Buddha said that. They must have recorded it on an 8-track or something old fashioned, as he lived a very long time ago. But this post is not about history, or audio recording technology for that matter, but about a state of mind that seems worth aiming for.
For those of you reading this who are athletes, tell me if this sounds familiar. You wake up at some un-godly hour. It is dark outside. Your significant other is snoring like the jerk they are and didn't even stir when your alarm went off. Maybe you trip over the area rug under your bed because it is just too early for your feet to have a safe level of functionality to them. Roughly 10 minutes are spent staring yourself down in the bathroom mirror trying to rationalize why you're awake so early. Is the stupid race really worth punishing yourself like this? What past life sins are you paying for now?
Maybe you're lucky enough to smack your baby toe on the door frame, resulting in an alarming crunching noise loud enough to make you consider calling 911. Instead you opt to curse like a drunken sailor, but not too loudly. The jerk over there is still snoring away and you'd hate to disturb them.
Breakfast, if we can call it that, is comprised of some strangely colored juice from the rainforests of Antarctica and is full of slimy lumps of chia seeds. Your coach swears they will make you faster. You still aren't convinced there are rainforests in Antarctica, but it is too early to care about that crap.
You choke the stuff down as you're lacing up your shoes. You curse again after smooshing your foot into the shoe and getting angry all over again for hitting your baby toe earlier. It is now roughly 3 times its normal size and red enough to make Santa look pale and sickly.
You're half way out the door when you realize this acute bout of dizziness you're feeling is because you put your contacts in backwards. Well at least you don't have that aneurism you were pretty sure was there because of only getting 5 hours of sleep. Silver linings, and all that rot.
Finally you are running. You hate it. The only thing you can do is keep checking your over-priced GPS watch to count down the miles. At times you are 100% certain the stupid thing is not working. There is no way you are moving that slowly. This run might as well be happening in a black hole. Nothing escapes. Especially not your dignity.
Sound like any mornings you've had recently? I've been there all too often. The funny thing is, when I am convinced I am going to have a bad workout, I do. Now I'm no prophet, but you don't have to be a stargazer to believe in self-fulfilled and self-imposed disasters. You are what you think you are.
I ran yesterday. 12 miles of potential torture. For most of the run, I was really in the zone. Feeling good, keeping my pace up, looking sexier than most people out there. But inevitably, there were times when my body wanted to stop. My confident smirk was easily replaced with a furrowed brow and clenched jaw. There is a simple truth to endurance sports: there are guaranteed moments of pure unadulterated misery. It's just what we do.
During such moments however, I was reminded of that quote. "When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." Holy hell, my life is kinda perfect! If my biggest problem is that I have to run 12 miles up and down the Westside park paralleling the Hudson river, I have it pretty damn good!
When I started to feel lousy, I would remember that quote. A word of caution: you do have to be careful doing so though. It is super duper hard to run in a straight line if you throw your head back and laugh at anything, sky or otherwise.
Once I stood back up after tripping over that annoying speed bump, I was right back to feeling perfect again.
Perhaps the next morning I wake up so early and am seriously considering smothering the snorer with some dirty laundry, I will repeat that quote. Perhaps if I can be aware of how wonderful thing really are, my body will respond in kind. Perhaps if I stop eating chia seeds, I will once again learn to like fruit juice?
Point is, it is easy to allow yourself to get so overwhelmed by negative crap. Deadlines, arguments, weather, swollen baby toes. But in the end, if you really take a moment to appraise the situation that is your existence, you too might find it irresistible to take a moment to laugh at the sky.
That's why I bet The Buddha was pretty fast. He was a guy who just didn't get upset by the small stuff. I bet when he ran, the only expression he had on his face was one of contentment and joy. That, and I bet he stubbed his toe less than I do. I don't think there were doors back then.
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