Lessons learned from a run

Hello hello, welcome to another post from Clueless Carley!

I woke up this morning with this sinking feeling I can't quite describe. I was feeling down and struggled to get out of bed. But I eventually did and got on with my morning. Fast forward to the part where I’m finally getting a start on the essay I should have started weeks back - I obviously was not in the right headspace and in the spur of the moment I thought “screw this, I’m going on a run”.

I surprisingly followed through with this crazy idea and while I was on said run it had cleared my head and injected these new perspectives into me. As you could probably tell from the title of this post, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned simply from going on this run. Some are pretty self-explanatory and others may sound a bit weird but here’s what you’re probably reading this post for..

Lessons learned from a run

·      Choose ‘your people’ like you choose your music: We vibe with different tunes like we vibe with different people. Listen to music that pushes you to run that extra mile, or the ones that make you want to dance and sing out loud - surround yourself with the same type of people. 

·      There are so many ways to achieve the same thing, don’t limit your options: You can run in different ways - backwards, forwards, on a treadmill, run/skipping, all that jazz - so imagine the different ways you could go about a project or just doing a simple task. Get creative. Try new things.

·      Breathe: This comes quite naturally to most of us if you ask me, but it seems we often forget to put our daily activities on pause and give ourselves a break. If you can't run for an extended period of time without a break, then you probably can't continuously do work without a break either.

·      Pace yourself: This kind of ties in with my point above. We are all at different stages of our lives so don't compare where you're at with where someone else is at. The point is, take as much time as you need as long as you are moving forward. 

·      Stay hydrated: Another obvious one but !!! IT'S SO IMPORTANT! Also, along with drinking heaps of water, just take care of yourself and your body in general! 

·      Hearing an old song is like catching up with an old friend: I love listening to old throwback songs, and I discovered today that sending a quick message to my friends that I haven't seen in a while makes me feel so happy - just like hearing an old track. Keep in touch with the people who matters to you!

·      Spotify premium is great

·      Stay focused: You wouldn't stop running just to check your phone (at least I assume not) - so why is it any different when you're trying to get work done?

·      Stitches is like the physical form of a bad day: They're a pain and they may slow you down but hey, they come and they go.

·      Doing stretches is just as important as the actual running itself: Being prepared is definitely helpful, and it can save you a lot of stress and damage later on. 

·      Running isn’t fit for everyone and that’s okay, but find the equivalent of it that works out (ha, see what I did there!) for you: It doesn't have to be running, I just find that it helps me clear my head. Find out what helps you relax and boost your energy, then try to do it more frequently. 

I’ve actually cut the list down a bit and there’s so much I can say about each bullet point that I could probably dedicate a whole post to each of them. But to keep this post short so I can get some lunch and get back to my essay, I will save it for another day.

There's many other ways you can interpret these points - I'd love to read what you think or how you'd interpret them to put things into perspective! 

I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves and don’t forget to ‘go on a run’ once in a while!

Carley x