Monday, February 20, 2012

Working toward strength: Someone else did it

Warning: Don't know what it is about Mondays, but I just feel all motivational speaker like. I'm just a seeing inspirational principles all over the place.

Last Monday I talked about how allowing yourself to be a beginner can be very powerful when working to develop personal strength. Personally I'm overtly working on physical strength. However, strength of will is hugely important in the journey for personal strength.

Something that helps me develop mental strength is to see other people who have overcome similar obstacles.

Little background on Marilyn: I went to a religious university.  Unfortunately during my studies to get into dental school, implicit cultural messages arose that women who got professional degrees were somehow strange, undesirable, less than, etc. Why are you working for this when you really should stay home a take care of children? (Note: I find nothing wrong with this way of life, but I do have a problem when this decision is expected and culturally forced upon a woman) And it was discouraging!  I really, really, really wanted to be a dentist. I wanted to help people stay out of pain, feel comfortable with their smiles, and I wanted to be challenged. But I took this journey in a sea of men. It seemed if it was ok for women in my faith to be pursuing this, why was I in such a minority?

And then I read about a woman from my faith. Who was a dentist. Who had her own established practice. Who did annual dental service missions to Central America.Wow. I was over the moon. I wrote her a fan letter. Seriously! She was beautiful, put-together, well-spoken, and professional. She was passionate to serve people, and  involved her two daughters in her service. I felt as if I was given permission to pursue this passion. Someone else did it.

Which is why it was a breath of fresh air to watch this woman talk about her experience overcoming POTS through exercise. She was part of the study which inspired this blog. She got her life back! Totally awesome.




Exercise Update: Monday 30 Min Recumbant bike
Something seemingly small, yet significant happened today pedaling on that recumbent bike. I felt the burn! At the 10 minute mark a new phenomenon happened. Instead of feeling POTS symptoms like rapid heart rate, dizziness, or total body malaise/weakness...my legs felt tired. That's right, I worked out my legs today. In fact as I pushed through the tiredness my legs were like,"ha-ha! We got this!" So I went from Level 1 to Level 2 resistance. And then my legs were like "aaaaand we can just stop there." Good job legs.

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