Time to lie down.

Exercise never played very much a part of my life until I had a memorable and life-changing mid-life crisis. Strange how we used to call your fortieth birthday as your time for a mid-life crisis at the time I became acquainted with the idea living to eighty was a mighty thing. Now of course living to eighty is a fairly common occurrence.

Up until that point in my life when my friend arrived back from his morning run and told me how far he had gone, I would proclaim in no uncertain terms that, "If I ever feel like exercise I will go and lie down until the feeling wears off."

I was one of the 87% of the population who owned a pair of running shoes, trainers, but never did any running. Having a car I was not even familiar with running to catch a bus.

At the time of my fortieth when my daughter quietly told me it was possibly time to take another look at myself. In her opinion, I was overweight smoking far too much tobacco in my pipe and not looking at all healthy, my doctor was a good friend. One evening in his company I asked him if he thought maybe I should do some exercise. His response to me was memorable, Sorry, Ralph, but right now you're not in good enough shape to get in shape." What a memorable moment.

Time to take account of the calories and my lifestyle habits. The calorie chart I was familiar with was not recorded in any calorie counter book, let me share some of my thoughts on calorie burn at that time.

Beating around the bush..................... 75 

Jumping to conclusions......................100 

Climbing the walls..........................150 

Swallowing your pride....................... 50 

Passing the buck............................ 25 

Dragging your heels.........................100 

Pushing your luck...........................250 

Making mountains out of molehills...........500 

Hitting the nail on the head................ 50 

Wading through paperwork....................300 

Bending over backwards...................... 75 

Jumping on the bandwagon....................200 

Running around in circles...................350 

Adding fuel to the fire.....................150 

Opening a can of worms...................... 50

So time to have a new look and take things a bit more seriously. I started by losing the pipe and tobacco and slowly but surely making a little effort on the exercise. A few circuits around the house would be a good start. Again my friends came to the rescue start with some walking.

I felt a bit like the older gentleman who decided to get fit.

The couple decided that they should walk two miles a day to stay in shape. They chose to walk a mile out on a lonely country road so they would have no choice but to walk back. 

At the one-mile mark on their first venture, the man asked his wife, "Do you think you can make it back all right, or are you too tired?" "Oh, no," she said. "I'm not tired. I can make it fine." 

"Good," he replied. "I'll wait here. You go back, get the car and come get me." 

All joking aside I did get myself fit and thankfully it was a wise decision. Like everything else in life my trouble was and is that I never do anything to half measure. If I do anything at all I do it. Running was not enough I had to run mountains. 

So what have I learned that has made me think about this topic today? I have learned that true wellbeing is not achieved by only keeping the body fit. There is no good at all being able to run up and down mountains in record times if your inner being is in a state of flux and lost.

Being fit is about more than moving it is about having the whole self at one with itself. Or as I have said before doing the Tao being at one with the world and yourself. Equally, it is no use being at one with your inner being or the spirit of the universe if you cannot enjoy it.

Before anybody corrects me and points out that old age does not come itself, let me say that one of the fittest people I know lives not far from me. He has lived a long and full life and continues to do just that. I see him often with his mobility trolley.

Have a marvellous day Go with the flow.