I was planning on running with my running group this morning but I woke up to my body cautioning maybe I should take the day off instead. Much as I wanted a fifth day in a row of working out - it’s a gorgeous morning here in London! - my fatigued legs (and a late night at the theatre) reminded me scheduled rest is the key to insuring ongoing enjoyment of exercise.
Our bodies are good at adapting to whatever we throw at it, but they are also the first to shout at us when we are overdoing it. It strikes me that exercise, like so many things which bring pleasure, follows that stubborn economic law of diminishing returns.
The law of diminishing returns says there is a crossover point where the benefit gained is less than the increasing amount of energy invested. A point at which more of something either returns less of the thing you hoped to gain, or worse, spirals downward into pits like injury, addiction, or chronic couch potatoing.
It’s why that third piece of pie is never as good as the first. Or why there are studies that attempt to calculate the ideal income for life satisfaction and emotional well-being. Or why you can even consume too much of something as life-giving and necessary as water.
There is the possibility with any pleasure to overdo it. We have our Thanksgiving meal every year to remind us of this truth. If history is any guide, I am likely to overdo it next week - around the table with my family in Seattle — on mashed potatoes, post dinner turkey sandwiches, and wine.
Virtually everything in the physical world follows the law of diminishing returns which is why it’s important to both enjoy pleasure and be mindful that we can often find ourselves chasing a moment we once had that may be impossible to find again.
However what good news there is in knowing the spiritual world and one’s inner life is not bound by those same rules. A subterranean peace and joy that breaks through into our daily living do not dim the more you experience them. We can’t hit a limit or max out. And they don’t need rest days or celebratory days.
Like a flower, our beauty too unfolds in the light of presence.