Ever Feel LIke Something’s Missing?

Ever feel like you should have something that you don’t? Like you just know there’s a piece missing even though you’re sure it was never there in the first place. There’s just a gaping hole where something should have been. I have felt this way for decades and I finally figured out what it is I’m missing. I solved the mystery while attempting to execute a reverse fly with 10lb dumbbells per my torture expert fitness expert daughter’s instructions.

Apparently there’s this thing called a mind-body connection. My personal trainer daughter told me about it while she was torturing training me. Apparently, in the fitness world, this means that your mind can tell your body how to do a certain exercise and your body does it correctly. Seems like a realistic concept for the intricately designed human body right? I mean, we have a brain, eyes, opposable thumbs, a fair amount of coordination, etc. Seems logical that if you tell me to bend this way and lift this up and show me what you mean, that I could repeat it. Yeah, you’d think. 

My daughter demonstrated this so-called “reverse fly.” I watched. Then I did what she did. 

Except that I didn’t. 

The actual torture expert fitness expert preparing the day’s workout.

“No mom,” she said, summoning extra patience. “Do this.” She demonstrated again. I watched again. I attempted to move my body the way she did. Once again, she shook her head. I sensed a bit of amazement that I could actually be her biological mother.

Before she could demonstrate a third time, I flopped down on the weight bench. 

“I thought I was doing what you just did,” I justified. “I quit.” 

I tried to run, but she wouldn’t let me quit because she is a great torturer trainer. She explained that my body and mind would soon understand how to work together. (She’s an optimist.) Alaine added that for some people, that comes easier than others. (#understatement) Well, that explains a lot. It was a nice way of saying you lack the fitness gene, bless your heart. 

After dragging me back to my feet, my daughter put her fingers in the middle of my back and said, “pretend you are touching your shoulder blades together.”

It worked. 

When fitnessing, I have to motivate myself with encouraging signage.

My body understood that instruction and I did the reverse fly. Of course I gave the exercise a new name – the crouch down and squeeze your shoulder blades together so you look like a chicken. My mind-body connection is a work in progress. 

How often do we compare ourselves to someone else and feel like we don’t measure up? I’d bet far too frequently!

The world would have us believe that we need something else to be complete – a spouse, a child, a career, a trophy or in my case the ability to do a squat without falling over.

But you are fearfully and wonderfully made and uniquely you. When you were created, God had a plan for your life that is special and specific. He has things only you can do. Nothing is missing. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you have everything you need to do what He wants you to do. You may call yourself broken or damaged as if missing a piece, but He calls you complete. 

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete…

Colossians 2:9-10

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