Presently, I am reading a book called “Running & Being – The total Experience” written by Dr. George Sheehan who is a runner. He brings inspirational teachings about meaning and benefits of running.
One of the of the things he talks about is being in the present and not to wait for tomorrow to do what you can do today.
There is no tomorrow, because there is never. At this moment, we have the present. We are always at risk, always at hazard, at any moment in time anything can happen – in a split second.
For an athlete and even myself, who is a runner, the pure concern is the present.
What we did yesterday does not matter as it is gone and nothing can be done or changed.
We can plan the future, set goals but it is not a concern as what can be done to accomplish the goal is the task we do at hand. The step may not be huge but will lead to accomplishing the big vision.
Living in the present is life – living life
In July 2022 – I had planned to start running and becoming more active since I had been in recovery mode last month with my PRK Laser Eye Surgery.
The morning of July 1 2022, I had completed an elliptical workout and full of excitement and energy that my active days was beginning. Later that afternoon, I was planning to go for a walk.
Before the morning could end , all of a sudden as I got up from the living room to pick an utensil for my lunch, my life turned around. My left 5th toe hit the corner of the sofa leg and it broke. I was in pain, it hurt. I never pictured getting injured this day – life changed in a heartbeat. — Present is all we have, anything can happen in a split second. We are always at risk and in hazard.
Once again for the next 6 weeks, I was in recovery mode – no running, no cycling, no lifting weights. I felt disappointed.
Yet, it did not stop me from going outside. As recovering, I only had today and a vision of running again.
I could not sit for 6 weeks and do nothing.
Each day, I did something to reach the big picture – may it be sitting on the floor – stretching and resting for the first week. As sitting, resting my legs, I visualized myself being healthy and running a race , may it be 5km, 8km or 10km. I watched you tube videos about running. The aim is visualizing myself healed and running.
At the end of the second recovery week, (it was 10 days of recovery) I started putting my foot on the floor, seeing if I can stand without pain, then a few days later by end of 3rd week, I had to see if I can walk. I went to the doctor – she x-rayed and said, healing process was good. Even though doctor said to continue resting and not walk, I started walking. At first, I started to walk – less than 10 minutes, then 1 week later, 20 minutes. By the end of 5th week, I was walking 30 minutes. By the end of 6 weeks, I was walking for one hour.
Doctors will say to rest but if we don’t move completely, we are hurting ourselves more. Doctors are doing their job based on the knowledge and experience. We can tell when our body is ready to move. Recovery doesn’t mean to sit all day and not do anything at all when it comes to exercise, diet and healing process. When we think for ourselves, we are leaders.
When the mind has a vision and goal along with visualization, a goal can be accomplished.
After the six weeks had fully ended, a revolved my walking to trail walks and a small hike. By the 8th – end of August. I started running – lightly which revolved to running 3k to 5k to 6k.
Now, I have registered in the Victoria 8k Race being held on Oct 9 2022.
With Discipline and focus each day — Visions can come true.
Look at today – what can you do to reach that ultimate goal.
