This mind is such a moaning minnie sometimes, it’s tiresome. Especially when it spills over into my behaviour, my mood and my words.
I’d been preparing to go away on the first multi-day cycle tour I’ve done in years, and it was not going to plan:
- I’d been super-busy and my training had gone out the window
- I’d been eating unhealthily and had put weight on
- The physical thing I was worried about most, riding for a few days in a row (my neck) was screwed before I even set off
- I hadn’t been able to fit everything into one pannier and the bike weighed much more than I’d have liked
- And to top it all, the weather forecast was pants!!
It got to the point where I almost didn’t want to go, and this was no doubt reflected in a rather glum-faced Giles standing there, ready to set off.
My patient, loving wife grabbed me by the face, gave me a big smackeroo 💋 and said,
“Remember to have fun!”
LOL.
Seen through my misery-lenses, even that seemed a bit off.
🤦🏻♂️
Of course, as soon as I got on the road in the drizzle, with my sore neck and heavy bike and started riding slowly, my spirits lifted.
As the day wore on, miles went under the wheels, and my mood fluctuated, I came back to my wife’s statement from time to time, observing both moments where I was indeed ‘having fun’ (let’s call those ‘joy’) and moments where I really was not (‘despair’).
(A bit like life, eh?)
But whereas you might expect the moments of ‘joy’ to be the ones that were pain free, with quiet roads, nice weather and luscious scenery, and, conversely, the moments of ‘despair’ to be associated with soreness, tiredness and busy, uninspiring stretches of main road in the rain… there was actually a different pattern.
It was more like:
- Joy = Not thinking (+ scenery + pain level + traffic + weather)
- Despair = Thinking (+ scenery + pain level + traffic + weather)
Whenever I turned my attention from the mind’s complaints and back to the simple sensations of life—whatever the scenery, soreness, sun levels & state of the traffic—a sort of inner calm descended and I felt grateful for the experience.
Ring any bells?
(I wonder if I like cycling so much because it is such an excellent metaphor for life?!?!)
So listen, whatever you’re up to this weekend and whatever situation you find yourself in; however much pain there might be—physical or emotional—and whatever the weather’s doing… remember to have fun.
💋
Giles