The Release Valve

Hi Everyone…

I hope you had, or are having (depending on the hemisphere in which you reside), a good weekend. Winter in Melbourne (where I live) rocks. Lots of rain, lots of live sport, lots of awesome restaurants with great winter food and lots of solitude and space at the beach when I go for my daily walk. I walked in the rain this morning and people looked at me like I was a freak. Then, when they scanned down to see my bare feet, I’m sure they thought I was a total lunatic. There’s something therapeutic (for me anyway) about walking in the rain at the beach. It has a way of disconnecting me from the mayhem, the busy-ness and the concrete reality of our ever-expanding metropolitan landscape. The beauty of living in a bayside town is that it only takes a few minutes to move from the urban hum into the hum of nature. Specifically, the hum of the sea.

Thanks for your feedback and discussion on the last two posts. I always know I’ve pushed buttons when we receive comments (on the same post) ranging from: “this is brilliant” to “what the f*** are you talking about?” Imagine how boring life would be if we were all on the same page? Today’s instalment will be a brief lesson and a me-dot-com update. We’ll start with the update and finish with a little food for thought.

MBE Workshop

On August 20-22 (two months from now), I will be running a two-day program with a difference. The program is simply called: Mind-Body-Emotion  (MBE). The program will explore the mental, the emotional and the physical (as its name suggests) and will take place in the gorgeous wilderness setting of Wilson’s Promontory here in Victoria. If you’re addicted to five-star, this weekend is not for you. If you’re keen to learn, grow, change and experience one of Australia’s most beautiful coastal areas, keep reading.

This is a new program and a new concept, so I’m pretty excited about it. While it’s definitely not a fitness program (so panic not), there will be a significant physical component to it (mostly, bush walking). And while it’s not a traditional personal development program (as such), it will incorporate education, motivational and inspirational elements. I’ve decided to keep this first program pretty intimate (small) and, therefore, have limited it to thirty places. I’ve got a feeling it will fill fast, but then, it might just be me and the trees.

If you want to know more, pop back tomorrow for all the details (I’m still writing the overview).  

Learn to be Lean (The Workshop)

Loretta Watson is a friend of this site, a graduate of our RYL program and one of Australia’s most successful figure competitors (that’s her in the pic). On Sunday, July 11 (soon-ish) the lovely Loretta will be facilitating her Learn to be Lean workshop at my centre in Brighton. The workshop is both theoretical and practical, so bring your brain and your body! If you need to lose some lard and the idea of learning from a champion appeals to you, click here to find out more about the workshop. Or, you can email Loretta here. If you’re having trouble with any of that, you can email Johnnie. 

A New On-line Resource for Trainers

Attention personal trainers! A clever friend of mine has created a pretty spectacular website for you fitness professionals. It’s called fit-track.com.au and it’s a resource that (among other things) enables trainers to electronically track, oversee and provide feedback on, all those body-transforming variables that make up the getting-in-shape process (diet, training, recovery, testing and lifestyle factors) for their clients. It also cuts out truckloads of potential paper wasting and streamlines the way PT’s might manage client records in the future.

As a PT, this resource means that I can log-on any time to see what Sally ate for breakfast, how long John took to complete his morning run, how much water Jo has consumed this week, how much sleep Linda had last night, how Pauline feels after her tough leg workout yesterday, what Steve ate for dinner last night (and at what time), whether Kylie has done her rehab exercises today and how many laps of the pool Kelly swam this morning. I can then send them a direct email (via the site) to provide feedback, encouragement, suggestions and/or direction.  

This facility means clients don’t have to drag their (physical) training diary to every (or any) workout session and it also means that PTs have the luxury of being able to “check up” on their clients whenever they like by simply pulling up a chair to their computer and logging on to a central portal. You know I don’t endorse many things, but this is a pretty cool resource. And, no, I don’t have any financial interest in the service – despite my head being on the home page! Anyhoozle, you can check it out here.

Okay, enough with the ads….

The Release Valve

So, I spoke at the start of this post about my propensity to walk in the rain. It’s one of the places I find space, peace and calm. Some distance from my busy-ness. I can also find the same thing in music. And exercise. And possibly sex, but I can’t really remember.

Aah.. the eighties.

I’m not sure if it’s a boy thing, a me thing or a something-else-altogether thing, but I have an uncanny ability to be able to switch off quite quickly. I can go from cerebral over-load to “hello Craig, are you there?” in about two minutes. I must say, my on-off switch has served me well over the years. And to think that my mother assumed I had a short attention span when, in reality, I have a highly-evolved, self-monitoring, health-management system that knows when to shut down momentarily.

That’s my story anyway.

Experience has taught me that people without a release-valve will blow up sooner or later. I’ve worked with many of them. The explosion might be mental, emotional, physical or all three but, for some people, it’s only a matter of time. We all have a threshold (a tipping point) and if we don’t manage the stress and pressure of our world, it will manage us. If it’s not doing so already. The consequences of that may be minor or major but the valve will blow at some stage unless we choose the proactive (as opposed to the reactive) path of health management. And when I say ‘health’, I’m not just talking about our body. Natch.

So, when do most people make big (life-changing) decisions about their health? When they get sick or scared, that’s when. Not a great plan for health, happiness or longevity is it? If you don’t have a release valve, I’d suggest you find one. Soon.

As your cyber-friend, I’m encouraging you to find a way to give your heart, mind, body and spirit at least ten minutes of bliss every day. An hour would be better but ten minutes is a great start. If you’re one of those people who “just doesn’t have the time at the moment”, then you need it the most.

Love to hear about your release valve.

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