A lot. I love to ride my bike. Riding my bike not only keeps me aerobically fit, it also keeps positive gears turning in my brain and helps me to visualize and feel what it is that I am after – and what I am after is to feel good, to feel strong, and to be able to tolerate being out of my comfort zone.
This morning I was riding on my indoor trainer following a training video called Hell Hath No Fury. It simulates a race with the Women’s Pro race team. It is intense and you must keep your feet moving to keep up. I was feeling strong in the warm-up and had no problem keeping my cadence at 100 rpm, but then in the Big Ring I could not keep my feet moving fast enough……
Not only was I out of my comfort zone, but I could not fight the resistance to kick it into a harder and faster gear. The more I tried the worse I felt, and in came the negative self talk, the flood of limiting beliefs regarding my inability to push myself and succeed.
Then I realized my rear brake was rubbing on my wheel – no wonder it was so difficult to keep my feet moving! I wondered how long had this brake been creating unnecessary resistance in my training rides? Well, I am too embarrassed to say exactly – but definitely for too long!
Once I simply released the brake, guess what? You got it – I went faster!
Not only did I go faster, but I stretched myself by going out of my comfort zone and I began to feel invigorated – continually moving beyond my comfort zone — not by using increased willpower, but by replacing the self defeating beliefs about myself and changing my self image.
I recently read an essay titled, “Releasing the Brakes” by Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles This is a bit of what he had to say……….
“Have you ever been driving your car and realized that you’d left the emergency brake on?
Of course. We all have. But when we discover the brake is on — do we press harder on the gas pedal? Of course not!
We simply release the brake… and with no extra effort we go faster.
Going through life is a lot like driving a car. But unfortunately, most people drive through life with their psychological emergency brake on. They hold on to negative images of themselves… or suffer the effects of highly emotional events they haven’t yet released. To cope, they stay in a comfort zone entirely of their own making.
And when they try to achieve their goals, these negative images and preprogrammed comfort zones always cancel out their good intentions—no matter how hard they try.
Call them “blocks” or “limiting beliefs” or “being stuck” — but these images and past hurts are nothing more than driving through life with the emergency brake on.”
So release the brakes — and enjoy the ride!
All is well,
Teena
