On Harmony and Healing

I wouldn't change a thing about my decision to run 3 Bermuda Half Marathons in as many years. I did end up with a pretty serious muscle strain on my right hip and a lot of pain with back spasms and groin pain but it is all resolving now!

Standing in the shower, a wonderful time to meditate, I realized how I've been at war with my body. I became keenly aware of how the struggles I experience in my body are from the past. The song Ebony and Ivory came into my head:



While I am awesome at pushing myself, setting and achieving goals, I realized that I need to heal the wounds that were inflicted upon me for years after contracting paralytic polio. I felt frustrated by the pain on my right side and back which of course does not facilitate healing. I felt God's love shower over me as the healing warm waters bathed me mind, body and soul. I realized that rather than embody the person who was in constant reaction to my environment of violence and torture, I needed to shower myself with kindness, compassion and Love.

I am using the massage stick we bought years ago to help us during training on a regular basis; especially first thing in the morning. I am stretching more. I am becoming more and more aware of when my body is responding to the past and finding my way to experiencing a new way of being in mind, body and soul....relaxed and in harmony with myself and the world around me.

This morning after I dropped Tom off at work, I got still wondering which gym I should go to. I was planning to go to the Boston Sports Club at Newton but then I felt a stirring to go to the gym near Fenway. They have windows that overlook Brookline Avenue and daylight streams into the gym.

As I settled on my bike, one of the membership managers who I met in the locker room a few months back came by to ask me how Bermuda was. She has her own inspirational story with MS. I got goosebumps recounting the magical experience we had in Bermuda and how I had to really psych myself up to get to the starting line in the wake of the muscle strain and back and groin issues I was having. She had a similar experience right before she was taking on her Bike Ride to raise money and awareness for MS. She was the last to finish and said how amazing it was to have the police escort into the finish blaring the Rocky Theme as she rode in!

"I wasn't supposed to be on this shift and this is my last week here," she said.
"I wasn't planning to come to this gym today but something told me I should."

She is going to take a leap of faith and do writing and inspirational speaking following her bliss and her passion. I wouldn't have had a chance to see her if I wouldn't have been in tune with the Universe to see where I should work out today.

We said our goodbyes and the woman on the bike next to me said, "Wherever you went and whatever you did sounds amazing." I shared my journey with her. She is an Emergency Room physician who at one time worked at the VA! She shared her journey of spiritual awakening with me and how she calls upon the Divine in her work and in her life. We had an incredible conversation as we poured sweat and were in awe of what came together for us to meet at that exact moment in time.

I looked down and realized that I had crushed my previous time of 6 miles in under 40 minutes from 2/3:


She lost track of her time as well.

Before I moved onto the Arc Trainer, we exchanged information and connected on Facebook.

I hadn't been on the Arc Trainer for several months while we were training for Bermuda. I was planning to do 20 minutes but my right hip was "barking" at me. I cranked up the tunes for my 12 minute/mile playlist and decided that 10 minutes would be a great way to work my time back up on the Arc Trainer.

It's all about being in harmony with my body, loving my body well and healing mind, body and soul from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma.

To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours,
Mary

Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc. Be sure to visit us at Booth 758 during Boston Marathon Weekend.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


And my latest and greatest book - Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):