Just Be

There aren’t a lot of times where I feel like I can “just be.” Once in my former life, I took a solo trip to review a resort in St. Lucia. There was no photo shoot involved, no clients or subjects to entertain, and only a little bit of actual work. For three days, I was just there. I stayed in my open air room with my personal pool, laid on a chair, laid on the bed, laid in a hammock, and was alone with my thoughts and the birds. It literally was the most boring work trip and also the best work trip of my entire life. I clearly didn’t appreciate it enough because it was pre-kids and at that point was just what I might call a weekend. Today, I would probably fight someone to go on that trip. I do think it might actually be the last time I “just be”’d anywhere.

In a recent flex class, Tiffany set her intention to just be. Most days I try to set my own intention—honestly? it’s usually patience because I’m always short of it—but this class, I was coming up blank. So I borrowed Tiffany’s and tried to just be.

Can I tell you how hard it is to just be? First, there’s so many words you can add to the end of that phrase. Should I just be okay with where I was that day? To just be okay being me? Yeah. That one’s not easy. Surprise! I tried to just be in the class, in the posture, in the sweat as best as I could. I think that intention of just be-ing meant that I needed to stay in one pose at a time. I didn’t try to worry about what the next one was or even worry when we were going to do the crazy cardio sequence—and yeah—it was crazy that day. I hate mountain climbers. I left that class more sweaty and more wrung out than I had in a while.

My goal for this week—and for upcoming classes—is to continue to just be. Just be me. Just be in one pose at a time. Just be content. I can add words to it, but it’s a great reminder that we can’t really control what comes next, but we can work hard where we are.

(Photo credit belongs to respectful owner - click for link to source.)