Only when I rest, I realize how tired I really am: one tactic to stop skipping practice
"It's only when I rest, that I realize how tired I really am."
This is a sentence I have heard so often.
Have you noticed how people often get sick when they are on holiday?
Or fall ill after retirement from work?
One thing I believe in is that our body is always speaking to us about our current state 👂
From a young age however, often in school and sports we are taught to override our sensations, our emotions and PUSH THROUGH.
This linear, mechanistic, industrial paradigm 🏗️ that a human being needed to fit into is clearly dying out
It's clear that's not working and that it does not have to remain like this - as we have all the listening tools within us..
As someone who has worked with both high performers in sports and entrepreneurship I know that being able to PUSH, when needed, is one quality of the game.
At the same time one secret of those who perform longer or consistently at a high level is that they have
👉 developed a soulful relationship with their body, their subconscious signs, their intuitive hunches.
They seems to on a dual path where as they grow in performance, they get to know themselves better - unmeasured by societal belief systems and frames.
The highest performers that are sustainably performing learn to marry
🔗 perform and play
🔗 pushing and slowing down
🔗 talking and listening
The essence of this marriage seems to be communication, the interweaving of both ends of the action-rest continuum without clinging to either one of them.
This balancing of an active and receptive mode seems to be a personal search of each individual. There is no concrete single-serving answer.
Accepting your individuality IS PART OF THE ANSWER and is what personal practice tools support.
When you plan a meeting with yourself, are you on time?
From my work as a coach supporting people in all this I've realized it's not always knowing practice tools...
The difficulty seems ACTUALLY ❌ making it to our meetings with ourselves ❌
So... we need to plan for that ✊
🎲 Do this to make showing up for meetings with yourself easy
One tactic to stop skipping practice is “just get through the door” 🚪
Instead of being overwhelmed by aiming to do a 60 minute session or a long sequences of exercises...
Aim to just get through the door 🎯
The door can be
• the door of the gym or the gate of the park where you practice
• a movement you start every session with
• 'home base' posture you use to check how you feel that day
• open-form question such as “how do I experience myself right now?”
• accepting your current mood & exploring from there
The door just gets you to your starting point where you need to be 👂 to get going.
Most days it feels much more attainable to get through the door ↔️ than to do a full practice session.
When you get to the door, things often start moving by themselves 🤷
Jonas Foerts, #9 ranked 3x3 basketball player did a 10-session MOVE coaching cycle to expand his relationship with his body from mostly performance based to add more introspection and self-regulation to improve his sleep after games, recover faster and lower chances of injury.
