I often get asked how I come up with my articles, if at all there is a formula behind this self-inflicted obligation to overshare what I overthink. Well, yes, its more of a process. At the end of the week, ussually on a long run or bike ride, I like to do a post-mortem reflecting on events of the week. Anything that repeatedly stands out makes it to this page. For the past few weeks, the overarching theme has been the wiggle so let’s talk about that.
The term can be interpreted in multiple ways, what I’m refering to is the oscillatory dance; the rhythm of life produced by order, structure and routine. If you’ve been reading this blog it should come as no suprise that I love the wiggle. I mean what’s not to like about it. Structure brings order, out of order comes efficiency. Repeatedly doing the same thing over and over again takes emotions and willpower out of the equation, gets things done and can be weirdly comforting. Few things bring me joy than stumbling into a sustainable routine and I could go on forever about building routines. All the self-help books beat me to it so instead I wanna talk about the opposite, how to dismantle routines, in other words release your wiggle. It doesn’t come naturally for me but out of necessity I’ve had lots of practice lately.
I’ve been working toward the version of me that handles morning flares gracefully but it hasn’t been easy. See, its weird to admit but most my life hinged on a perfectly executed morning routine; a long-ish run, followed by shower, breakfast, writing then work. Remove the run, and you have an opened can of worms. At the mercy of my joints I have to make every paralysing desicions like when to shower, eat and eventually run if inflammation fades fast enough. I went from certified morning runner to run-when-I-can runner; from ultra runner to hobby runner; from racer to experimenter. After sustaining so many losses against chaos it became clear that it was time to release my wiggle; for that I had to go back to the roots.
What might appear to be a blindly executed routine meant so much more. Sure, it gets training done and keeps me somewhat healthy but a while back it dawned on me that morning was the only slot I could have uninterrupted me time. Before I had to be an employee, partner, friend or anything to anyone I could selfishly run around in circles guilty-free. With broken joints I had to figure out other ways to get to the same goal: Me-time. The options are endless: journaling, reading, carfting, sleeping-in you name it. The world didn’t burn; instead, a whole new world opened up. Turns out with clear priorities and enough flexibility it ussually works out.
We don’t need to look far for reminders that it will be alright. Nature, the mother of chaos, still manages to sustain life. Of all living creatures, we are the only ones with the concept of time, calendars and deadlines; the rest of them just live by night and day, and the seasons and they still manage to thrive. We severely underestimate our capacity for adaptation. In the current recession, I’m one of the many tech workers thinking about layoffs. There is a lot at stake, from the obvious career regression, loss of livelihood, work permit to medical insurance among other implications. I have every reason to be worried but part of me kinda knows I’ll be alright, regardless of the outcome. When all is said and done, life is a series of experiments full of mess and uncertainity. Some days you need a plan and some days you just need to release your wiggle. Happy dancing!
