It is amazing how much the game of baseball parallels with our EVEryday lives. The comparisons are infinite and quite significant. I am thankful for the game's presence in my life and what it has taught me and continues to residually teach me as I shake and move through my journey.
Slow down. Its so hard to remember to do. We have to do lists that pile up and knock us down so often when we can't keep up with them. We have our families, jobs, hobbies, chores, etc that fulfill our lives so much, and often times it is feels impossible to think that we can ever align them all and truly balance them out to the degree that we desire. Slowing everything down is so necessary. Literally taking 5-10 minutes to just breath and be thankful for all the blessings that we have is one of the best tactics we can use to maintain a better balance. I myself even find it hard to take that 5-10 minutes to just breath, unless I am fortunate enough to get in a hot yoga class. I actually even got a job at the yoga studio that I just linked to in order to make sure that I take class at least once a week.
For me, yoga is so much more than physical. I used to practice yoga because I knew it was good for my replaced hip and the continued EVEryday rehab and strengthening I needed to uphold in order to stay in the game...and now I appreciate my practice for the mental and meditational aspect more than ever. It allots me 80 minutes of myself time to check back in to all that I am thankful for and all that I genuinely appreciate. I think of taking class as a refueling station; my body, mind, and spirit are the car with the gas tank. When I give myself that time to slow down and focus on nothing else except giving back to my body and spirit, my everything thanks myself and the powers that be that got me to get up and go to class that day.
This is not a sales pitch on yoga! Although, anyone who really knows me knows that I am a big advocate of it and it is a key element of not only my physical training regimen, but even more importantly my mentality and balance regimen. Once I am in class and the door is closed I have already succeeded because I simply made the decision to show up. Showing up is literally 98% of the battle. Then 1% is just staying present, and finally the last 1% is the actual physical movement.
Now, lets associate that with the game of baseball. As young ball players, what often happens when we make an error? We get flustered and try to move too quickly to make up for it and then we compound the error because the game speeds up on us! Its hard sometimes! We just want to make up for what we just did so we rush and then before we know it that simple routine ground ball to the 3rd basemen with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd just resulted in an overthrow to first base because we bobbled it and tried to rush our throw. Now we have runners on 2nd and 3rd and the tying run just scored. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and know that we will get another shot! We will get another shot...that is inevitable.
We must slow down. We must play one pitch at a time. One moment at a time. One breath at a time. All with an attitude of thankfulness that we are even lucky enough to be on the field in the first place. This is something that is ever completely LEARNED. It is something that is PRACTICED, just like yoga. There is no peak you can reach, you simply reach. Beyond the talent, beyond the size, beyond the God given ability, we have the opportunity to make the decision to simply slow it all down and stay in the moment...and separate ourselves from the pack.
Practicing the physical aspect of the game and life is the easy part. Deciding to incorporate and truly value the mental side of the game is what differentiates us player to player, person to person. There sometimes is simply no way to be better than the guy next to you when it comes to physical ability...but the mind has infinite room for growth and maturation no matter what age we are or how big we are or how talented we are. Make the decision to slow down the game and your life, appreciate whats around you, and Practice your mind...and see what it does for your game. Remember, it is not learned, it is practiced, EVEryday.
Thanks for reading.
Respectfully,
Isaac Hess
