The Monks amongst us

An article in NPR this morning asked a simple question of their readers interested in health and fitness. The questions was this: Which of these maladies afflicts 1 in 5 Americans:

A) Heart Disease

B) Diabetes

C) Mental Illness

D) Cancer

The correct answer, per NPR as reported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is C, Mental illness. The news of which is, as expected, is causing an interesting debate on the NPR forum. It is also the third ranked "biggie" on the RCVman list of things you need to manage better.

The first two being your diet and your exercise routine. You have no doubt heard this before but it needs an echo: Stress is a killer. Worse is the fact that we live in stressful times. There is no avoiding the stressors of modern life in the big city. Unless you are a monk. Do we have any monks amongst us? Didn't think so (sadly).

If we cannot avoid them we had better learn to control them. And that comes to identification and subsequent practice. The deep beauty of this comes from the synergy of our practice. Anybody out there exercise as a stress reducer? An outlet? A way to burn some steam? Interesting. Anybody enjoy the focus and stasis created by a steady heart rate at high intensity, the flow, the feel, the high? Amazing. Anybody tank up with high octane fuel to power an efficient engine and witness the thrill of the ride? What happens is that stress becomes a combustible in the fuel mixture and ends up as organic exhaust, used up, spent, and then depleted. It is addition by subtraction. More of this and less of that. Diet as fuel, your motor as the catalyst burning fat and stress, leaving a non-polluting dynamo of light and energy ready on demand.

Sure we need a little stress to stay sharp, the trick is in the balance. I find it very difficult to carry unnecessary stress with me as I train. I am too concerned with my form, my breathing, my output to worry about property taxes, suicide bombers or something somebody said on Facebook.

You wanna sure fire way to cut stress?

Take your heart rate to 95% of max and keep it there as long as you can. Rest. Repeat.

Or you could become a monk. Choice is yours (again).

Pic: Cycling monks from Globetrottergirls.com