Time to Walk not Run

Needing some alone time and given that it was such a beautiful day, I decided to go for a walk yesteday. I escaped from work a little early, slipped into my workout gear, grabbed my earphones and drove off into the sun. I only had about 20-30 minutes but figured that was enough to clear my head a little. Boy was I right!

I run this path on occasion but decided today was just going to be about walking, breathing in the fresh air, soaking up the sunshine and clearing the cobwebs of craziness in my brain. I didn’t really expect it to be a learning opportunity.

What did I learn? Glad you asked. I learned that running is an amazing outlet for me. It has helped me solve many of my life problems. I also learned that slowing down and taking a moment is difficult for me. Ok Ok, I already knew those. What I didn’t expect was that I would literally have to fight the urge to run. Thank God I was wearing the wrong shoes or running may have won. Anyway, this got me to wondering why. So with a little reflecting (I’m becoming quite good at this) I realized that when running, my focus is my body; controlling my breathing, proper stance, foot strike, etc. The mind is secondary. Those great solutions and ideas seep in, they aren’t the focus. It’s a different way of listening to myself.

When walking, I only had my thoughts to focus on. I could feel the pressure in my chest that I get when forcing myself to deal with sh…stuff. Every part of me wanted to fight the thoughts, pretend they weren’t there and that all was just as beautiful as my surroundings. I am quite good at pretending but I’m trying to stop wearing a mask. So, I pushed myself through it and returned to my car with a sense of relief. Relief that I made some decisions and that no one heard me singing. At least, I don’t think they did. I didn’t see anyone running away covering their ears.

Now that it stays light later and it is warmer, I will be adding more walking into my routine. I’m lucky to live where I do and I need to enjoy it more. It is another glorious day out there. I can hear the ocean and sun calling my name…