Oxygen-Your Life Source…

Now that I am settled into our new home, I have begun to reestablish boundaries in my daily routine that will bring balance to my life as I begin this part of my journey—one of which is ‘spinning’.  I was spinning with a group of girls earlier in the year and now I am putting that activity back into my days.

• DAY ONE—the workout was good and oh, did I feel the result of not continuing this activity through the transition of relocating.  I felt the pain, yet enjoyed the decision I made and the energy and outlook I had available throughout the day.
• DAY TWO—was a little easier from a muscular point of view, but into the work out, I seemed to have developed a cough…and where did this come from?  As I pedaled to the beat of the music, my mind began to investigate this query.   It had occurred when I first began to spin months earlier… out of nowhere, a cough showed up as a result of increasing my cardiovascular requirements, which in turn, required my body to move greater amounts of oxygen.

Oxygen is unseen, vital to our life, yet overlooked everyday…

Oxygen, pretty important in this thing we call life.  Without oxygen, we die.  It’s not limited to the ‘inhale and exhale’ of the lungs, it is required at the cellular level—i.e. cellular respiration, which creates energy…. remember ATP from biology?

The more oxygen we can take in and release, the better our body and mind function, and the more energy is produced.

Okay, you may be asking, “what’s the biology lesson all about?”

The cough…this wasn’t the first time it happened.  When I initially started working out last year it showed up.  In fact, any time I began a workout or intensified one, the cough would show up.

It’s like this crud was sitting in my chest cavity like the accumulated dirt on an air filter in the return air vent of an air conditioning system.  Silently accumulating as the house breathes with every climate controlled, on-off release of cool air.  Quietly blocking and restricting the movement of air and slowly decreasing the efficiency of the unit—causing the home owner to change the thermostat, use more energy which costs more money, to get the desired effect…when changing the air filter would keep the unit functioning effectively and efficiently.

Okay, now you are wondering why the homeowner lesson, right?

We all enjoy comfort.  Having to take deep breathes and exhaling to slow the heart rate down because we are pushing it to work harder is not comfortable.  It is harder than our normal demands of pushing buttons on the remote control while our bum grows numb and our brain checks out at the end of a day.  That requires little oxygen.  That is comfortable.  Putting a demand on our bodies to take in and process more oxygen is work…. Yet, oxygen is our lifeblood!

We resist the very thing that brings us a greater level of life…. Just like following a dream…

It’s easy to get up when the alarm screams, get in the shower hoping when we come out, something more will be washed away other than the night sweat.  We get dressed, look in the mirror and see the same person everyday, not acknowledging the potential for greatness in the mirror’s reflection.  It is unseen, overlooked everyday, yet vital on the earth.

We grab the keys and the coffee then move through routines of “good morning”, logging onto computers, looking at schedules and feeling like a dial tone at the end of the day.

We want something more.  We want something else other than to complain and mutter the song of mediocrity.  It will take change—we would have to push the heart.

We would have to have a dream, a vision that would make our heart beat faster and harder even causing us to choke and cough as we confront the mediocre excuses that quietly settled on the filter of our heart as we went about our everyday life.

A dream would not only demand more of our heart, but it would put energy and purpose back into our heart—like ATP in the cells of our body.

A dream is the very lifeblood to fulfillment—to follow a dream and do what it takes to fulfill it results in a satisfying and significant life.

Yet, we resist the very thing that brings us a greater level of life.

Today, I double-dog dare you to dream.  Get your heart rate up.  Push past the choke and cough of issues that are there to restrict your life on this earth.  Breathe deep.  Breathe in and fulfill your purpose—live a life of significance and satisfaction.  Dream.