Living With Strength

“This isn’t about momentum!”  - Julie

Living With Strength

 Julie directed me to sit on the side of a message table with the lower part of my legs hanging over the edge.  The edge of the table felt snug against the back to my knees.

“Now, flex your foot at the ankle and lift your leg.”  She said.  Then she walked away.

I began the exercise by lifting one leg and then the other.  Soon I was swinging my legs to enjoy the benefits of momentum.

“What are you doing!”  Julie called out from across the room.  “This isn’t about momentum!  It’s about building strength!”

But, it wasn’t all about strength for me at the moment.  My natural knee had been removed just two weeks earlier, so momentum was sorely lacking in my life.  It felt good to feel a “wind at my back” momentum once again.  At the same time, I understood exactly what Julie was teaching me.  She was giving voice to what life teaches constantly.

Momentum makes us feel good, almost invincible at times.  If you’re experience is like mine, you’ve come to love “wind at my back” moments.  They’re a welcome respite to life’s daily challenges.  Still, such challenges always end momentum sooner than we’d like and often leave us feeling discouraged and leaden.

At this moment, my surgically challenged joint was feeling painfully leaden.  I began to lift the leg slowly.  Julie looked over and nodded.

“That’s it!  Concentrate on building strength!  When you’ve restored the strength to your leg the rest will come naturally.  Strength is everything.”  She explained.

Strength is everything!  It’s true for the body, mind and the spirit.  It is internal strength that enables us to respond with resilience when challenged.  It allows us to do and become more than we ever thought we could.  So how do we develop internal strength?

Here’s what Julie taught me:

First, put yourself in the frame of mind.  One of the principal purposes of life is to create personal strength.  Living your life with a focus on strength development will give you a decided advantage.  It means you’re not facing the unexpected.  When you live life expectantly, your confidence and ability to perform critical mechanics is immeasurably enhanced.

Second, complete the mechanics correctly.  When you do the mechanics correctly, you expend all of your energy for the best possible outcome.  Additionally, focusing on the mechanics creates duplicative patterning.  Than means you will get the same result over and over again.  That’s momentum!  And, it allows you to use momentum as a tool rather than as a disruptor.  Reoccurring positive results comes from practiced repetition.

Third, repeat it over and over again.  Doing a thing once is luck.  The ability to reproduce desired results is perfect repetition.  It means that no matter what tries to disrupt your life, mood or goals, you’re muscle memory allows you to respond appropriately without hesitation.  Another way to label repetition is predictability.  Strength created through repetition enables you to predict a positive life outcome.

I finishing the last set of leg lift repetitions.  I could feel two things while still sitting on the side of the table, fatigue and strength!  My focus on creating strength was allowing me to feel a new kind of momentum.  And. Julie made a prediction.  “You’re strength to walk will return very soon! Just remember to focus on creating strength, do the mechanics correctly and repeat if over and over again!”