Running for Life

Is your life ruled by the schedule of time, never seeming to have enough?

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Or are you ruled by the escapism of reality into a timeless dreamworld?

Where is your mind if not in the present?

Time appears to be a multidimensional phenomenon that relays location sensory perception. It exists and yet it doesn’t. It is chronological and linear, yet cyclic and spiralic.

An enigma that every human being is in relationship to. 

Where is the time equilibrium zero point and are we meant to stay there indefinitely?

There is a pendulum of time perception where at one end you’re leaning into the future and at the other, back swinging into the past.  Navigating the rivers of time requires a developed skillset. 

Without conscious driving there is only drifting. 

Without accountability there is complacency. 

The record book and planner are part of the navigator’s tool kit,

much like holding reigns or oars. 

The forward backward function, projection and reflection,

is an essential process of learning. 

Memories are recorded and the future is your creation.

Explicit focus on the bull’s eye, aiming with tautness and releasing an arrow is an art likened to goals. Setting goals and making records provides perspective on where you’ve been and what you’re heading towards. When following the true impulse of what you are set to achieve, a positive feedback loop has been established with an affirmation of accomplishment. It is also helpful to reflect on the challenges and obstacles that came along the path, and to be accountable with correct action to steer the course of direction. 

Keeping a record book and planner helped me to sustain a lifelong habit of running and holistic health. I will share with you how I became a true lover of running and what relevant connection this topic has to time, goals, record keeping, bioenergetics, and holistic health. 

The Running Metaphor 

For a long time, I considered myself to be an awkward runner. When we had to run laps for physical education all throughout those 12 years of schooling, I loathed it.

The last thing in the world I had desired to be doing after lunch in the full sun is run along a track with my fellow students and then be trapped in a small room where we are then expected to practice math problems. 

Fast forward a few decades and now I crave a nice run in the morning. I consider it an essential nutrient within my personal self-care program.

What was the shifting moment? 

It’s been about 14 years since I first experienced the relaxing euphoria of a runner’s high. A woman who was about 20 years older emulated how to enjoy going for a run.

At first, I couldn’t help but to run faster than her and end up tiring earlier. It seemed so much more challenging to run at a slower momentum! She would just cruise and didn’t seem to be straining her effort. 

I learned that there was a lot of tension in my posture, the right shoulder would clench up and my elbow was sticking to my side, not swinging naturally. My ankles would ache because my feet were not landing correctly. Agony isn’t exactly the right word to describe the condition I was feeling in my body. Resistance, burning and fulfillment are more accurate. 

So, I persisted in the running experiment with the lead of my mentor.

She once told me “…with those tall legs you can really get a long stride and just stretch out!”

For some reason that statement clicked a response in my brain. 

How was I supposed to achieve a long stride with all this tension contracting my movements?

I was pushing the challenge rather than letting it take me on a journey in the moment.

Here is where time perception comes into the story. To be present in the moment within my body requires very focused breathing and sensory awareness from deep within the core of my being. Finding that place is like sitting in a meditative posture while running. 

I learned how to consciously release tension through deep breathing and visualization. The key for me is to practice body awareness in the moment while allowing the experience of initial discomfort to auto correct itself through relaxation into a rhythmic pattern. 

All movements generate from the core. Arms and legs swing naturally, and the pelvis should be properly shifted to support the spine. Lean slightly into the run and always come back to the breath when tension arises.

Do not push, allow. 

I could write a whole book about running but I want to focus on the running for life metaphor. 

Without goals I wouldn’t bother to run. If the goal was never set, there would be no reason to train. Of course, there are many health benefits associated with running that are a part of the outcome.

More importantly, running has taught me how to stretch out in a relaxed state of mind and body when moving through existential life.

It’s all a metaphor for life.

Sometimes you need to respond quickly and the only way to develop that agility is through training. When I am running, I will find a spot to focus ahead and sprint in order to liberate a burst of energy that can go beyond my comfort zone and fully engage in the action.

Discovering your edge to mobility by bringing focus onto the pathway between now and what is ahead is the same strategy that applies to goals and looking forward.  A consistent and essential habit I have developed as part of my personal holistic self-care program is to record events and plan with deadlines. I write down what I did, and what I plan to do.

Did I do it or not, why or why not?

The book can be as complex or simple as you like. 

There is a case to be made here for the use of an annual record and planning book. There are many versions to choose from. Some are more focused on diet and exercise, while others are strictly dates on a page.

However, you see it fitting into your lifestyle, be consistent and remember that it takes around two months to form new habits. So, stick with it and you’ll be achieving results in no time! 

Thanks for reading and Happy Running

www. Lovelifegivecare.com

Check out my Amazon Author page where you will find all of my publications featuring composition notebooks, holistic self-care planners, and gardening planners. 

My most recent publications…

Page-A-Day daily records book for my husband who is a contractor. It was made to his specifications, being hardcover with the days on the outside edge for ease ability to read while flipping through the pages. 

I have also recently published an Education Record Book to keep track of my daughter’s homeschool assignments. It is a simple blank 10-month calendar and logbook style register.