Comfortable with Uncertainty

I've got three full weeks of riding to work every day under my belt.  I feel like I've undergone a huge shift in my mindset about this.

It's funny.  Not ha-ha funny.  But interesting funny.  I got an email from a friend, Grammarblock blog writer Monika, commenting that I've been quiet lately in my blog/writing.  I realized I'd finally been riding MORE than writing or thinking about riding.  That's a huge shift.  AND....a powerful one for me.

I was noticing something that would happen in my thoughts when it would be late in the evening, about the time I was getting ready for bed, getting the next day's lunch ready, etc.  That is when I was always deciding on whether to ride the next day or not.  So many times, countless times, my thoughts would go to a safe kind of thought.  The thought would be something like, "I've already ridden twice this week, I should rest tomorrow."  Boom.  Instant nail in the coffin for riding the next day.

Something shifted though a few weeks ago when I started to allow myself to hear that little thought in the back of my mind that was saying...."what would it be like to ride all five days.  I bet you'd feel great about that, and I bet you're physically ready for it."

Physically I have been ready for it.  It was mostly all in my head, so to speak.  I have been a bit more tired in the evening, but then, I sleep more soundly.  Good deal on that.

The title of this posting, COMFORTABLE WITH UNCERTAINTY, is the title of a book by Pema Chödrön, who I've written about before and provided some links for her talks, teachings.  The first line in Chapter 32 is:  There are three habitual methods that human beings use for relating to troubling habits such as laziness, anger, or self-pity.  I call these the three futile strategies- the strategies of attacking, indulging, and ignoring.  


She goes on to say a few paragraphs on:  The mind-training practices of the warrior present a fourth alternative, the alternative of an enlightened strategy.  Try fully experiencing whatever you've been resisting- without exiting in your habitual ways.  Become inquisitive about your habits.  


Become inquisitive about your habits.  So true.