Reasons to ride a bicycle: Reason #4

For the challenge, for awareness, for time alone...these are three good reasons to ride a bike. The fourth--and final (on this list)--is even better.

Reason #4: It will act as your reminder.

Remember that phrase, "It's like riding a bicycle, you never forget." That phrase applies here as well, in terms of the mental aspect of riding a bike. What happens on the road, doesn't stay on the road. It comes home with you. It stays with you because it's now embedded in your mind.

You remember your thoughts, your concessions, your decisions. The mind-body connection takes over. That's how I transformed what, for me, started out as a metal bike into a "mental" BIKE. As I thought about who I had been, who I was, and who I wanted to be, I realized there were ways that I had behaved in my past that wasn't the me I knew I was. I began striving for the better me.

I wanted to laugh again, to love again, to trust again. I wanted to believe I could have good things in my life. I wanted to believe I didn't have to live the soap opera life for one minute more. But it all had to begin with who I was and how I defined myself. I needed healing.

Just as a deep physical wound can heal, so, too, can a mental wound. There may be scars left as reminders, but reminders are a good thing. They tell you how far you've come, and they tell you what not to do again, because, clearly, it didn't work before.

I was too fearful of challenges before. I wasn't paying attention before. I wasn't taking care of myself properly before. And I wasn't sure about who I really was. I hadn't really given much thought to that. I'd just been going through life in survival mode. That's what I'd learned to do best. But it wasn't the best I could do.

From the seat of my bike, I took a good, hard look inside myself and saw areas that needed improvement. Once I realized where improvements could be made--for one thing, by taking that moral inventory I mentioned earlier--I could begin the real work. Not only that, but I realized I wasn't alone in this process, that I had a spiritual advisor who would help hold me accountable. Some people might call that conscience, but if you're a spiritual person, you know you have a higher power to act as your scaffold. You, alone, do not have all the answers.

When you reach the ability to believe this, you can release the mental chains that pull you down and begin to embrace the freedom found in abundance. Abundance comes from self-love, and I don't believe you can have self-love without your higher power living within your heart. I really don't. I don't define that for anyone other than myself, but that's my belief for me, for how I expect to achieve success.

It's a worthy endeavor to seek personal development and improvement in our lives. But it requires a reminder. Just as a business needs to reevaluate its performance, so, too, does the individual. To hold yourself accountable requires something to remind you of what you're seeking to achieve. My bike did that for me...and still does to this day. Every time I ride, I remember what I've learned about myself. I remember how I expect myself to behave. I remember who I am at my core. But I don't have to ride to be able to go through the letters one at at a time:

B--Who am I when I'm being my Best self?
I--How deep do I need to go for that Inner strength today?
K--Am I listening, am I in tune with my feelings, have I connected with those Killer instincts?
E--Have I spoken up, reached out, asked for help by using my Expressive voice?

The bike I rode became the BIKE in my head. Every time I'm now faced with a new challenge, my special brand of BIKE acts a reminder for me to connect with my core being so that I respond in ways that move me forward. It allows me to be the person I know I was meant to be. It's there for me whenever I need it. I don't have to ride to find it now. It's there, with me, always. It's the spiritual navigation tool that leads me to live a life that I deserve.

Isn't that the best reason to ride a bike?