Our lives are often more complicated and stressful than we ever imagined. Coping with job demands, families in crisis, divorce, bereavement, and financial worries are the things they probably didn’t cover in your high school home economics course. We do our best with the skills we have. We dig in and try to keep our emotional balance. Often, the pursuit that could help us most is the very first thing that bites the dust when stresses build up. It’s difficult to rally energy to feed our physical well-being when we are mentally drained and depleted. Yet that is the very time that we can benefit the most from a fresh look at physical challenges.

Let’s say you’re in the process of divorcing, losing your job, or some other self-esteem buster that makes you question your worth as a person. What if you set aside some time to try a physical activity that you have never done before? One that causes you to challenge a part of yourself you have overlooked during the time of stress? Do something ridiculously long and challenging. Volunteer for a charity "walk-a-thon." Climb a mountain, ride 100 miles on your bike or go on an all-day hike. The choices are limitless, as long as it’s considerably longer than your normal workout. If you are so used to controlling things, do something over which you have little or no control. You can break out of your self-esteem rut by challenging yourself in such a way that you go into the mental zone where you stop thinking, stop looking at your watch, and go outside of your body.

Last September, I took a very challenging bicycle tour to Tuscany. Although I thought I had trained enough, the first day almost killed me. I hadn’t taken seriously the advice to eat and drink along the route and I "bonked," a term for having a mini nervous breakdown due to lack of fluids and nourishment. With one mile to go, (all down hill,) I sat on the side of the road with tears streaming. It might as well have been 100 miles to me. I eventually found a way to finish out the day and find my missing sense of humor. Each day I improved and the trip turned out to be one of the highlights of my life. After the winter, I got back on my bike and began to train for another trip. To my surprise, the hills around my house that used to intimidate me were now easy to climb. Pushing myself to that new level made a difference, even a year later.

It has been said that endurance is based on life experience. Whether you see a physical pursuit as long and arduous or not is completely dependent on what you’ve done before. By amping up a physical endeavor, you access an inner strength you might have forgotten you have. The act of overcoming obstacles and hanging in there for a physical challenge can translate to a sense of personal power in all aspects of your life. A side benefit to these efforts is the endorphin factor. There’s no better drug than natural endorphins to uplift and soothe your spirits while motoring through life’s challenges.