Of course, as with many Storypeople stories, it’s both literal and figurative.

I’ve been working with Trainer Chris for many months now. Almost every weekday. It wasn’t as if I liked it, either. But I made myself go, day in and day out.

My nemesis was the stationery bike. I hated it. I dreaded it. In fact, I even injured myself on it. {There are no accidents.}

We talk about many things during our hour, Trainer Chris and I, and one day it was neurolinguistic programming. Loosely defined, it’s that attitudes and behavior can change by reframing how we talk about something. That the words we use have power. {I knew this long ago, because I bought this card long ago. Like maybe 20 years ago.}

I knew that the bike was important to my cardiovascular fitness, so I decided to embrace it with words. I no longer talked about hating the bike. Instead, I talked about looking forward to it. How helpful it was to my fitness.

Within a short time, I truly loved the bike and now I look forward to the days we do intervals on it. No matter how hard. And they can be hard. Trainer Chris says “Bike today” and I say “Great!”

We all carry things we look on as burdens. All of us. And they can be hard to set down and let go of.

Big things and small: Work. Depression. Chores. Grief. Fear.

Sometimes, what we’re attached to is carrying the burden. Not the thing itself. And oh, how we rationalize it.

Sometimes {not always, but much of the time}, all we have to do is change our attitude toward them.

And then, they’re light as a feather.