blog to discovery

Okay, I admit it, that title is fabricated a little bit, it should really say I used to be a cyclist.

I used to go on holiday where we cycled to all the locations we stayed and carried all the gear on our bikes. I have cycled around the Eastern and Western Scottish island, Northumberland and Norway. However, when I went to university I virtually stopped cycling and certainly nothing serious.

So why do I mention here?

Yesterday my husband serviced our bikes and we went for a cycle ride. It was really enjoyable cycling on one of the National Cycle Networks through the villages near where we live, particularly as we hadn’t done the route before. It was only meant to be a quick ride so we got some exercise, but somehow, our 20 minute cycle became almost 2 hours! The route took us to almost outside my work before we turned round, which means I now know the safe route to cycle to work and once I can do the ride quicker I can join some of my colleagues who frequently commute to work on their bikes.

I chose to start this blog to record my path to a simpler, happier and more productive life, however I seem to have forgotten this in the excitement of starting to write publicly for the first time. I have decided I need more structure in my life to help me work towards where I want to be, plus I suspect this blog would benefit from a bit more structure.

I am intending to review my personal progress at the end of each month and discuss how I’m doing and perhaps ask for help if I’m struggling. I know I already have my posts about the wheel of life, but at the moment I see these as a separate topic, but maybe I will combine in the future. I also have my posts reviewing what happened in the previous month, but I intend to leave them as a review of my blogging progress.

I have been procrastinating on writing this post because I haven’t wanted to think about how I would benefit from more exercise. In my post What is happiness? I listed exercise as one component that was suggested in the book Making Happy People: The Nature of Happiness and Its Origins in Childhood. I can fully understand that exercise is a component of happiness because when I’ve been regularly exercising I’ve had more energy and felt more of the opportunities offered by life. However, I am currently in an exercising dip and have been for a few months (OK at least six) and I’m struggling to get out of it.

Of course, exercising will also help me towards the other two components of happiness I’m considering at the moment; sleeping and attractiveness. I’m particularly keen on the last one, because I’ve noticed I’m starting to get a little podgy so some of my clothes don’t fit as well as they should. Additionally, Penelope Trunk suggests there are also business related benefits such as increased IQ and increased resilience to difficult times, in fact she feels regular exercise is no longer optional.