What lies beneath

Everyone pursues exercise for their own reasons, having their own motivation. For me, it is discovering my body. Discovering the capacities. Feeling things that can't be felt unless I physically work and push myself.

I always feel like I've lost ten pounds after a work out, though a body changes much slower than that. Being in tune with my muscles, listening, stretching, I feel only the strong, essential, core form of myself. After becoming so aware of the lean strength deep within me, it's only upon seeing myself again that I realize there's more there that then doesn't seem to belong, doesn't match how I feel.

I continue every day, working hard, knowing that only diligence will bring forth that strength inside to show on the outside. We act in the manner of what we want to become, and will, I believe, one day be surprised that we have become.

I don't look like it yet, but I-I-I work out. There is no shame or self loathing in that. Only hope, joy, and that amusing feeling of being a dark horse.

That is what it feels like to me, and there is beauty in this journey.