Weights

Today I am grateful for easy access to clean water. I am also grateful for the free weights we have that I can use for exercise.

I was thinking about those weights this morning. I try to do a few exercises 2-3 times a week to help maintain core and upper body strength. I use some 8-pound and 10-pound weights for a couple different exercises. I don't push myself too much, but I do enough to strain and exert my muscles so they get stronger and stay in good working order.

It is a reminder of the deep sense of gratitude I feel for my physical capabilites and for my health.

As I did my weight exercises this morning, I was also thinking about the figurative weights we can carry around. Worries. Fears. Long to-do lists. Self-defeating thoughts. The longer we carry these weights, the more they tend to tear us down rather than strengthen us.

How can I lessen the load, reduce the burden? Staying in the present moment helps. Seeking faith helps. Reaching out to others with their own burdens and helping them also has a way of reducing my own burdens.

Physical weights help me stay fit. Emotional weights slow me down and take energy I need for more fruitful endeavors.

Today I will live in mindfulness and gratefulness. It is easier to carry the weight of the present than to add the past and future to the load.

What is weighing you down today? How can you lessen the load?

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