temple taps.
In my spare time, I personal train clients and have done so since I graduated high school. For some, physical fitness is an industry focused on personal proliferation, Instagram follows, and stackin cash…but for me, it is more about the Marcus Butler principle of Overall Wealth and assisting people in becoming more comfortable with living in their own skin as they operate activities of daily life. A few weeks ago, I started working with a client from Africa who has only been in the United States for about two years. Although a few of our employees were intimidated by his demeanor and strong African accent, I welcomed the opportunity to train with this client because I understand the power of impressions. I chose not to judge him based on their comments, and I walked into the training relationship with an open mind, body, and soul. We have since shared various stories of comparison about his life growing up in Africa vs mine growing up here in the United States (Shoutout to the Lou). We meet twice a week at 0630 and we work hard to train the body to operate at a higher caliber…but one morning, the focus became mental. After a battle ropes circuit, he looked at me and said, “you know, it’s great to see that my body is capable of this. I have never been pushed like this before, but lately I have been living by this motto: where the mind goes, the body will follow.” Now, we recognize that this is a rather colloquial quote that has been expressed by famous people over the years. It is the type of quote that you can find in a fortune cookie or the underside a Snapple top, but for some reason…those words caused a stir of emotion that breezy Tuesday morning. We finished the circuit, he departed, and I sat in the nearby coffee shop for the next few hours…trying my best to make sense of the firecracker that has just entered my headspace.
Where the mind goes, the body will follow.
As the hail-storm of experiences and emotions occupied the material behind my oculars, I found myself perplexed…but smiling in a room full of frowns. That is not to say that I was surrounded by infuriated people, I just recognize that most people in coffee shops are dialed in with blank stares and (for some of us) slight frowns of focus and undivided attention on the content displayed on our screens (or pages). Anyways, I sat there effortlessly smiling and reframing my experiences. In that moment, I had tapped into what American Tibetan Buddhist Pema Chödrön might call comfortability with being ungrounded; accepting of nothingness. The feeling I experienced was in no way apathetic, but rather a feeling of freedom and psychological bliss by way of focusing my mind on the positives in my life. I am living. I am breathing. I have material items. I am loved. I am appreciated. I have value.
For example, that day brought about a personal reflection about my knee surgery that I had suffered about a year ago. When the injury took place (September 29, 2019), I was stubborn and did not want to go to the doctor because I knew it was bad. Real bad. I was certain that it was bad because I could not bend my left leg and my kneecap was (at that time) positioned about 5 inches into my thigh. So yeah, it was gruesome and obviously it didn’t look too good. My good brother Matthew forced me to go to the ER, and I learned that I had ruptured my patellar tendon in my left knee. I was down and out as soon as I got the news, and I honestly hung my head for hours as my ducts produced enough tears to be in a Justin Timberlake video. Up until that point, I had felt superhuman…but here I was, crutching along campus, facing surgery and a rehabilitation process that has taken more than a year to correct. I wanted so badly to give up, and for a second there…that is exactly what I did.
Where the mind goes, the body will follow.
The brain is a beautiful organ for a number of reasons, and it wasn’t until the injury happened that I really recognized just how powerful it is. Thankfully, the injury forced me to be still and present with my thoughts…which happened to be the best thing I could have asked for. In that time, I honed in on my crafts, did a lot of soul searching, read 50+ books, sharpened my mental health, and ‘stepped’ into the Savant that you are reading from today. You see, in that time, I chose not to allow my crutches to define my headspace. I chose not to stay down on myself, but rather to use the time afforded to me and make the best of the situation I was facing. I still woke up early and stayed up late. I still crutched my way through campus, one-stepped my way up flights of stairs and taught class, and crutched across campus to mentor my team of collegiate athletes. The mind lead the charge, and the body hobbled along. The injury taught me so much about that beautifully-wrinkled organ housed in my skull, while also affording me many lessons about patience and trusting the process. To be honest, it is because of the work done in that time period that you are reading these very words on this very website. I keep the image of the moment I received the injury diagnosis as the background on my phone as a constant reminder of where I have been, as well as my capabilities to overcome because all of this…came from that ruptured tendon.
“Minor setback for major comeback, that’s my favorite” - Dedication - Nipsey Hussle ft. Kendrick Lamar
I think we can all agree that we are living in some of the toughest times known to heartbeats. In a world divided by race, sex, class, politics, human rights, and a freakin pandemic…every day becomes tougher to open our eyes and smile at the day to come. I know times are tough. I know some of us are exhausted from continually fighting for our lives to simply matter. I know some of us are frankly tired of being alone. I know that race is more salient than the stars and stripes, causing a battleground divided on Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter (or…Blue Lives Matter). I know that politics are everywhere, engrained in everything (especially because America is in an election year that has the country legitimately divided like South Central gangs at war over territory). I could certainly continue to speak on the numerous heartaches in society, but I believe you have seen enough of that in your own media consumption and daily lives…so I digress.
Where the mind goes, the body will follow.
Things will happen to us in this life…and they won’t all be positive. Sometimes, life will hit us like a Mack truck and knock us down so ferociously that we truly believe that we cannot go on…but believe me, the true mark of character is in the response, not the hit. This pandemic has been tough for must of us and has certainly deterred various avenues, but given this time…what can we accomplish? What can we be doing in the meantime? Start that project. Learn that language. Read that book. Run that marathon. Start that business. Honestly, think of it like you think of your everyday routine: plan the route and believe your ability to put it into action. We don’t always get to choose what happens to us or how it happens, but we can decide how we react to those hardships. We can allow ourselves to be present; comfortable with nothingness and make sense of the world around us. We can continually educate ourselves on everything that is going on and speak from an informed opinion, as opposed to purely operating on emotion and initial feelings. We can train the mind to control what we can control, and to let go of the rest.
Please do not misunderstand me: I am not happy when unfortunate things happen to me or our people, nor do I try to make excuses for people as to why those things have taken place…but we must be diligent in our ability to work smart while working hard to overcome adversity. Sometimes, working smart is preparation. Sometimes, working smart is giving ourselves a beat to process. Sometimes, working smart is giving ourselves time to grieve and create our own rivers of tears to express our pain. Sometimes, being still is exactly what we need to free the mind and allow it to exercise properly. It is truly about how we think about things and the actions that follow…but the thought must be first.
Can’t stop the vibes, baby.
Where the mind goes, the body will follow.
Siempre,
Savant 🌹
thank you for spending a few moments with me. i do value your time and thoughts, so please do not hesitate to send me a message @savantlamont and let me know what you think. i would love to hear from you!
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savant shelf selections: the ant and the elephant by vince poscente || the alchemist by paulo coelho
savant song selection: alright // kendrick lamar