I’m about to do my first ever purposeful deload week in the weight room. The working hypothesis is that a central nervous system kept constantly hot by near-daily high-intensity strength training is the prime suspect for the lightness and shortness of sleep I’ve increasingly been experiencing over the past several years.
I feel hopeful. I feel anticipatorily happy for a new balance, a new plateau where intensity and relaxation can coexist; where self-discipline doesn’t crowd out levity and flexibility.
It’s also making me both grateful and newly hungry for long walks with friends, which I haven’t had enough of lately. That could be the letdown from a week a few weeks back when I had one-on-ones, mostly while walking‚ nearly every day and night. A great week. I remember sleeping better that week. That makes sense: long walks calm the nervous system, and all the more so when they’re shared with a trusted friend and real conversation.
What I’m most hoping to recover isn’t just sleep. It’s the sharp mind bent toward the good of others that I know I have, but which has felt increasingly unavailable to me under the weight of a subtle and creeping flatness: less verve, less expressiveness, less sharp thinking.
My life has been very good. Thanks You, God! But I want to bring the full complement of my internal resources to bear on it. To do that, I’ll need those resources fully back at my disposal. Hopefully, this does the trick.