Seeds Take Time But Water Consistently

I remember I used to do Cross-Country at School. The days where it was deemed unsuitable to run, for example, because it was raining; I used to get cranky, couldn’t concentrate, and seemed to experience some sort of withdrawal symptoms. I was a teenager and addicted to running. The days I could run I felt relaxed, peaceful, and my concentration was improved greatly.

I ran for about four or five years, and I swore I would never stop. I could never stop.

However, I was a competitive spirit, and where I ranked in races meant a great deal to me.

I never did exceptionally well, but I wasn’t too bad: usually in the top twenty percent, and I was happy with that.

However, my first year of university saw me cease running. The reason? I was coming last!

Two weeks later, mum came into my room, questioning why I couldn’t get out of bed. My motivation and interest in all things was gone. I was experiencing the full gamut of major depressive symptoms. In my heart, I felt it was because the manifestation of symptoms were no longer self-medicated by daily healing in running, and appeared in a ghastly way. I felt dead inside. I was dead inside.

However, this piece of writing is directed at the dangers of trying to do things too quickly and not consistently.

I decided, after a recent release from being in hospital due to depression, to run with my neighbour. We didn’t overdo it or anything - maybe about three kilometres. However, considering I am on the old side of ‘young’ and a few years from middle-aged, and hadn’t tried anything like that in a very long time, I was overdoing it.

I haven’t been able to do anything much except hobble about the house for the past few days and ache pretty much everywhere.

If I were to walk, and then walk faster and then intersperse it with jogging, and then and only then try to jog and be consistent - I may not be in this position.

So my two lessons I wanted to share are to start slow and to be consistent.

There could possibly be a third lesson in stock for me. As much as I hate this, running seems to produce a pain in my knee that is intractable and resistant to pain-killers, heat packs and rest. Running on grass may help. Riding a bike may be an alternative I’ll have to consider. I’m scared it won’t quite kill the blues the way running does.
However, I can keep it up and am more gradual bike-riding. Therefore, a third lesson may be to be flexible.

I’ll just have to see. As with most things in life, you make the best of all the situations you can. However ,a baby knows to crawl first before walking. About time I figured it out! I know exercise helps me. Tomorrow I'll stretch!! It's all about the baby steps.

#_patience
#_exercise
#_consistency
#_flexibility
#_persistence
#_life_skills
#_mindset
#_motivation
#_psychology


%selfavenue