I’m a cynical gal. So when I got this assignment, I thought what many of you readers out there are probably thinking: “Really, another fitness program?”
But this cynical gal is also horribly out of shape and a firm believer in fate. So I pushed that thought aside and decided that if I was really going to understand this program, I would have to give it a whirl at least once.
Aniela and Jerzy were more than happy to comply, saying that it would be good for me to experience their program both in body and mind.
Although I’m “youthful” in the sense that I am only 23, my back perpetually aches due to bouts of sciatica, my limbs are often tense, and my friends make fun of me for being geriatric.
As an undergraduate and now graduate student who’s always on the go, I have fallen, like many of my peers, into the habit of putting my well-being last. I’m not overweight and eat relatively healthfully, but I know my body could use some serious help.
And it got that help when I went to the Gregoreks’ house recently to see if my body could become a bit happier. After Jerzy weighed and measured me, Aniela took me out to their small, woodsy gym, a far cry from the rows of sweaty elliptical machines that I always avoid at Stanford.
“Do you brush your teeth everyday?” she asked me. When I told her yes, she responded that exercise, too, should become part of my daily routine because it is just as important as hygiene.
She then slowly led me through the first six exercises of their sequence, tailoring it to my abilities (or lack thereof). The tools were nothing fancy — a broomstick, a piece of wood, a few weights — and the motions were equally simple. It was easily something I could do in the solitary comfort of my own apartment.
As I recovered in the meditation room, breathing in the lavender mist and the faint remnants of incense, I first marveled at how bizarre this whole experience had been. But then I stopped, let the music wash over my cynicism, and realized, as I exhaled, that I wouldn’t mind giving this gift to my body every day.
— By Natalie Jabbar
