v Your Vitality & Lifestyle Fitness Coach: March 2009
Your Vitality & Lifestyle Fitness Coach

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Be in the "Now" to Be in the New

This past Friday, March 20th was the Spring Equinox. In nature, it's a time of beginnings. New growth, new life and even a new moon. Its a time when things are about to bloom, but not quite yet. Warm weather is looming, but not quite yet. Trees and flowers are on the verge of bursting into full and vibrant color, but not quite yet. Maybe you've sensed a few “not quite yet’s” in your life of late too. Breathe. Breathe in the calm and breathe out the peace of the present moment. Being in the "now" will facilitate bringing you into the "new." The new of "what's next" for you.

I find many parallels to life in athletic performance, exercise, endurance and physical challenges. Moving and breathing through a time of fatigue of lifting or increasing stride challenges your muscles and endurance. What follows is a time of repair and recovery. And then a new space of endurance or definition appears.

Whatever we may be feeling physically, emotionally or even spiritually, because its all connected, is bringing us closer to the "new," the what's next for our lives. It may not make complete sense, almost like we can't quite put a finger on it or even explain the "between" feeling and we may not even know exactly what the "next" is, but we know its something other than what we have, what we have done and perhaps in some cases whom we associate with. Allow and breathe through, soon the fullness and newness of Spring with all its virbrancy and bloom will be here. The beauty of this Spring season is we don't have to figure it out or work at it. It comes on its own when we are in the now.

posted by Rachael Cadden @ 9:02 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What Lies Beneath

In the fall of 2007, six days before my birthday I summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. The seven day climb up the Machame route was the most challenging and rewarding experience to date both physically and mentally. The high altitude of the tallest free standing mountain and one of the 7 highest in the world challenged my personal limits and have challenged many who set out to conquer. Local villagers will look you penetratingly in the eye and state “you must Kill Kili.”

Kill Kili. As a coach, practitioner and speaker I enjoy reframing words as they are powerful and telling in relation to mind sets and limiting beliefs. But this statement I embraced. I needed to own it and Kill Kili. They call it having “mountain courage” and it has very little to do with athletic ability or training. It lies in the depth of your soul, untapped and waiting to reveal what we are capable of. Exploring, reaching and exceeding personal limits.

I now understand why more than half who attempt to summit Kilimanjaro don’t make it. With the physical and emotionally fatigue of pushing your personal limits, the lack of oxygen and altitude sickness, there are a hundred reasons to stop. Your body and your mind has no problem finding reasons to turn back around and will proclaim them loudly. But there is always one reason to keep going, if you can find yours.

Isolated moments of solitary climbing, just me and my thoughts learning what I was made of when no one who knew me was around served as a wonderful caveat for pushing my personal limits and my beliefs, almost as much as the physical aspect, particularly on the summit day.

The summit day began at midnight and for eight hours in the dark we climbed in the thin air depriving our bodies of oxygen and energy. Disoriented yet determined, the only thing I could think was to put one foot in front of the other in the early morning hours on the quiet of that mountain and take it one step at a time. Through the uncomfortable fatigue, shortness of breath making every step laborious while quieting the thoughts of “what the hell was I thinking” and pulling deep within for what I was capable of, finding the mountain courage and pushing through my personal limits.

I had many conversations with myself, self witnessing and realizations that final summit day for the 8 hours up to the summit of Kilimanjaro’s crater, Uhuru Peak. And when I reached the summit at sunrise, all the pain and effort that preceded had been forgotten.

To this day I have a hard time finding words to fully express and describe adequately my experience. It’s so sweetly personal and as I was sharing it over the weekend with a mutually inspiring risk-taker who is a dreamer and equally passionate about life, it prompted me to share the experience in my blog. Having the opportunity to see the crater of a magnificent volcano and ancient glaciers at the summit that will be evaporated in less than 50 years and a view that very few on this earth will ever see and knowing that "I did that" overwhelms me with joy, pride and fortitude to this day. It is an experience I can build upon mentally and physically. Kilimanjaro parallels so many aspects of life and how our mind set and belief are only limiting if we believe they are. If you think you can or you can’t, you are absolutely right!

I also believe there are generally two types of people in this world. People who go through life saying I can and others who say I can’t. The “I can’ts” are often not conscious or even verbally recognizable. To others it may not seem as though we have any "I can'ts". They quietly make a statement in our lives keeping us comfortable, detouring us from risk and all the opportunity and largeness of life that is ready to embrace us on the other side of the "I can". Detouring us from greatness, from mountain top experiences that will transform our view and our life propelling us into extraordinary and exceeding personal limits.

What is your mantra? What are your limits? What is your ultimate? What is your quiet “I can’t” that is keeping your from mountain top experiences and the rapture of truly being alive?

Are you willing to explore and really see what’s inside your soul? If you are, I know greatness and extraordinary awaits!

Be Great, Glow Within, Stay Juicy,
Rachael
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posted by Rachael Cadden @ 12:21 AM 2 Comments

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Uninterrupted Existence

Uninterrupted existence. That’s one definition of endurance.

Endurance is the power to hold on, move through and allow in spite of feelings or uncomfortable circumstances. Personal success isn’t measured by being void of failure or momentary misplaced mojo, it is continuing on, moving through and intuitively knowing when to allow.

It's persistent succession, continuity and determination. It brings a breath of hope and momentum that propels us out of the ordinary and the less-than-desirable in-between or dark moments of our journey towards mountain top experiences. To simply keep going and commit within even through the funk.

Endurance athletes train this way and why I love presenting to clients the challenge of participating in an athletic race with preparation such as 5-10K races & triathlons. They are physical metaphors and are parallel to excelling forward even during uncomfortable times and give a foundation of what we truly are capable of. Endurance athletes go through highs and lows. They remain persistent, determined. Not over night, but by practice. They have the end in mind, the big picture, the finish line. Their training is an uninterrupted existence.

All great achievements take time and include highs and lows. Endurance is the crowning quality of success. To keep going even if you have a set back, because you can always turn it into a “come back!”

If your mojo is temporarily misplaced, tap in and find your personal inner endurance. Find your “why” and live it out loud.

Live with uninterrupted existence.

posted by Rachael Cadden @ 10:12 AM 0 Comments