Running is for everybody. Being skinny, obese or fit, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be 10 miles to consider ourselves runners, but 20-25 minutes of running for beginners is quite good. I define running as nirvana between the body and mind.
Running is beneficial in every aspect. It is beneficial for overall health; it can raise the levels of good cholesterol; it can boost our immune system and it can help in every way, literally. The good news (since it’s an overall problem on a global scale): running can help us lose weight. Sorry for being Mr. Obvious, but that’s the truth. Actually running is the second most effective exercise considering burned calories per minute. First is cross-counrty skiing.
Many runners around the globe cling to the so-called “positive drug” of running. To some extent it is sweet torture for the body, followed by joyful experience. As people say, “nothing is for free”; neither is the happiness followed by the sweet torture. After all, it is still a drug — albeit a very positive one.
There are 4 lessons you can learn from being a runner. Three of them are encrypted during the run and the last one is the joyfulness by the deciphered code.
Never underestimate yourself
Denis Waitley, motivational speaker and writer, says that “It’s not who you are that holds you back. It’s who you think you’re not.” I have personally seen people older than 80 years in no physical shape run the full marathon. That’s my personal best motivator, that we shouldn’t underestimate ourselves.
Running can make us self-confident and boost our self-esteem. The experience in achieving a goal is widely known. Simply by the fact that we set and achieve a goal (to run 30-35 minutes or run 6-7 miles) we feel much happier and empowered.
Runner’s meditation
Runner’s meditation is a form of meditation while moving your body. Our brain is relieved from bad thoughts and it is forced to think on our left-right legged frequent steps. Although it feels automatic, the brain is forced to give commands to every part of our body. By the fact that it gives commands to the body and makes symphonically perfected movements, it is relieved from the aberrations accumulated from everyday life.
After only a few minutes of running, the brain starts to relieve hormones that naturally improve our mood. One of them is the endorphin, or so-called “feel-good” chemical.
To grasp the runner’s meditation we have to be advanced runners. At the beginning we may struggle, but after a while we will be fall into whole new level of runner’s nirvana.
The accordance of body and mind
Imagine as the body argues with the mind that he is always pessimist. The mind always hurts the relationship between them and the body always wins the argument.
The best way to see body and soul as one is with running. It’s the balance between the physics and psyche. If we lurk a bit inside the process of running, we can conclude that by the process in the physical world, the body forces the mind to make ourselves feel good. By doing the movement of running, the body drags the mind’s attention away from the negativity and, in a positive way, forces the mind to produce feel-good chemicals.
“The feeling”
Since we deciphered three of the codes, “the feeling” is the outcome of all three. It’s the feeling when we stop, when we stretch, eat a banana, and get a hot, steamy shower. While we are busy torturing our brain to release feel-good chemicals, we get prepared for the final feeling. I call it “the dessert”, except it’s not physical cake or something sweet. It’s like feeding the brain with cake without touching a spoon.
We cannot explain how being in love feels or how being drunk feels. We can’t explain “the feeling” either, but we can give pretty good example of how to get to it. GO RUN.
Featured photo credit: Archi Trujillo via flickr.com
