Greetings Inner Athletes!
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This years wrap up is a tough one. Although we got some great content out this year, my work was thwarted by losing two family members, one being our family matriarch, my beloved mother, the other was her brother, a close uncle. This year also found me with an injury that involved physical therapy that took longer than expected to heal from. All this coupled with a busy work schedule unfortunatley slowed down the pace of my Inner Athlete Training videos and blogs.
The upside of this year however secured a corporate account in teaching my self protection class and that lead to more to follow in the of month of January. Fear not, the self protection classes are not only for high end corporate clients, but we will be offering more public ones in the coming year. This year also found me speaking at two ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) professional conferences discussing both the history of physical culture and the topic of nutrition as well as smaller venues at local health food stores discussing wellness, fitness and nutrition.
Recovering from an injury and losing a loved one is truly a testament to everything The Inner Athlete Brand represents. It requires real patience, a sacrificing of not doing what you love to do, and a sacrifice in losing someone you truly love, When done in the spirit however, it helps sharpen and deepen ones awareness of ones physical and emotional capacity. It may sound like a strange notion but when one is truly pursuing a more spiritual approach to life, one has to come to embrace and be thankful for the “misfortunes” as much as they do the “fortunes.” I place these words in quotes as it is bold on our behalf to judge what happens to us as good or bad. When our life gets disrupted our impulse is to say it’s bad, and and when things go our way its easy to say it’s good. Our finite minds have limited understandings of these things and only with time and distance do we get even a small glimmer of a wiser and more benevolent force at work on our behalf for a greater purpose.
Nobody longs for suffering, loss, or privation. But at the same time if one can see, for even a second, beyond our pain at the time of our greatest hardships, we may find meaning behind them that is greater than we could have ever conceived. Hardships are for our pruning, our growth, and further deepening our communion with God. It’s through suffering, great or small, we come out the other end more empathetic, compassionate, and patient. It’s only through this kind of suffering can we know and understand ourselves and the world around us at a profoundly different level. I've attached the image of a contemplative monk walking amongst the grounds of a monastary. Monks surrender moslty all earthy passions to know a greater sense of peace the material world is incapable of providing. I have come to enjoy the monastic environment and find myself going there several times a year to reboot, reflect, rechagre and engage in meaningful conversation. It's not for everybody but I welcome you to find and create the space you need so you to may know a more transcendant peace. I welcome you to embrace all the blessings the coming year will yield, even our hardships, for those too are truly blessings when seen through the right eyes.
I love you all and look forward to sharing more content with you this coming year.
God Bless and be well
James
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