The life gym!

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking an interest in all the details of daily life."

- William Morris

So I've started back at the gym. Yes, me! It's been a while but I'm back in the swing of it. It took some time, and usually I find excuses to do everything else other than working out, but at the moment I'm enjoying it. I love the feeling of getting your blood pumping, and the feeling of being healthy after you come home. Great.

Whilst I was in the gym today, I heard a conversation that I found really funny. It's probably the sort of conversation you may have heard before. As I was changing in the changing rooms I over heard two older men, clearly friends, bumping into each other. As the man saw his friend he answered,

"How are you doing? What are you doing here, working out is it?"

Umm...well .... don't get me wrong, he could have just been leisurely strolling through the changing room but chances were he was, most probably, going to work out. It's what you usually do in the gym.

It did make me laugh. How often do our conversations with people actually make no sense at all. It's like we get into some sort of panic when someone catches us off guard. We end up reverting to plan B which usually makes no sense at all!

You see someone in Tesco, out comes "What are you doing? Shopping?"
You see someone at the Train Station, you ask "What are you doing here? Catching the train are you?"

All examples of things I have heard. I could go on.

It's funny how we react when we are caught off guard. It's like our brains go into default mode and the usual questions come out.

I wonder how many times in life someone has caught us off guard and we end up trying to think of things to ask or say, to look like we are interested? Asking the age old question, "How's things?" and having the answer, "Fine thanks." Imagine if someone actually answered you with, "I'm terrible at the moment, the cat died this morning."

Wow, that would be awkward! But that's just it. When people catch us off guard we don't want to end up in an awkward position. So what end's up happening... we end up bottling it all up, holding things in to ourselves. Ok, so maybe you are not going to pour your heart out in the middle of the high street or in the cheese aisle in the supermarket to an old friend, but maybe if people were a bit more open with each other we would have a far closer community.

Truth is very often we don't really take much of an interest in people, it's just a face value friendly expression. How much better would it be if people started to genuinely take interest in people?

And so I end with this thought.

In today's society life is filled with people who are going through tough times, as well as good times. So often when we bump into people or ask people how they are, we don't really have the time to stand there and hear what's really going on. We're kind of hoping that they will simply reply with "Fine thanks" and move on. But maybe their not fine, maybe not everything is great. You never know, the very fact that you have asked might just be an opportunity for that person to get something off their chest. You could be the answer someone has been waiting for.

Life is filled with people who are looking for help, people who will take an interest in them, a genuine interest. If we all took a bit more time to spend with people, what a different place the world would be. How about spending less time with facebook, and more time with face.

So the next time you bump into someone in Tesco, or the gym, think!  Take a genuine interest in people and in what's going on. Ok, so maybe they won't pour their life story out to you, but if you take a genuine interest  in someone you never know just what a difference you might make!

Bywyd sydd yn byw! - Just living life!

RM