Yesterday morning I decided to take a spinning class for my workout.  At first the pace gradually builds as my heart rate is climbing.  My legs get into a rhythmic timing and I am gliding easily.  Just as soon as I get into a good pace with a rhythm, the instructor tells the class to increase the resistance.  At first, it is more difficult and I start to break a sweat.  After a while, this becomes my new rhythm and pace.  This keeps going until we reach our maximum.  The goal is to push our body's ability to burn more fat at a higher heart rate.  By half way through the class, I was feeling tired, a little nautious, and wanted to quit.  The instructor was so skillfull at describing everything I was feeling and thinking as the class went out.  Out of his mouth I heard, "right now you are getting tired and might even be thinking of quitting.  Your body will be able to keep going if you work on your mental stamina."  I hung in there just long enough for us to get to a recovery period.  During this time we decrease the tension on the bike and let our heart rate come back to normal. 

What I found really interesting was that after adding resistance to the bike and adapting to it, once I turned the resistance down to where I started from, my legs wanted to go out of control.  At this moment, the instructor said, "Don't lose the road".  I knew that this meant, make sure you can feel some resistance as if you were riding on an actual road.  The tendency is to remove all tension and resistance.  Oddly enough, it's easier to keep going and riding with some resistance.  It keeps you connected to the ground and "grounded".  What a simple metaphor for life.  When I removed all resistance, it was like my legs were completely out of control, many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Challenges and resistance in life are necessary to create an environment for us to grow and rise to create a new rhythm and pace with where we currently are in our lives.  As we increase resistance, it is uncomfortable at first, and then we adapt.  In the moment of adaptation, we increase awareness, skill, efficiency and create a new rhythm and pace with our lives at a new level.