Mind Over Matter & Faith in Yourself!

This morning I was running and for once, I felt stronger than normal. I felt empowered and I felt healthy. You see, I’ve been running for almost 9 years now. After awhile, you get into a routine and running is something you do because not only do you feel better if you do it, but also because it’s routine. Running is such a part of me now that I don’t know how I would cope if I couldn’t do it.

I’m not a fast runner, I’m not a long distance runner (yes, I’ve run three half marathons, 3 10K’s, and numerous 5K’s and placed in the top 3 in a few of those), but I’m not what one in the running world would consider really good at it.  The last several years I haven’t raced because life has been busy.  I haven’t run much more than 4 miles at a time and right now (during the winter months which require me to run indoors) my normal distance is 3.33 miles.  And, I don’t get any better at those three miles than I was 2 months ago.  Some days are more work than others; my lungs hurt, my foot hurts, my hip hurts, my calves cramp, I’m just tired.  I’ve been thinking more and more recently about racing again and doubting that I could do it with the success that I would be happy with.

Lately, I’ve been letting my mind win the races and fights within.  I’ve been believing my psyche when it tells me that I need to walk, that I’m too tired to finish those last 5 laps, that my legs hurt too much to speed up.  I’ve also been letting my psyche win at other parts of life: I’m not getting enough done in a day at work, those dishes aren’t in the dishwasher right, he didn’t do that the way I wanted it done…I felt myself getting pulled down further and further.  Who wants to be around that?  Who wants to only hear how bad everything is, how you’re never satisfied, how everything could be better?  I don’t like being around those kind of people, so why would they want to be around me?

In today’s world, it seems that we are all so over involved, over-committed, and so busy that it’s easy to get overwhelmed!  There’s so much bad in the world in the form of diseases, wars, and tragedy that we can’t help but focus on the bad some days.  And, it seems that we are constantly told that what we are and what we give isn’t enough.  But, what if we all had a little more faith in ourselves??  What if we focused on the good in our lives!  This morning when the run was getting tough, I told myself that I was stronger than I thought, that I could push through and finish and  that I didn’t need to walk.  Today, at work when I started feeling stressed I told myself that I had accomplished a lot in 5 months!  I told myself that I am smart and can handle whatever this job throws my way.  We need to stop looking to others for affirmation and start affirming ourselves!  Believe in ourselves, believe we are good, believe we are smart, beautiful, and successful!

The next time you’re starting to feel down, repeat some of these statements, “I am strong, I am beautiful, I am smart, I can do whatever I put my mind to!”  Am I going to succedd at overcoming the negativity every time?  No, but I can try!  This is all part of Learning As I Go!

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