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Enjoy Articles Written by JJ Lee Here! Honoring the Athlete Within:
A Bodybuilder Shapes Perfection
I am a “born again” athlete, which is to say I did not always feel athletically inclined. I was what family and friends referred to as a “skinny little runt” as a child. Uncoordinated, I was the last picked for Red Rover, Red Rover. Whenever it was my turn to run and try to break through the wall of arms, I bounced off like a meatball thrown into tightly strung spaghetti. Then the miracle of orthodontia opened my mouth and I could enjoy the world of food. I gained weight almost overnight. No longer a skinny little runt, I was more like a teapot—short and stout.
Then there were the college years. My weight (and reflexively, my self-image) had gone up and down since puberty. It had been a standing joke among my college friends at Mt. Holyoke that I was going to have to swim to graduation. The college had a rule that all graduates had to know how to swim, which meant passing the swimming test prior to graduation.
My college Big Sister urged me to take the test and get it over with in my first semester, but since I wouldn’t be caught dead in a bathing suit then, I stalled. I avoided gym classes, taking only the ones that didn’t call for special gym attire like First Aid Class and being bag-girl for the karate instructor. I even took independent study and wrote a paper to get physical education credit. Anything to get out of actually having to perform physical activity and be in this body! Finally, my second semester senior year arrived and I had not yet taken the plunge. In the eleventh hour, the swim test rule was revoked and I walked rather than breaststroked my way to the commencement podium.
It’s always fascinating to me what the deciding moments are in people’s lives, when they choose one road over another and why they choose it. My transformation occurred through a videotape, Pumping Iron II: The Women that I viewed in the mid-1980s. I watched the documentary about a bodybuilding contest for women with almost religious rapture, over and over again. “That’s what I want to do!” I exhorted anyone who’d listen.
Even during my bodybuilding years, which included a couple of personal trainers on both the East and West Coasts, I still never felt like I had reached the pinnacle of beauty or of femininity. After each show I would have feelings that I liken to postpartum: “Now who am I? Now what do I do?” It’s not possible to stay suspended in killer, competitive shape year-round—the diet and training are grueling and basically unhealthy. I would end up looking pretty average and feeling pretty dissatisfied when I wasn’t pumped up, tanned and oiled.
I competed in my first show in 1988, one year after I started to train, and I didn’t retire from competitive training until taking second place in the Women’s Masters Division of the ANBC Northeastern Natural of 1994.
Now, having retired from the competitive circuit, I’ve come to look on this whole experience in a different way. For me, bodybuilding is a process of “progress, not perfection.” In a story attributed to Michelangelo, the great artist completes his divine masterpiece sculpture, David, and an onlooker asks in total awe, “How do you do it?” “It’s easy,” Michelangelo replies, “I just remove everything that isn’t David.” I believe there is an athlete inside every one of us; the trick is to create more space around the definition of an athlete, and then, like Michelangelo with his David, to remove everything that isn’t that definition. If my definition had to reflect traditional external models of athleticism, beauty and femininity (perfectly shaped thighs and the symmetry of an inverted pyramid), I’d give up and join the ranks of my fellow couch potatoes.
I no longer want to define myself by how I imagine I look to others, but rather by how I feel when I am stepping into and through my life. I measure my inner athlete by my ability to accomplish the tasks of daily living gracefully. Do I walk the dog with zest? Can I keep my balance on the black ice-covered sidewalk from my house to the car? Do I have enough left-over energy after my workday for recreation with family and friends? If the answer to these is “yes” then I am, by my own definition, an athlete. For me, this more spacious definition is one I can live with—for the rest of my life.
It All Adds Up:
Using Numerology to Understand Your Life
I spend plenty of time in quiet meditation—not enough, I’m sure, but plenty none-the-less. I regularly practice yoga, take long walks and perform many other activities I’m shown to try to connect to God, the Universe, my own heart, whatever name you equate with that source of highest wisdom, unconditional love, total healing energy. I frequently beseech the Higher Powers to enlighten and inform me of Their will and intention for my life. I’m told the Universe speaks and that if I’m quiet enough, still enough, I’ll hear, understand, and—best of all—have the know-how and desire to manifest that will. Not in my world! I’ve often said that I speak English and the Universe speaks Greek, and I’m not that good with languages. Yet, numerology has become my language for communicating with my “God energy.”
Numerology (using numbers as a forecasting system) is more science than speculation in reality. Pythagoras originally codified the numerology system used in contemporary practice to foretell outcomes and predict behaviors. As a contemplative art, numerology can be used in many ways: to help you understand why you are the way you are, offer you a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction, and even direct you toward your ultimate fulfillment.
Like most mystical modalities, people often attend sessions to find out whether or not they’re getting a new car, a better boyfriend or a raise. Basically, they are trying to use numerology to predict future outcomes. Whether it “works” or not is up for grabs and may have as much to do with self-fulfilling prophecies as it has with mystical powers (okay, so self-fulfillment is pretty mystical stuff in its own right, I’ll agree….)
Personally, I’m not that interested in knowing the future ahead of time—I’m not prone to reading the last chapter of a book before the introduction. Numerology is far more meaningful and powerful when used as a vehicle for accessing our own internal wisdom. Some people call this intuition; others call it God. Perhaps more than a few think it’s from the devil or at best, simply useless. However, I use my numerological chart as an interpretation of events for which my experience often has no language or to gain insight into troublesome or confusing life issues. My purpose in examining my chart is less about telling myself who I should be as it is about inviting myself closer to who I really am.
Yoga:
"A Little Dab'll Do Ya!"
Everyday I see people in my private yoga and fitness practice, who don’t have time for much extra in their lives, and certainly not for the loving self care of yoga. They’re soccer moms; double-duty dads; students of science, art, philosophy or just life; entrepreneurs; healers; teachers; administrators—people from all walks of life. These people are just like you and me: no time!
Yet, we all know, at least intuitively, the myriad benefits of yoga. First and probably foremost, it helps us to relax and de-stress. More and more often, even traditional doctors are recommending less conventional approaches to mind-body health like yoga. (In fact, my own primary care physician keeps my yoga classes fully attended with her patients, God bless her!) And if reducing chronic pain in the neck, shoulders, arms, and back weren’t enough, yoga also helps us to get back in touch with our body and with what’s important, at a soul level, in our lives.
Yoga can certainly take the blame for superior relaxation effects, and haven’t you noticed that when you’re relaxed, you seem to think more clearly? You’re more creative, more efficient, and likely happier. Yet, in spite of that, most people would find it a huge stretch (no pun intended) to carve out 90, or 60, or even 30 minutes to dedicate to any kind of self-focused program of stress reduction, relaxation, or any other type of health and fitness regimen such as a yoga class. But we can receive the benefits of yoga even with as little as 10 minutes of practice. Some folks think it’s all or nothing when it comes to self-care, so they go for nothing. But they couldn’t be more mistaken: a few minutes really are better than nothing.
Ergonomics has become a real hot button in today’s workplaces. We’re told we really should take breaks and change tasks every 20 minutes to avoid stress, strain and repetitive motion injuries (nobody would have to tell me that twice!). What better use of the break than to do a couple of stretches or to breathe deeply and fully a few times.
You say you don’t even have a few minutes? Come on! Do you stop for coffee and muffin at 10:15? Have a cigarette break a few times during the day? Chat with co-workers at the water fountain about your date last night? Most of us seem to find ways to spend the time we claim we don’t have about as frivolously as we fritter the money we say we’re short on. Even ten minutes before you go to bed can help you unwind from your day. So take some time in your day for a “yoga break.” It’s like the old Brylcream jingle: a little dab really will do ‘ya!
These and other articles can be found in Take a Break: The Wit, Wisdom & Wellness Essays of JJ Lee. For more information on ordering, click on ORDER JJ'S CD.
JJ Lee
Body & Soul Fitness Training
bodyandsoulfitness@yahoo.com
775.335.5625
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