When you look yourself in the eye, gazing at your own face in the mirror, and then you say something to yourself, it takes about half a second before you feel those words in your chest. I haven’t pulled out the ol’ stop watch yet, but… it’s quick.
I have a number of practices that I do my very best to maintain, and one of them is building myself up with positive affirmation mantras. Not hopes & dreams so much as goals, and reminders of positive things that are happening all the time.
On an evolutionary level, humans are very good at recounting danger and trauma, as it’s advantageous for animals like us to be able to identify patterns that represent harm. We focus our attention on terrible events like car crashes roughly 6x longer than we do on works of beauty. We’re wired for disappointment. This is why it’s important for me (and hopefully you) to go out of my way to acknowledge the good in my life as a way of balancing trauma, danger, and the vast number of available depressants available to me on any given day. That way, even if my day goes all to Hell; and it can, I know that this day and every day started off from a place of love and embrace, and that tomorrow will, too.
This is the premise of slowing your mind in meditation. You’re capable to blasting through 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day (of 2500-3300 per hour) and if we don’t check our baggage every so often, we can really put ourselves through the ringer undeservedly.
The majority of our problems are temporary, but they feel eternal because of our desire to fixate on them. Financial troubles are temporary, illness is temporary, your boss’ bad day is temporary, winter is temporary – but the good times always fly by, don’t they?
That’s a state of mind, and we have the power to change our minds.
Look yourself in the eye some morning and say “I love you.”
It’s a real trip.
Training this week has been an adjustment in a couple different ways, and not in the way you might think.
First off: My running distances at the beginning of this new program are decidedly short compared to distances I like to run. Not to worry though, there’s a method to this madness, as the runs are also substantially more frequent than they were for the triathlon training.
Secondly: We’re officially trail running whenever possible, which is an adjustment due in part to elevation changes, and also because of uneven ground – so we’re working stabilizer muscles that have had a pretty easy ride until now.
Third: I commuted to my day job via bicycle twice this week, which is a habit I aim to maintain. Both days were cross training days, and 45 minutes of cycling each way replaced the prescribed ‘brick’ workouts, but it effectively increased the exercise effort on both days. Traversing the city under your own power is a liberating and addictive thing. (click here for training program)
With the new program; we’re building a new structure and we’re starting in the basement, in that these more frequent and runs will get us used to running on fatigued legs. That might sound a little bonkers, but a half-marathon is pretty far and we will have some tired legs toward the end when it really counts. In the meantime, I’m not too worried about pushing beyond the run distances in the program – at least on my days off when I can really go out and get lost.
And… by mid-June the long runs will be what I’m used to. Then it’ll get nutty in a hurry!
The Conscious Pilgrim 