Weightlifting: Four Lessons It Has Taught Me

April 1, 2013 in The Gym with 23 Comments

I started weightlifting seriously late last year. Like marathon training, it is changing my life.

weightlifting equipment1

One thing that I have learned over the last year is how much physical exercise and our goals in that area parallels our goals for life in general. Here I’d like to talk about my weightlifting over the last five months, and what I have learned along the way.

1. Physical Strength Helps Mental and Emotional Strength

I love doing a squat with the weight on my shoulders. I recently bought a power rack (which I’m so excited about–getting it delivered and set up on Wednesday!) so that I could squat more weight. For now, I’ve had to lift the weights from the floor, up over my head and then down across my shoulders. This is fine, except I know that I can squat more weight than what I can throw up over my head. I can’t wait to get my power rack so I can add more weight across my shoulders and squat. There is something about having that weight on my shoulders, lowering and then lifting that makes me feel really strong.

There are things that we need to do in life that feels like a heavy burden. Can we lift it? Squatting heavy loads helps me to feel that whatever burdens I might have in life are able to be dealt with. Just like in real life squats with weight on your shoulders, the weight might be too heavy at first, but if we increment the weight as our bodies grow accustomed to one weight, we can eventually handle more. When I perform a squat, this is something that I meditate on. And each time that I have done a set of squats, later, I remember this and I think about mental and emotional burdens, and I know that I can handle them. Maybe I can’t take something on all at once, but bit by bit, my heart and mind will be able to handle what I need to handle. It may feel like too much now, but as long as I keep trucking, I know I’m going to be ok.

2. Change is Slow But It Happens If You Are Persistent

It’s been five months since I started training seriously with weights. While I can see the changes that are occurring in my body, I am not all of the sudden She-Ra, Princess of Power. I still have fat I need to cut before my abs show through, I still have muscles that are weaker than they should be, and there is still a heck of a lot I need to learn. But I have definitely seen changes in my body, and in my understanding of my body and how it reacts to weightlifting. One of the things I’ve come to realize is that it is okay if the change is slow, because this is something I want to do for the rest of my life. So I have a long time to work on this.

3. You Get Back What You Put In

When I first started lifting weights in early November, I took it slow and easy. I was learning, and I didn’t want to injure myself. As I’ve grown and learned proper positioning, I’ve been able to lift harder. It’s been the past two months that I’ve really challenged myself to lift heavier and put a heck of a lot more effort into it. In these last two months is when I’ve seen the most improvement. I’ve come to realize that what I put into weightlifting is exactly what I get out of it. The more I read about it, the more I learn, the more I talk to others about it, the more passionate I become about it, and the harder I work during my lifting sessions, the more I am able to lift in later sessions.

Isn’t that the way life is too? It’s all a matter of effort and what you put into it. If you want something bad enough, you just have to work at it. Work at it with all the effort you can muster, and learn about it as much as you can. The more you put into something, the more you will get out of it.

4. It’s For You To Do; No One Else Can Do It For You

I remember when I was a small child and I would pretend to fall asleep on the couch so my dad would carry me up the stairs to bed. But we all outgrow that and we come to a place where we have to do stuff ourselves. Nobody can lose for you the 20 pounds you gained. It’s yours. You are the one who has to lose it. When I look at my weights just before a weight lifting session, this is something I remind myself. Ain’t nobody going to lift these weights for me.

If you want muscles, you are the one who has to lift that weight. And that’s how it is with any kind of physical goal. You and you alone are the only one who can make those changes for yourself. It’s good to have a community, or even just one friend that you can turn to for encouragement, but in the end, it’s something you have to get done all by yourself. You are responsible for your own self. When you take something like that on and conquer it (whether it’s lifting weights or losing weight), it becomes reinforced inside of you. “I did this! I did this all by myself!!” And it gives you a new kind of confidence. This is good. This is very good. I hope you roll with it.

What about you? What have you learned about life through your exercise and physical goals?

 

When It Comes to Health and Fitness, I’m Almost Hooked: Where Are You?

March 26, 2013 in The Gym with 27 Comments

variety 157

Where are you on your fitness journey?

Over the past year, I have totally amped up my health and fitness journey, thanks, in part, to blogging and meeting and reading other bloggers and their posts (respectively :-) ). As I am coming to the end of my personal training studies and thinking about scheduling my exam so that I can be a cer-tee-fied personal trainer, I’ve noticed even more how much health and fitness are a part of who I am, and not just a part of my day. The conscious learning and studying have made the difference for me.But I’ve been wondering about all of you–where does health and fitness fit into your life? I made this little scale that combines scientific ideas with my own experience and word smithing. Hope you like it and let me know in the comments where you are at on this scale. For me, I sat at “halfway there” for many years of my life, but I am basically “almost hooked”  and already morphing into a “fit freak.” :-)

1 = Totally Oblivious

Fit-what? Huh? Just gimme my Corona and pizza. And ice cream.

2 = Barely Aware

Oh, I have some friends at the office who are fit-freaks. And I think that’s cool for them, but I’m not that interested.

3 = Wannabe

I used to play basketball when I was in junior high. I should probably get back to that.

4 =Considering

I’ve been thinking about my health lately and I plan on doing something about it, but I don’t know what yet.

5 = Dipping Your Toes

I’ve been walking off and on and I try to watch what I eat, but I know I need to get a lot more consistent for any real results.

6 = Beginner

I’ve been pretty consistent about exercising for the past few months but I still have a lot of room to improve in what I eat. (or vice versa, good at watching what I eat, but still room to improve in exercise)

7 = Halfway There

I’ve been consistent about exercising (watching what I eat) the past six months (to a year) but I still need to figure out this eating (exercising) thing.

8 = Almost Hooked

I’ve got both the exercising and eating down for about the last 3 months. Feels like I’m really on my way and I’m feeling really good about myself and life in general.

 9 = Hooked

Wow! For the last six months (to a year) I’ve really overhauled my life in the health and fitness arena. I feel really great, my body has morphed into something I thought I could never achieve and I want to tell the world!

10 = Fit Freak

I’m a freaking health and fitness freak. I can’t get enough of it; most of my friends are fit freaks too and my whole life revolves around this thing.

 

Neuroplasticity Exercises to Stretch Your Mind!

March 18, 2013 in Inspiration with 36 Comments

If you’ve read my blog regularly, you know that I started stretching last year, soon followed by doing yoga (this was a post where I showed the inspiration for that). What I have learned is that being flexible is so important to our health. While I’ve been spending so much time on getting flexible, it’s gotten me to thinking. Our physical bodies aren’t the only thing that can benefit from being flexible. Our lives in general can benefit from having a flexible mindset and attitude, too.

A Flexible Mindset Allows Creativity

flexible mindset

It’s true some people are more creative than others, but we need to allow ourselves the opportunity to try to be more creative. Don’t just tell yourself, “Oh, I can’t do that xyz thing. I’m not a creative person.” Get flexible with yourself! See, you’ve been thinking so long that you aren’t creative, or that you can’t do that xyz thing, that it’s like there is an INFLEXIBLE thought rolling through your mind. Stretch that thought-puppy out!!

You might think I’m kidding, but you really can do this–and you do so, by doing new things or by doing old things differently. Neuroscientists call this phenomena neuroplasticity–essentially, that “experience can actually change both the brain’s physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology). Yup–found that on wikipedia (among other places).

Stop for a minute and consider the possibility and opportunity if you DID do that xyz thing. And then dip your toe into those unchartered waters, even just a little bit. You might be surprised, and find all sorts of things that you are good at that you never knew. Whether it is marketing, writing, drawing, crafting, sewing, or whatever, there are a lot of creative things you can be doing.

Creativity is an important outlet, offering stress relief, opportunities to bond with other people, and can be therapeutic, adding to your sense of satisfaction of life.

And I’m not just talking art! Creativity is useful in many aspects of your life. Use your creativity to re-organize your office (or whatever you need organized) in a new way. Use your creativity to market yourself on your blog or LinkedIn page. Think of new ways of doing things—do your research if you can’t think of new ways and see how other people are doing them—and try those things out.

10 Neuroplasticity Exercises to Flex and Stretch Your Mind!

Be flexible in what you do today. And to get you started, I’m going to give you a few things that you can do differently today or this weekend (small things) that might help get that creative muscle stretched out. Because sometimes just doing something differently than our normal routine can break up the fog in our minds. Consider these “exercises” for the mind, that will strengthen the creative muscle.

1. Drive home from work taking a different route.

2. If you walk around your plant/office building/place of work, getting from here to there, take a route that is different than you would normally take.

3. If you normally eat chicken for lunch, switch it up with something else, like tofu!

4. If you normally check your email when you log on to your computer, then don’t check it this time, until you have finished another online task.

5. Drink water instead of your normal drink of choice—just even once!

6. If you normally blog about fitness, blog about something entirely different and tell your audience you are doing a stretching/yoga exercise for your mind.

7. If you normally work out inside, go outside this time!

8. If you normally add sugar to your coffee or tea, don’t add any this time. And consider the taste and aroma as you drink it.

9. If you normally go home and watch TV, instead try reading a book. Or cleaning out your closet. Or something other than TV.

10. If you normally sleep in on Saturdays, try waking up early with a small project in mind to do.

Now go on out there and get your neuroplasticity on!

Embracing Your Nerves

March 11, 2013 in Uncategorized with 22 Comments

This is a guest post from one of my blogger friends, Levi Clampitt. Levi writes for people who exercise primarily “without a gym.” He has all kinds of informational content for you on his blog, as well as some awesome motivational stuff. I really like his writing–it says a lot about the type of person he is. He’s the kind of person whose writing you will love to read. That’s why I asked him to write for Project Whitespace. Enjoy.

Nerves Quote

I am nervous right now.

Scared as hell.

Initially, when Bethany asked me to write this guest post for her, I was excited. Now I am left wondering how it will be perceived.

Will people like it? Will anyone even read it? Will this boost me to the top of the blogger ranks? Will Bethany ask me to edit it a million times?

So much uncertainty; so much unknown.

I’m 6 lines into this post and already I have deleted about 20.

The inner critic is strong in this one. It keeps telling me why I cannot write this or write that, all the while filling my head with these questions of the future.

What do I do?

Should I take I pill for this nervousness? Maybe go for a jog to help relieve it? Or perhaps just email Bethany back and say my dog ate my computer?

Hmmm….

Embracing Your Nerves

Nervousness, more-or-less, can be defined as simply being unsure of what the future holds (and not being okay with that).

Right now, I have no plan after this paragraph. Will I make it another couple of paragraphs? I am kind of nervous about that.

I become slightly less nervous knowing that I have faced these nerves before (… and won).

As a personal trainer, I have become quite familiar with this feeling.

This familiarity is less about meeting the nervous and scared people who come in to train with me but more about being the actual nervous one.

The thing is, I am introverted (see: hermit).

Meeting new people all the time and running them through an energetic (and sometimes loud) workout – either 1-on-1 or in groups – doesn’t jive well with my psychology and physiology. Most times, it’s over-stimulating and stressful.

So why do something that makes me so nervous?

Because facing these nerves makes me feel alive.

Writing for others is nerve-wracking as well (because it’s so new to me). Once done, however, I feel so much better. The same is true of expanding myself into any other area.

Sadly, however, we have become so accustomed in today’s society to labeling nervousness, anxiety, and stress as “negative emotions”, so much so that I think we have lost sight of why they exist in the first place.

These feelings exist, among other things (survival + standards), to let us know how to travel our lives.

Rather than get onto a scientific or metaphysical tangent, what does this mean to you, the gift giver?

2 things:

1. If you are not nervous about what you’re giving and your direction in life, then it’s not your gift and you’re on the wrong road.

2. If you used to be nervous but are not anymore, you need to level up your game. Expand yourself and enter into new, scary areas to develop your gift.

That’s it.

It’s easy to get into routines and do what we’ve always done (or to do what everyone else does), but if we want to give the most that we can to people (and to ourselves), we must embrace these nerves.

It will not be fun all the time (as nothing is), but I can guarantee you this:

It will not be boring.

So don’t fight or drug or run, just embrace.

These nerves know what they are doing.

Levi Clampitt bio pic

Levi Clampitt is the head writer & trainer at Without A Gym - A resource dedicated to showing people how to exercise anywhere, anytime. The fact is, life tends to get in the way of our goals. WAG exists to help you get around it. Like us on facebook to continue the conversation.

 

Honesty and Injury: Staying Honest With Yourself in Your Workout

March 3, 2013 in The Gym with 35 Comments

We lie to ourselves. We know this. And it’s what causes us to cause our own problems. Its not something we do vindictively to ourselves, it’s just something we do as a means to get what we want a little faster, or a little easier. In the end, it just causes us problems.

In this article, I’m writing about the lies we tell ourselves when it comes to working out and staying fit.The lies we tell ourselves when it comes to fitness can go both ways: lies about why we can’t workout and lies about how much we can workout or to what intensity. Both of these lies result in the same thing: not working out. I have told myself both of these kinds of lies, and I am also a product of what it is to stop telling myself these lies.

The Superhero Lies

Lets start with the fun lies we tell ourselves. These lies feel good. These are the lies when we get these great surges of energy and feel like our favorite superhero. My superhero of choice is She-Ra, and if you don’t know her, one of her greatest assets is her strength.

She-Ra really rocked my workout!

She strong! I love that muscular woman, and when I’m feeling really good, I want to pick up 500 pounds and throw it through the air. Booyah!

Unfortunately, lies like these likely end you up with back pain, or some other muscle strain, and force you to sit it out for a while. Dang it! So much for the booyah.

Sometimes these lies demonstrate themselves a little more subtly, without images of superheroes in your mind. That’s when you tell yourself that the little twinge in your back, ankle, fill-in-the-blank, isn’t really anything to worry about, and then we forge through it. Again, we find ourselves on the sidelines, having to wait till something heals.

Superhero lies are essentially delusions of grandeur, and the subtle superhero lies are only a little less grandiose, they are more along the lines of denying our mortality or at least the limitations of our normal human frames. Both of these lies result in the same thing: we have to stop working out for more than just the one or two days we would have had to do if we would have listened to a little reason.

What to do about it: alright people, you know that when you are hurting you need to take a break. You get these little red flags that go off in your mind and you choose to ignore them. Don’t. Stop that immediately and remember that you really are mere human after all. Sit this one out and come back out the next day.

The Age Lies

I’m feeling this one a little more as each month flies by without me noticing. Oh, the age lies. Now, we can all work out and try to slow down the aging process as much as possible, and I am all for staying fit and healthy until I drop dead at the age of 118. But, we have to face facts here. No matter what age you are, you are getting older. And if you are over thirty and reading this, then you have probably already experienced a little of this.

Now, the age lie is one lie that can go both ways: I’m too old to lose weight, get healthy, lift weights, run a mile, etc. etc, and then the other side of that is, I’m not that old! I can throw down my newly muscled, 40-year-younger nephew in a living-room tussle anytime, anywhere! (true story, but don’t tell my husband I told you!).

Both of these lies are destined to bring you down. One of them quicker than the other.

This chair may be old, but it still works!

This chair may be old, but it still works!

This lie of “I’m too old to . . .” is just something you got in your head somewhere, probably from hearing it from your parents, and/or the rest of the aging population. I will never forget the time that I ran my first triathlon, going through the finish line so proud of myself, only to turn around about 15 minutes later and see the 80-something year old man also cross the finish line with his index finger held up in the air–i.e. first place in his age group (never mind that he was the only one in his age group). Now, if you never worked out a day in your life, and you are now 62 years old, don’t expect to get up and go run a triathlon! But don’t also give up on trying to get yourself healthier than you are now. Anything you can do to keep that body moving is going to be good for you.

And then the other face of that lie–the one that leaves you injured because you forgot really, just how old you are and the fact that you don’t have the agility, speed or strength that you had when you were 20. Face facts, age does something to our bodies that we don’t like. But don’t let that get you down in the mouth and sitting on the couch from now until you die. Just keep going at it, being as strong and healthy as your normal human frame will allow you to be. And stop trying to compete with the teenagers and 20-year-olds now that you are over a certain age.

The Time Lies

big clock against a skyI got really good at these lies, and at times, I was so good, I didn’t even realize I was lying to myself. I honestly believed that when I told myself I would have time to workout “tonight” that I really would work out “tonight.” Naaaaah. That doesn’t happen.

If you have established a time to workout, then stick to that established time–whether it’s morning, noon or evening that you find to be the best time for you to workout, once you figure that out, stick to it and do it, even if you don’t want to get out of bed, or if you’d rather go home and put your feet up on the couch instead of lift some heavy stuff. You know yourself, and you know the time that works best for you. So don’t listen to that lie you tell yourself. If she comes out and says, “oh don’t worry honey, you can do this tonight instead of now” no matter how darling her voice is, or how convincing she is, you turn your head and call her a bleeding liar to her face and stop listening to her! And then go workout!

Conclusion: Delusion No More

Yep, these lies are just self delusions, no matter how convincing they can be. So stop listening to them. Get honest with yourself, get tough on yourself and be real to who you really are. Know your true limitations and when you are just being a cop out. And keep yourself healthy! Because a healthy life is a whitespace kind of life, and honesty is too.

Go get ‘em!

 

How to Do a Deadlift

February 24, 2013 in The Gym with 16 Comments

candle yogaOn Instagram, I took a picture of my candle, yoga mat and writing pad. Posted it to Facebook with the message: “Writing poetry on my yoga mat with candlelight and indie folk music. Sweet Saturday.”

My blogger friend, Tammy Hansen White of Lifting My Spirits (and one inspiring woman!) came on and said, “write me a poem about deadlifting!!”

I was in a sort of dreamy, melancholy state, and deadlifting certainly wasn’t what I would associate with that, but I wrote back that I would do that for her. And I try to keep my word as much as possible. So I sat down within five minutes of that message and came out with this poem. Hope you weightlifters like this!

How To Do a Deadlift

1. Stance

The bar rests,

it’s cold steel middle

above the center of my bare feet,

metatarsals looking frail

in comparison.

That’s right. I will stand you down.

I will stare my fright

out of me and into

this thing.

I gauge my stance—

not quite shoulderwidth.

Deep breath in.

Out.

2. Position

Relaxing my knees

I descend, let my shins

feel the cold steel

and place my hands

flat against it,

wrap my fingers,

and grip.

And this is where it starts.

Deep breath in.

Out.

3. Lift

I pause.

Check my shoulders.

Back.

And down.

Head neutral.

Deep breath in.

Running was easier.

It was something I knew

from childhood, familiar,

but this . . .

this won’t move unless I make it.

Lift.

Cold steel passes my knees,

my thighs.

Knees lock.

Hips lock.

Out.

4. Lower

There’s something about

lifting

this physical weight.

It’s physical.

I get it.

I got it.

There’s something about

that clank

as I lower my barbell

back to the floor. . .

this isn’t like running—

this is me,

doing something right.

 

 

 

 

Because She Wants to Go Home

February 20, 2013 in People with 8 Comments

I remember as a little girl, looking out my bedroom window in the nighttime, gazing into the sky at the moon, and thinking, “this is the same moon that shines over California.” I lived in the country, so I could hear the train, several miles down the country highway, whistling it’s lonely warning in the darkness. There were many times I dreamed of hopping that train in the hopes it would take me to the land of my dreams. That sweet California.

I eventually did get to California, though it wasn’t by train, and it was many years later, when as an 18 year old I got to spend a year there, on the coast in Monterey. It was quite an experience. It was the first place I ever really “loved” as a “place.” I still long to go there, but its not a deep-seated desire as it once was, and I have a lot keeping me where I am—mainly my family.

pamelaWhen I met Pamela, the two of us connected right away. We spoke about living in California, and I learned that Pamela had lived in Los Angeles, California for some years, developed relationships and business contacts, had the privilege of running on the beaches, feeling that same sense of freedom that I remembered from when I was there.

Pamela is a Canadian citizen, and so when her Visa came up to be renewed, she was forced to go back to Canada to wait. She has been there a good year now, and it hasn’t been an easy year for her. Not only does she need to make a change in order to get back to where her business contacts and friends are, Pamela wants to get back to the place she calls home—the place where she feels the most comfortable.

Crowd-funding sites don’t seem to work for the average person, but I don’t think Pamela is your “average” person. She’s praying God-sized prayers to get herself back home and she believes in miracles. So she set up a crowd-funding site. If you have ever been in a position to long for your “home” – you might know how Pamela feels. Here’s what Pamela writes on her crowd-funding page:

“I’ve never felt as free as I did when running on the beach and it always left me inspired. . .the Immigration Attorney I was working with said I had to return to Canada while my visa renewal was taking place (standard practice). . . It cost me a lot of money with shipping and so forth getting myself and the two cats I’d rescued from a shelter back to Canada and I did not recoup enough to move back so I decided to move within Canada and come to Vancouver thinking there would be more creative and professional opportunities. I was wrong. It’s been a hell of a year full of setbacks.

LA is the only place that’s ever felt like home to me and I want to go back, but can’t afford it on my own. It feels like my life has been at a standstill which has been deeply saddening. As much as I try to fill my mind with positive thoughts and try to build something here it’s not happening and my heart isn’t in it. I have my visa and my drive and determination and I simply need to go back.

My birthday is at the end of February and I’m sending out my prayers that I will be blessed with the help I need to make this move possible for March. It’s going to cost me much more than 5k but I don’t know if I’ll be lucky enough to raise even that, let alone more on here so I’m looking for odd jobs and selling furniture to raise money that way as well.

I believe in the power of miracles and shared goals and to anyone who helps me with this one, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means more than you know.”

My goal is to raise $500 for Pamela. I know she needs more than that, but this is my personal goal. I am going to contribute $100 to Pamela (some now, some later), and I’m not saying that to brag. I am telling you that in the hopes that you will see that I think this a worthy purpose. So, I need to raise the other $400.

If you have read my blog long, you know that I love editing my videos. I’ve been doing it a lot more at work, and I’ve keep learning more and more as I continue to do it. My idea is to offer my video editing in exchange for a $50 donation to Pamela. This means I am willing to edit 8 videos. These videos will be a 3 to 5 minute finished product, with basic editing. If you wish to see some of my work, here is a list of a few:

If you want to partake in this, whether you are a blogger who wants a video edited, or a person who just wants a video of your family or something, please contact me at bethanyjolee at yahoo dot com. After we talk, you can donate directly to Pamela’s crowdfunding page. Also, if you don’t want a video, but still want to donate, I am pretty sure that Pamela won’t mind! ;-)

Please, if you can’t donate, but you know someone who needs a video, or someone who might be intrigued with Pamela’s story, share this post on your Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites. I would love that.

 

Simple Truths

February 18, 2013 in Uncategorized with 12 Comments

quote about truthTruth is not complex. If something is presented to you in a ramble-tamble sort of way—you know, the kind of logic of which you have to convince yourself—then be suspicious. Truth comes simply. There might be precursors leading up to it, but when truth comes, it comes simply. Unwrapped and in its wholeness.

 

Break Free!

February 13, 2013 in Inspiration with 19 Comments

Recently, my friend Dan, a fellow blogger, redesigned and renamed his blog to breakfree.me and since then, I have thought about this idea of breaking free. Now, his blog is specifically about breaking free financially, so that you can have the life you want. But I’ve been thinking about breaking free in other ways.

This post is about breaking free in my blogging.

I have read way too many blog posts about how to have a great blog, get more readers, get more engagement, blah blah blah!! I co-hosted that giveaway for the camera, and suddenly I felt like I had readers because I had people subscribe, and I felt like, oh no! Now I have to write something really good to keep my readers interested!

Between all the “rules” that I’ve read about having a good blog, and then suddenly acquiring new subscribers, I think I’ve been a little frozen lately. I piddle paddle around about what I’ll write about. I worry about what I put out there. I didn’t worry about this before—at least, not in the same way I’m doing now.

Oh silly me! It has occurred to me that just because people subscribed to my blog in order to get a chance to win a camera, it doesn’t mean they really care about my blog. Some of them might. True. But many won’t even open the email that this comes in. I could be writing naked words in here and those people will never know, because they never opened the email that my blog sent them!!

So why in all the world am I worried?!! I don’t need to be! If there’s one thing I’ve learned in nearly 2 years of blogging, it’s that readers come and go. And that answers all the blogging “rules” out there too. Readers come and go and you will never make all your readers happy, so you might as well write about what you want to write about.

This is not a professional blog.

I make no money from this blog. On the contrary, I put money out because of this blog. It’s a hobby; and hobbies typically cost money, right?

So I’m breaking free!

I’m breaking free of all the blogging rules I’ve ever read and I’m writing what I want, when I want and how I want it. And just to prove it to ya, I’m not going to add a freaking picture to this post, because that’s just another rule, and I don’t really have a picture to go with it and anyways, I don’t want to put a picture with it. So there ya go!

And I feel really good about this, and I say it’s about time! Because I have a lot more in me than what will fit into my categories, and sometimes I just want to write. Ya know? Sometimes I just want to write.

So there it is. I’m breaking out on Project Whitespace. And that’s what whitespace is really all about. :-)

Break free from something. You should try it.

Giving to the Extreme

February 3, 2013 in Inspiration with 18 Comments

Giving and LoveOne of my favorite movies is Schindler’s List. Many of you have seen this movie, but for those who haven’t it’s about a man named Oskar Schindler, “a vainglorious and greedy German businessman who becomes an unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric Nazi reign when he feels compelled to turn his factory into a refuge for Jews.”

There is a scene in this movie that always remains in my mind. It’s when Oskar realizes he could have done more, saved more Jews. He begins looking at material possessions as money that could have saved more Jews.

I could have got more out. I could have got more . . . If I’d made more money . . . I threw away so much money. You have no idea. . . This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people. . . this pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.

(Quoted loosely from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/quotes)

When I first watched this scene, I was struck by the regret of this man, that he didn’t do ALL that he could possibly do. The thing is, he saved 1100 Jews from being gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Many people would have considered him selfless in this act. But when it came right down to it, he realized he could have done more.

As I have been learning about giving, I have been thinking a lot about this scene in Schindler’s List. I once wrote that Jesus and Mother Teresa are my two heroes in life. And they are my heroes because of how they gave entirely of their lives. Both of these people gave from the very depths of their soul, giving and giving and giving till you might think they had nothing left, and then they would give even more. They gave all the way up to their deaths, and even after their deaths, the legacy they left behind continues to give to this world. For both Jesus and Mother Teresa, it was their love of God that powered their ability to give, and their giving came out of their pure understanding of their purpose.

In this scene from Schindler’s List, Oskar regrets that he could have given more, but didn’t. From the moment that he turned to saving the Jews, it appeared that he gave all that he knew to give. It was not until after the fact, that he started looking at his material possessions also as a means for giving. I believe it was not until after the fact—when it became too late and he could save no more—that Oskar really understood that he had not emptied himself entirely for this purpose. And this is where his regret came from.

In my mind, though, I hoped Oskar forgave himself. Because while he was paying money to save the Jews that he saved, he was in the learning process. He was learning how to give. And from that perspective, he really did give all he could give. He gave out of what he knew. It wasn’t until after the fact, when it was too late, that his eyes were opened as to how he could have gave more—that was a moment of monumental learning for him. That was when he learned to give from the heart, and not just from his head.

As I think about this scene in relation to my own giving, I want to take it as a learning lesson—give as much as you know to give, or else someday be flooded by the regret that Oskar felt. But I’m afraid to take this as a learning lesson. If I learn the lesson, what will become of me? What will become of my relationships? My job? My dogs? I know that I am thinking very extreme here. But in the lives of Mother Teresa and Jesus, and in the regret of Oskar, I see just what it takes to give to that extent. It takes extremism.

Who does that?

Who lives like that?

Certainly not anyone I know.

Luckily, I don’t think I have to learn this lesson all at once, the way that it fell on Oskar. In my giving, I do not have a life and death emergency staring me in my face. At least, I don’t think so.

But there is another lesson I’m taking from this, and which I am able to comprehend. It’s the idea that I need to be prepared to give. I need to be ready when that time calls. And that doesn’t just mean saving enough money to help someone out in their time of need, but it’s a preparation of the heart. That, unlike Oskar before he learned his lesson in giving, I need to make sure that the priorities of my heart are focused on love, and not me, my material possessions, my reputation or anything else self-serving. And like Jesus and Mother Teresa, I need to know my purpose for giving and let my love for God power my ability to give.

I am hoping that my lesson in extreme giving doesn’t come upon me all at once as it did to Oskar. But in the meantime, I’ll keep learning, and practicing the beautiful art of giving in the hope that I’ll be ready for my lesson when it comes.

I wonder—is there an extreme lesson that you might need to learn—a lesson that is about who you really are and what you are supposed to be doing? For me, it is about giving, and I want to be ready for it when it arrives. For you, whether it is about giving, or courage, or love, or commitment—it’s about who you really are, and I believe it’s in the deep practice of that act where you will find joy. Will you be ready for your extreme lesson when it comes?

 

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