Flexibility and Competing

I started to do yoga for a few weeks. It is nothing new at all as this form of exercise existed since thousands years ago. People of all age, all races and all gender are welcome to participate. It has so many benefits to us - Human Beings.

I am glad to be able to do many basic poses. I feel awesome. Frankly speaking, all of us have the ability to flex, it is whether we want to do it or not. For start make sure do it STEP BY STEP and do more practises.

Once I attended a basic yoga class, it caused alot commotions. The youngest in the group and I can flex so much. But I still feel my basics are not that good... Then I stopped attending and focus to practice on the basics first.

Yoga is not just about being flexible! It is actually much more.

Talking about flexibility, I hardly can bend backward when I was at a young age.

The interesting thing was I could bend forward so well until my nose touch the leg. I discovered this when we were tested on sit and reach for during PE lessons. I was always within the Top 5 on Sit and Reach amongst all my classmates since Primary 4.

But people who used to be around me told me how inflexibility I was. And laughed at me, tell me I would not be able to do it. Since I was very young, I just agreed with them. Although disappointed deep inside, I managed to push the thoughts away and never pondered.

Until when I became a teenager, I told myself it is very possible to be flexible. Started to feel inferior when people tell me it is impossible.

So I forced myself to stretch and stretch.

I did it! With nobody's help... I made use of the wall and any tools that could help me. Since some of my sisters have dancing experiences, I hear from them how they had learnt too.

It can be dangerous because there were no certified instructors or any experience coaches to coach me on how to do the flexing exercises properly. 

So after I gain flexibilty, I went on to try out dancing. The instructor was rather amazed by how flexible I was and as I was not a dancer... I was afraid she might have thought I was a liar at that time. Haha!

Through this, I realised I am a self-learner. But I wish to meet teachers and mentors so to learn more from them and gain insights.

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I could not run fast, but I can run a very long distance.

Once, it was a family outing to Bedok stadium, I ran 10 rounds of the stadium track but no one believed me. Haha! Because nobody believed it and I was only 10 years old, so I told myself I must show results. Thinking back, I wonder how I did it...

So with perserverance, I continued to excel in running my 2.4KM. Always amongst the top 10 in class, including all the guys - since primary 4 till secondary 4. I always love to compete with guys, because they always run so fast! They are more challenging to compete with. The fastest I ever heard was 7 mins! My fastest record was 9 mins.

Sometimes, after 2.4KM, I still wish to continue.

I have a great sense of achievement. I move on to win trophies for being the Top 5 runners in Cross Country, competing with all the ladies of same age.

So when the girls were always dreading the run, me and a few friends were always looking forward to it.

Through this, I found out that I can be a self-motivator. Still, I wish to engage and gather with more like-minded people to pursue my interests.

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It is so funny how some human minds can work. Only with certs, with results, then they will start to show interest and regard you as somebody. Then after that they want us to achieve more. Sometimes the more we achieve, the more we became unhappy.

Maybe we had lost touch in the meaning of the purpose to having more achievements.

Just because we focused too much about competing and we never thought for our progressions and feelings of others. Just because of competing, our minds have the tendency to sway into the path of harming people (mentally and or physically) so we can gain fame, gain rewards, gain acknowledgement and much more.

The term "harming" includes all the negative emotions that arise during the course of preparations and interactions with our competitors. We might think they are inside our minds and nobody can see what we are thinking about our competitors so on so for, we can hide the inner thoughts.

Eventually, all these emotions will reveal.

So the right competing mindset have to be adopted if you really want to stay happy even if you win or never win.

Basically what people will say enjoy the process.

Maybe you will start to think how to enjoy the process?

To me there are much more to it. Because I understand that some of you might find it very hard to enjoy with ease.

You have to start to understand your inner emotions first. If there are alot negative ones, we have to take responsibility to change them into positive ones.

With denials, it is possible the situations will worsen. It is because we are afraid of our own emotions. Needless to say, this will lead to another few more negative emotions.

We have to remember that what we do and feel in the past will influence our behaviours now and future.

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By ending this entry, I shall wish you all the best in everything you do. ;)