Thursday, July 28, 2011

Finding Balance?

Last night I had just laid down to sleep when I get a text message from one of my close friends--- since droid doesn't have the handy screen shot to computer  image like the iphone, i'll just write it out.

S- Sorry if this is late tonight... are you OK?
me- Yes I'm fine, why do you ask?
S- Well I hope you are being real with me. Just a friend who misses his friend that he used to be tight with.
Me- Aww thats sweet. I've just been busy working out after work, reading in spare time. Haven't done much in the hangout dept lately.
S- I noticed. You sure you are ok?

The rest of the conversation is more personal, but I did open up about some of the areas I'm "troubled with", and it proved to be a very valuable lesson. The reason I share this with you all is because upon further dissection of the entire dialogue I found that I've been abusing working out. I don't mean in that "I need to get swole" kind of way- more in the sense of using it as an outlet to release negative emotions vs. actually talking to someone and working out my problems.

S has always been my outlet, my 'go to' for advice. I realized that a lot of people also go to him for advice on their problems as well; knowing this, I didn't want to be adding to the stress of him helping others with their problems, so I just kind of stopped awhile back.

Now that I didn't have my 'counselor', so to speak, it got to the point where if I didn't work out I was more 'high strung' so I began trying to do something almost every day, thus monopolizing a large chunk of my available time. I work 10-7- generally save exercise till after work, so by the time I'm done its 9pm and I'm winding down for the evening. Since I've been doing this for well over a month now, its become part of my weekly routine and I get that "something is missing" feeling if I skip too many days.

My question to you all:

How do you find balance between exercise and socialization with loved ones? 
I have a hard time doing both and it seems whichever I choose, the other one gets the back seat for awhile. I need to learn how do have a healthy combination of both, and be happy about it.
Any advice on the dos or don'ts on how to find a harmony in your life that is also manageable??

4 comments:

  1. In my humble opinion, you make time when you have time. You don't work until 10, thus you have time. I'd say you should get up early and do your work out early. A good sweat is the BEST way to start out your day. Kind of like a wake up clense. Then your evenings are free for socialization/friends.

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  2. I know it's tough to get both under control. Does any of your friends work out? Maybe you can attend a class together or just run on the treadmill next to each, you get the best of both worlds! :)

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  3. I suck at "talking it out" with people. I have used the gym as my outlet for over 7 years now. When it finally gets to be too much (ie., I can't sleep), then I finally have the talk and it seems to be "too much" for everyone. I need to get better at that. I have alienated a TON of my friends because of my gym time and races. Unsure if that is a bad thing though.

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  4. I'm not sure I balance. I mean I live alone and all of my friends in my town are married with kids, so they never want to do anything anyway. I just keep to myself and run when I want. On the weekends I hang with Biker Boy - and he doesn't mind running with me, so that's good!

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