Cardio, naked burglars, Jimmy Cliff, self-loathing, silliness

[sarahmichigan]

OK, a post with a little more substance. My brain is kind of skipping around a bunch of topics, though.

1. I'm happy with myself that I've improved my cardio to the point that I've shaved about 4 minutes off the time it takes me to jog/run a mile. When I started, I was doing about a 19-minute mile. I just did a 15-minute mile on Saturday morning. I'm trying to work my way down to a mile in 14:30. This probably doesn't sound too ambitious to the more athletic types on my friends list, but for me, this is exciting progress. I didn't have this kind of stamina when I weighed 40-50 lbs less than I do now! The only bad is that I'm experiencing some tightness and pain in my left leg. I think it's due to neglecting my stretching, because when I did toe-touches, that side was MUCH tighter than the other leg. I think I exacerbated this buy wearing heels on Friday. Yoga with dionysus1999 and rikhei on Sunday was very needed and my leg pain is almost gone. I think my new pair of good running shoes is going to help, too.

2. Did you all see the news story about the naked burglar in South Carolina? The moron didn't realize they didn't keep big wads of cash on the premises.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NAKED_BURGLAR?SITE=CARED&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

3. How could you be unhappy while listening to Jimmy Cliff singing, "Beautiful World, Beautiful People"?

4. I've been thinking about the Buddhist idea that no one really "hates" him/herself. What Westerners generally think of as self-loathing is actually, according to Buddhist thought, a result of having high ideals for yourself, falling short of them, and being disappointed in yourself. A combination of having more realistic expectations of ourselves, more modest self-esteem, and having compassion for ourselves could probably go a long way toward countering feelings of disappointment and self-loathing.

5. My sweet husband dionysus1999 frequently makes me laugh. He is a very silly man, and I really love that about him.

Comments

[windswept.livejournal.com]

Good job on the running! Very impressive, especially to a couch potato... ;^)

[lefthand.livejournal.com]

Little known fact, stretching doesn't prevent injury when running. It's useful to stretch after running to promote flexible but pre run stretching will generally only hurt the body.

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

I agree with your comments about self-loathing, but I also think the Buddhist comment is circular: What IS hatred but resentment borne of disappointment that something (ourselves or another) has fallen short of expectations? I expect that people will not randomly punch me in the face, and if someone does so, I hate them for falling short of my expectations.

The problem is -- and here I'm tangentially woolgathering -- knowing when to create more love by lowering our own expectations, and when to do so by choosing not to interact with those people. I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation in the least that I not be punched in the face. I think I'm justified if I don't do anything to provoke that, and someone does so, and I feel disappointment. I can choose not to resent the person, but I can also choose to avoid them.

On the other hand, if I expect everyone I pass to give me money just because I think I deserve it, I will be disappointed, and perhaps resent, and perhaps hate other people when I discover it's not happening. My expectation is clearly unreasonable, and I would be best advised to change it.

This is where I think many of the Newage groups (like Landmark) go astray: Many people leave those seminars acting as if the way to perfect love is to remove expectations of others. No expectations, no disappointment. No disappointment, no resentment. No resentment, no hatred. And then they go around slugging people in the nose and seeking "perfect love."