A friend of mine from Weight Watchers is often reminding me that if you “Master the Mind, You Conquer the World”. He’s a lifelong student of Tae Kwon Do, and so he’s done alot of mind over matter kind of stuff. Physical challenges are more than the sum of your body’s abilities. It has alot, ALOT to do with what your mind wants too. His advice is much like that which Marathon Brian has shared. I’ve had a few incidents this week that put the exclamation point on this subject. The mind…..my mind…..oooooooh, you are a tricky friend!!
So yesterday, I’m going for my 5 mile run. Started out too fast, we went through that yesterday, but another weird thing happened. As I’m running, my shoelace on my left sneaker was tickling me. GOSH, I HATE THAT! Every step I take, it lightly dusts against my skin and makes me annoyed, Every step! So, once I decided to sop for that brief .18 mile period…..I took the time to tuck my shoelaces into the laces, so there was no way they could come loose. And then hit the running again.
Not but a few seconds later…..my shoelaces are tickling me again. Or Are They?
Yeah. The answer is NO. NO THEY ARE NOT! They are tucked in so tight, there is no way they came out. But my tricky, sneaky, meddlesome mind is TELLING me that they are. WHAT The ????
Before yesterday, I wasn’t sold on the fact that my mind could MAKE STUFF UP to try to get me to stop running….but NOW? I’m a Believer.
When I was chatting with Marathon Brian about last Sunday’s busted run — or, the Great Pee Attack, as I now call it — he tried to tell me that it was just my mind……NOT my bladder.
Say WHAT?
As I’ve been running, I’ve had to deal with the normal body complaints. My knee is sore. Shhh, be quiet knee. The blister on my second toe on the right foot is rubbing again. it hurts, Shhh, not now toe. My lungs feel like they are gonna explode. Slow down, better yet — stop for a minute. Shhh lungs, we’re not stopping.
Brian says because I’ve gotten SOOO good at shutting up the whispers…..my brain (wicked and conniving) went straight for something I couldn’t ignore. I’ve Gotta PEE!! (Did I get your attention now Diane?? Gonna shush me up now???)
Hmmm. Is that even possible?
Until yesterday, I didn’t think so. I thought — no, it was just that…well…I had to pee. Straight forward. Simple. Factual. Right?
Or WAS IT?
Cuz HERE is a fact. My shoe laces yesterday were NOT tickling me. They weren’t. THAT’s a fact! And yet my mind was telling me they were. Just to bug me. Just to get my attention. JUST TO MAKE ME STOP RUNNING.
W/I/L/D!!
The mind is POWERFUL. AMAZING. A FORCE BEYOND ANYTHING WE CAN IMAGINE.
…….and it can be tricky; very very tricky.
Learning when to believe it….and when to ignore it….is an Art, not a Science. Always learning….always learning….learning how to control my tricky mind!
Ciao for now…..Diane