Take a Risk

Do I take risks? What kind of risk? Social? Emotional? Physical? Mental? Spiritual? Until I wrote those categories, I'm not sure that I ever thought of risk in terms of types or categories.

Did you know we tend to shun away from risks as we age and yet g risks is a key to aging...and living well. I'm not talking about risks like like speeding down the freeway at 100 miles an our. I'm talking about life that expand us out of our ever shrinking circles. Like running a road race or starting up a new blog, or calling an old friend, climbing a tree, taking an Italian cooking class or moving to France...those sort of things.

I'm reading Steven Kotler's book Gnar Country Growing old-staying Rad, he is a passionate skier and takes a massive amount of risks. Risks that scare the socks off me and I'm just reading his book! But he has a valid point. If we don't use our risk muscles we loose this gift and fear slides in.

Steven is a new discovery. I first learned of of Steven in an pod cast interview. He talked about how important leg strength is to our future health and vitality. I loved his interview and got his book.

A couple year ago, I took an aging in place and co-housing course. There were a couple topics that really stood out for me: value of taking risks and how important our social circle are.

As we age, we naturally take fewer and fewer risks. And yet there is more risk not taking risks. Weird right? Our perceived vision of risk and the actual risk are usually distorted-upside down. The down side of taking risk smaller than we think, the upside greater. If you are curious...here is one of my favorite the articles we read in the course "Take a Risk: The Odds are Better Than you Think".

This morning, I'm pondering running a Beat the Blerch road race. This road race was the last road race I've run. It was a family event. My sister, her daughter and I ran, my dad and stepmom came to cheer us on. Fun event!

Growing up my dad went to all my races. He passed away in 2021. At this last race, in a crowd of hundreds, I had lost track of him as the race was staring. He wasn't moving well, he had a walker with a chair build in ( awesome invention). At the starting line, there he was, my dad. Sitting by a fence right in the middle of all the action. He was there.

Sometimes, you have to do things you don't have time for, that cause you to expand your life, giving it novelty, curious moments, and great memories. Things that make you sweat and smile. Things that speak to your heart. Maybe that should be our definition of risk: Things that make you sweat and smile. Always giving room for things that speak to your heart.

Happy Travels my friend,

Denise

PS: I signed up to run