How do we apply Active Recovery into our Lives?

Continued from Part I

Applying Active Recovery into our lives can become a lockstep dance. It’s a funny thing when we start with a Western Mindset, anything new that seems to help us, we want to apply gung ho! “Give me all the Active Recovery!”

Which in it’s due time can be applicable. An Active Recovery saturation directly after a primed peak experience can be invaluable in helping one incorporate those new experiences and lessons into their day to day lives. So the luster is not lost, it becomes a part of the whole now.

Active Recovery throughout a strength training cycle might look something like this.

Mon: Lift

Tues: Mobilize

Wed: Lift

Thurs: Breathwork

Fri: Lift

Sat: Adventure, Outdoor Activitiy, Spontaneity

Sun: Active Rest (walk, swim, yardwork, etc.)

When we prime ourselves with Active Recovery as we are progressing towards a goal, we become better equipped to handle, maintain, and balance through any other peak experiences or challenges that may be coming our way.

With that said, Active Recovery when applied appropriately, creates R A N G E.

Why would we want to have Range in our lives?

The capacity to go deep and wide, gives us the ability to continually be inherently Resilient. Letting us arise in our own lives without pervading fears or anxieties of the ‘What if’s’

“What if I fall?”

I know how to get back up.

“What if this other experience is so great I don’t want to go back to my ‘normal’ life?”

I know how to ground and see my reality in the day to day as it is.

“What if this is easy and my next peak experience is even better?”

Yeah! What if!?

Anxieties or fears, blending themselves into Creativity and Curiosity! Bending the edge of our very own psyches with the practice of resilience, grounding, centering through the steadiness that Active Recovery creates.

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How can one apply Active Recovery into their life right now?

I recently had a conversation with some friends who’d just been introduced to the concept of Active Recovery… “I’m going to need lots of Active Recovery in my life!” one of them said acknowledging how far out of range they’d pushed themselves into constantly going and working and doing all the things (even the recovery things) but with a constant push mindset.

If you happen to be starting from ground zero with an Active Recovery practice the easiest way to incorporate is by utilizing “Micro-Recoveries”.

Micro-Recoveries look like 2-3 min box breath sessions right in the middle of your day, taking a five minute walk outside before “everything is done”, eating lunch with some friends not on the go or in your office, reading for five minutes, daydreaming for five minutes, even staring at a wall.

Micro-Recoveries are not looking at your Facebook or Instagram feed, responding to emails, or checking more off of your “to do list”.

Starting small will be the key here. These mini recoveries will start building up your tolerance to anxiety in heightened situations, and help you bring a fuller more authentic self to the table, wounded or not, none of us are perfect.

At the end of the day,

Active Recovery is about Showing Up!

Showing up peaceful, showing up full, showing up ready and resilient for whatever way a situation, activity, event, experiment or experience may go. We show up with less stories. Less stories about ourselves and other. We show up to the present moment, ready and available, and in here is where the magic starts happening.

NEXT UP – Part III: Active Recovery and Me.