Slow Down!

Slow down, they say…

Take a few breaths…

Let the storm pass…

One step at a time.

These statements repel me like opposing ends of magnets. I don’t want to slow down but down shifting is necessary to master before you grind the gears to dust.

Stick shift was what I drove most in my upbringing. For those too out of the loop a manual transmission is the more complicated version of an automatic transition you will find in most vehicles. To be clear manual transmission is actually mechanically more of a simple process but it requires the human driving to do more than turn a wheel and press pedals. Now a days more manual transmission vehicles have paddle shifters built into the wheel. The days Im speaking of are the foot pedal clutch and shifter days. In such manual vehicles it is important to remember that just simply pushing down on the breaks to slow down will degrade the breaks faster rather than learning to down shift the engine as you prepare to stop.

I feel this way about slowing down. For myself down shifting has never been easy and I have always rather stomped on the breaks. This has created a loop of push it and break it that has compounded ignorance interest in the output debt of my body. Not taking the recovery aspect of output has always been the difficult part.

I see this mirrored in my dog. Her name is Sasha and she is a french bulldog and pitbull mix. What this means is we have a 60 pound all muscle french bulldog. Her favorite thing to do when she is at peak excitement or happiness are what my partner and I call rocket ship. This means she with great speed will run into the living room drifting into a loop, hooking back into the bedroom, up onto the bed and drifts back into a loop creating a figure eight. She will do this until one of two things happen…

She becomes so thirsty that she drinks til she gags or she goes so hard that she ends up limping. She most prefers her rocket shipping at a small dog park the size of a decent back yard post poop.

I digress…

This pup only knows go or no go. My mom always said you will get the dog you need not the one you want. Especially when rescuing. Sasha is a clear mirror to how I attack the world of things to be done. My passion feels explosive like a rocket ship.

Learning to enjoy taking off and how powerful I feel when Im pushing it to the limit was amazing to harness when I did. The ability to not be afraid of my own energy was liberating. Though rocket fuel that isn’t properly regulated can leave you like Steve-O. (Find it on youtube. You know if you know.)

You know lets take Steve-O as an example this man embodies the opposite of slow down… I would argue having watched his journey as I grew up it would seem the only times he wasn’t doing crazy shit was when he was in a hospital or rehab. So the only times he slowed down is when something was so serious he would have no choice.

I may not be as destructive but I do carry the same angst to a far lesser degree of course. I always feel like I want to sprint not walk everywhere I go. Stretching and sitting has always been nauseatingly boring. Now Im in a place in life where I have sustained my largest injury which has been compounded interest of too much push it and not enough chill it.

Down shifting a car is far more simple than learning to down shift the enjoyment of output.

Im beginning to learn that the recovery aspect of my training is still training. Getting more flexibility back and strength within will gain me more mobility which will allow me to push it safely.

This will be an on going project…

Possibly even one that take my whole life to fully learn. Yet I will always aspire to do better and better. The whole 1% better each day concept.

I had not realized how much more difficult it would be to slow down until I was forced to.

At the end of the day I am grateful for my angst and that I understand the Steve-Os of the world. After all I would rather be a warrior in a garden rather than a gardener in a war. Learning to garden in my time of regression and shifting down will make me a more explosive athlete.