Dirt in your skirt blog

Heavy Metal

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Margaret Schlachter

They say you shouldn’t do a lot of activities when you are angry. I would add weight lifting to an activity that is better suited to do when not in a mood. However, being in a mood can also cause a strong urge to move around weights to very loud heavy metal as it did tonight.

Still not sure 100% what tipped me into the mood I was in, it wasn’t any one thing but I can say I walked into the gym in a particularly special mood this evening. My best guess is it’s a mixture of stress, long work days, not enough sleep, and a little cabin fever all mixed in together. I hopped on the bike to warm up then quickly went into moving weights around. There is something about lifting heavy objects and sweating out your distress that is calming. As the music blasted and sweat rolled down my face so did the rage and anger which brought me into the gym. It was as if the toxic effects of my mood left my body as each bead of sweat dripped down. I needed that moment to myself in the gym. Life has been way out of balance recently and getting back to the gym brought back a little of that balance.

I know my legs are going to feel the squats and step-ups tomorrow. My core will feel all the hanging knee-ups and finally my shoulders will move a little slower from multiple presses but it’s better to expend the energy in the gym than take it out on someone around. As I finished up the workout and cooled down on the bike I realized I need to get back to finding the time to find the balance.

My winters are always crazy but it’s time to not let work dictate every aspect of my life. Work is extremely important and I love what I do most of the time but I need constantly remind myself not to lose who I am in my work or worse define myself solely by my work. As one of my friends with great insight recently said, we only have about 70 or so Winter, Spring, Summer and Falls in our lifetime being nearly 30 I have already used up a fair amount of them. It’s how we decide to use the rest that matter.

So here I am now back more centered and ready to take on tomorrow a little lighter and relaxed. Because if is too short to get caught up in the little stuff, I have to constantly remind myself of that. Sometimes it takes moving around some heavy objects to bring it back into focus at least that’s what it was tonight. I also got to rock out my new gym shoes, yes they are very pink. I can be girly sometimes too!!