The Power of Positivity

Today’s post was going to be a ‘My Workout Today’. I liked what I had planned for my workout – a few old faithfuls (hello deadlift, I know we meet all the time), as well as a couple of new exercises I’m incorporating to work on muscular endurance. I found my workout today really tough. I overestimated weights for a couple of exercises, which meant I got to fatigue way before I thought I should. After my first set of my first circuit I felt weak and unmotivated. ‘Well, that was crap’, I muttered to myself.

Right then, a guy at the next bench who was in his rest period caught my eye and said, “Way to push”. Then he went straight into his next set. It wasn’t much, just 3 words out of the blue, but that comment turned my workout around. I started my second set of the circuit and even managed one extra rep before I reached fatigue. Just 3 words that made such a difference not only to my state of mind, but to my endurance. My ability to ‘push’.

Our words, our interactions with others, the way we interpret experiences all combine to have an enormous impact on how we approach situations in our life. This has been something I’ve noticed every single day for the past week – as if the universe is trying to tell me something. Maybe that ‘something’ it’s telling me is that positivity is powerful.

Last week I had one awful day in which I received an anonymous email from someone clearly calculated to make me feel bad. Or, even if not calculated, was certainly not kind. I was upset. I was angry. I vented about it publicly. It affected me for the rest of my day. The next morning when I woke up, I felt almost ill. The negative emotions I’d experienced the previous day felt like they were sitting like a stone in my belly, even though the anger had dissipated. So I took a deep breath and let it all go, thinking with compassion and forgiveness for the person who hurt me. Immediately I felt better – better even than I usually feel on a day to day basis, being a generally positive person. Everything that happened that day after that cathartic moment was wonderful. I had a client email me to tell me she just realized she fit into her skinny jeans. The person before me at my local coffee shop bought my coffee for me. I went for a run and improved my time again. But mostly I just appreciated everything. I noticed people smiling more, my son seemed to spend the entire day alternately giggling and snuggling, the sun was out and I wore my pink sneakers which always make me happy.

It was a wake-up call to me that even (or maybe especially) when something negative happens, there’s a choice we make within ourselves as to how we are going to let it affect us. Our initial reaction to negativity can be more damaging than the negative energy itself. Since that day, I’ve been making an effort to be positive and kind in every one of my encounters with others: friends, acquaintances, strangers. And the power of that positivity has been amazing. Making others feel good and loved and appreciated makes you feel good, too. And maybe there really is something in the idea that putting positive energy out into the universe brings it right back to you: like today, when those 3 little words a stranger said to me at the gym made me feel better about myself and my workout.

And since I had a post about my workout planned anyway:

My Workout Today

Warm up: 5 mins on the rowing machine, at 120 average watts

Circuit One – 2 sets of 18
Narrow bench press, unilateral
Plank on bench with unilateral reverse flyes
Single leg squats

Circuit Two – 2 sets of 18
Deadlift
75 second Plank
Step ups on high bench

Circuit Three – 2 sets of 18
Narrow assisted pullup
Cable knee extension
Plank jumping jacks

Be kind. Be positive. Be compassionate. And push! 🙂