On most morning, I do the classic stretching exercise: You sit upright on the floor, legs extended straight in front of you. Then, you bend your upper body forward and reach for your toes. You grab whichever part of your feet you can get, keep your legs stretched out, and hold on for dear life for 40 seconds.
What’s funny about this, other stretching exercises, and really any kind of physical strain, is that the moment it hurts the most happens before I feel the pain. It’s the dread of knowing some discomfort is about to set in that makes me want to turn away. As soon as I’m holding my toes, it’s done. I don’t think I’ve let go of them after starting even once. It’s all the good kind of downhill from there.
There’s that famous scene from Lawrence of Arabia about “not minding that it hurts.” Perhaps, more accurately, it’s not minding that it’s about to hurt. If you can accept the pain before it kicks in, it’s easier to lean forward and start enduring. Sometimes, pain makes us better. Tremendous power can lie behind it, and reason makes anything endurable.
Summon that reason before you begin, and you’ll move a lot faster. Then, all you must do is trust you’re facing the right kind of discomfort—which, usually, you are. Don’t let the hurt before the pain scare you away.
