Friday, June 15, 2007

Running to ease the mind

Let me begin with the simple fact that I am an extremely anxious person. It takes very little to stress me out and it takes a long time for me to let go of things that a "normal" person can brush off easily. Throughout my life I have dealt with this anxiety with either stuffing my face or not eating at all. Neither which have been good for me and neither of which have made me feel any better. Thankfully I have re-found running.

I have been running on and off for 10 years now. I ran in high school on the cross country team and even on non-race days could not disassociate running from competition. Everything was about beating someone else whether it was in miles ran or time from start to finish. In the end, running became more of a stressor than a relaxor.

It took me a few years to learn that I could run for me and that being "slow" or only going for a 2 mile run was not a bad thing. I found that running helped me clear my head. Typically my mind will race a million miles a minute, but when I lace up my shoes and start my run I can sort through my thoughts and calm myself down. I don't find myself reaching for the fridge handle as much anymore but instead I reach for a clean sports bra. And although i still stress too much, and am a little stubborn, I have found something for me, that no one can take from me, that has the ability to make to feel better.

1 comment:

RunJulieRun said...

Jaime, thank you for posting this. I'm glad you shared this. It's really great to have another way to get to know each other.