Health & Wellness by Lexa's Journal

I run more than I write.  A balance between the two is better.  After each run, I update my Facebook, twitter (lexa82), and sometimes Instagram.  Rarely does my WOD (workout of the day) appear on Lexa’s Journal.

Starting today that will change.  The plan is to post my daily workouts or how I feel when I don’t get a workout in.  Perhaps doing this will motivate me to write more.

Today’s WOD that inspired this post:

Distance:               10.22 Miles

Time:                      1:41:26

Pace (Average):    9:57 mi/mi (minute miles)

Calories:                1097

Stepping out the house this morning, my sole thought was, I know that it is going to rain while I run, but please let the thunder and lighting hold off.

Dark gray clouds filled the sky, but I headed out anyway. I always run with my phone sealed in a Ziploc snack bag.  If it rains or I run through a sprinkler, the phone is protected.

Four miles into my run, the rain started.  A light drizzly rain, not the heavy rain that I ran in last month.  The rain was refreshing and kept me cool in the humid thick morning air. Throughout my run, it rained off and on, but not nearly enough to discourage or turn me around.

By the way, I especially enjoyed my run this morning.  Why?  No time restrictions, which means that I can run for as long as I want to.  It’s more fun this way.

Near the end of my run, I realized that I ran through clouds and the rain.  I stayed with the run. Ultimately I was rewarded by the blazing sunshine, which I can’t get enough of.

Today’s run is a good paradigm for the daily grind in our lives.

Some mornings, you get out of bed not feeling mentally and or physically right. Or maybe the day just starts out wrong: over-sleeping, car trouble, an argument, a sick child, etc…

From the onset, you can choose to ignore the feeling and hope that the negative energy vanishes.  You may play the victim for the day.  You know… “Why does everything always happen to me?”

You could also chose to acknowledge the feeling and make a willful decision to—mentally or physically—work through your challenge.

The “work through” could be prayer, meditation, yoga, and reading, focusing your thoughts on the positive aspects of your life, or another use of positive energy.

However it is that you mange to get through your funk, working through it is more rewarding.  Eventually the sun reappears.  Your situation, issue, or challenge may not seem as bleak or as dark as you initially thought.

I know!  I know!  I am old enough to know that my explanation may be oversimplified, but the notion is true. Our response to any situation will affect the outcome.

This isn’t my analogy.  Through readings, conversations with others, and life experiences, I learned this along the way. The energy that we put out is the same energy that we get back.

“… See the positive possibilities.  Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.”

Ralph Marston