I am blessed to live right alongside Portland Harbor where the beauty of nature is apparent in every single run I go on. I try to capture at lease a moment of it on each run through my instagram account, @veghed77. I try to really appreciate each and every run. And through a new regimen of meditation and yoga, I plan on making each run even more important and significant in my training.
I have had a mantra for a while now. Mantra, you say? Has she gone hippie? Well, maybe. But I have also always believed in the power in words and in self-talk. I went to college for English and considered myself a poet for many years (still do, I suppose). During each run, I stop for a moment by the small beach I run by. I say to myself:
'Strong in Mind. Strong in Body. Strong in Spirit.'
I want these parts of my self to be balanced. I want to be aware of where I fall short. The mind and body have often been connected to my ego. People notice if I am smart. They notice my body. I have always tended towards making these the important two. I am trying to separate all of it from ego. I am also realizing that I definitely notice when others are strong in spirit. They are people I want to spend more time with and people that make me feel inspired to do more.
How do I strengthen my spirit? My spirit is directly connected with nature and animals. It always has been. As a child I was endlessly outside. I rescued birds and mice the neighborhood cats had grown tired of playing with. Sadly, this was often an unsuccessful nursing attempt and it ended with my broken heart. My cat was my best friend. I loved to visit the cows at my cousin's dairy farm and no longer wanted burgers when I made that connection as a young girl. My happiness was linked with all of this in a way I didn't realize until years later. I bring all of this understanding with me as I begin a meditation and yoga routine that is a new venture for me.
Meditation is hard. It is sitting still. It is doing nothing. This is contrary to the life I have lived thus far, feeling a need to multitask and complete things and check of lists and be able to look back on the day and evaluate it by what got done.
Yoga is hard. It hurts in a still way that running does not. It is challenging but not a challenge to be completed as running is. My lack of flexibility is quite amusing but it does not hurt my ego because I know this is something that I am not striving to be 'good' at but it is something that connects all three of my mantra points- mind, body, and spirit. I am not in a list of finishers, ranked by percentile. I am just myself and whatever I take onto the mat emotionally.
I have begun meditating just before running. I am embarking on a whole new adventure with a plan to set an intention before each meditation and run. These daily intentions will be mostly connected to something in nature or an animal or species but may often be a member of the human species that needs some good thoughts. In this way, I can experience each run in a deeper way that will be satisfying even if my legs aren't feeling so strong. I will share these intentions on this blog.
Please contact me if you have an intention you would like me to run with! Follow me on Instagram @veghed77 to see photos of these runs. Help me to be Strong in Mind. Strong in Body. Strong in Spirit. Join me on my journey to raise money and awareness for Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
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