there, some ethereal undefined span of time you are waiting for. Your vital energy is not limited. It renews constantly. And if you cultivate the right practices you will find your energy renews and rejuvenates itself faster and faster as you get better at it. So I can spend every ounce of energy I have running, racing, lifting, working, thinking, or loving and if I play my cards right I can come back in short order and get ready to spend more sooner. But how will you ever know if you don’t empty that well? Are you afraid the well will be empty in perpetuity, never to fill again? It’s possible but when that day comes you probably won’t know it anyway.

Stop saving something for later…empty your well. Find out how fast it refills. And if you don’t like the answer, figure out how to recover, renew, and rejuvenate faster. Get better sleep, eat better food, eat the right food for recovery, take an ice bath, get a massage, and be more efficient in your movement but stop saving it for later. Give it all up, every time you can.

You can always do more than you think you can.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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