Getting out and Doing Something--A Paragraph a Day

Often when I get home after work, I feel tired and I want to do nothing but sit down and have a glass of wine or something.  I want to relax and recharge, and I don't want to do anything too active because I'm very tired.  Experience tells me, though, that that's exactly when I need to do something.  When I feel that way and I go for a run or a bike ride, or I start working on a project around the house, I feel more rejuvenated than I would have felt sitting down.  Using my body helps my body to kind of shift gears, to move into a different mode that actually feels very good to me, even though some minutes before I felt like any physical activity would have been too much.  It's nice to know this because now I'm able to tell myself, "No, I don't feel like going for a run, but I know from experience that it's going to feel good as soon as I start."  Far too often, we take the easy way out, and for me that would mean pouring the glass of wine and sitting down with a book or a computer.  But my body needs exercise just as much as it needs food, and my mind does much better when it's actively engaged in the world around me, so I'm glad that I'm able to overcome the feelings of tiredness and actually go out and exercise some.  Our bodies and minds can fool us and convince us to do things that aren't necessarily in the body's best interest, so it's good to be aware of their tendency to try to get us to take the easy way out rather than taking the most beneficial route.