Anyone who says nothing exciting happens in Indiana has obviously forgotten about the weather. Like a typical Midwesterner, Mother Nature was considerate about the changes and gave us plenty of warning of the upcoming Big Snow. And let’s not forget that day in the 50s on the eve of the storm to help us prepare.
Most people were probably getting bread, milk, and eggs, and stockpiling toilet paper before the weather got bad. Me? I checked out library books, ordered Chinese carryout, and went for a run. I would think it goes without saying that I’m always in a state of stockpiling toilet paper.
What does an active person do for exercise when stuck inside for several days? I had to get creative. I figured just walking around the house would be pretty boring but I found I could multitask by reading while pacing around. I was able to accomplish something while preventing myself from becoming too sedentary.
Apparently this tendency of mine to get a two-for-one deal out of my personal time management regime goes by a fancy name: Habit Stacking. (I still prefer the old-school terms of “being hyper” or “ants in your pants” but I’m not sure those phrases are quite as conducive to selling self-help books.)
The concept behind habit stacking is that you do two things at the same time that require different parts of your body and/or brain. So you listen to a TED talk and fold laundry, or enjoy music while painting. It often involves getting yourself to add some positive behavior when you’re doing something that is already a habit—like balancing on one leg while brushing your teeth.
After all that reading and pacing around, I wanted to change it up and watch TV. But, I really should commit to a few exercises with handweights. Or stretching. It got so bad that at one point I was listening to a documentary at the same time as working on a crochet project, all while jogging in place.
After a few days of this I couldn’t wait to go back to work so I could get some rest. I think that’s when I realized that I can do a lot of nothing, but very efficiently. Or to phrase it another way: I might be on the road to nowhere but I’m making good time.
So by Sunday I didn’t care about the temperature or conditions, I knew I had to get out. Yogi is always excited for a walk, especially since he had been cooped up too. It was fun to watch him try to run across drifts and he could sometimes go fast enough to keep from sinking in. Being twice his weight, I was not so lucky,
It was such a welcome change of scenery. The snow made the neighborhood a landscape of sparkling beauty, and I felt my brain able to relax. I thought about making a snowman but I knew Yogi wouldn’t be much help, seeing as how he lacks opposable thumbs. But it made me smile to watch him snowplow with his nose, looking for familiar scents as he made his rounds.
And I realized we can learn a lot from dogs. Maybe not the part about sniffing each other’s butts, but how to be happy with the event at hand without adding a bunch of complications. You can learn to be excited about a simple walk, relish being with your people, and find joy even in inclement weather. And then coming home, getting warm, and just relaxing can be part of the fun too.