Yesterday I was able to put an old learnt lesson into practice only to realise the lesson was true.
I've heard many times before that runners doing long distance need to learn to run with their mind when their bodies reach their plateau ( a state where your body wants to give up until the feeling passes and a new energy emerges). I always believed this and understood the logic behind it but I think that maybe my mind was never strong enough.. until now.
Through dealing with anxiety I have had to learn, practice, and put in an enormous amount of effort in order to train my mind into becoming stronger than the negative thoughts, stronger than the irrationality of anxiety. I have had to reason with the unreasonable web of lies woven by the anxious mind. A feat on its own, a story for another blog yet an incredible skill that is still in progress and always improving, sometimes faltering, sometimes crashing, but ultimately growing and glowing.
Through the constant need to battle with my thoughts and replace negatives with positives and irrational with reason I can feel my mind improving each day. Through this practice and lifestyle shift which is currently in motion the changes are inevitable and improving is only a matter of time and practice.
Thus, yesterday I had the joy of running after a tough workout and after the first 2 minutes my mind telling me I won't run the whole distance, challenging that thought with one which said I will run until I feel too tired and then I will decide, to cruising through 2 plateaus. I realised that continuously telling myself I can, telling myself it's just a plateau, speaking strength into my mind, I ended up speaking strength into my tired muscles. I spoke myself through the struggle and the reward was great. A tired body and sore legs.
Yet the feeling of knowing that my mind which was once a tool used to destroy my confidence and my self worth is now slowly becoming a tool to enable me to reach greatness and that I shall do!
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