Reminders and mantras

  Running mantras are interesting and strangely compelling. I love reading when others post them.  I find it interesting when people get all zen and mellow.  Funny, but I like to yell at myself in my head when the going gets tough. Sometimes out loud but if I have to do that I usually don't have the breath to expend on actual out loud yelling.  It comes out more of a whisper yell.

   I don't take it personally of course but I must say that a choice swear word adds weight to the "encouragement".  Its as if I listen to myself and believe it if I swear....  I do remind myself that I am a rock star and a total badass but I seem to respond better to the inner yelling especially when its tough.  Most all of my runs are mellow and laid back and I feel a sense of connection with the world that is lovely.  I'm a barefoot runner so it stands to reason that I would be all zen like and mellow but sometimes......

"Suck it the fuck up buttercup!"  My favorite. The most often repeated. over and over and over...
I remember picking buttercups on the hill behind our house in California as a little girl and rubbing them under my chin.  I don't remember what it meant  if it was yellow under your chin.  Something about love I think.  That memory and the rhyming of the words makes me move. Its powerful, sassy, funny, and lovely all at the same time.

  Here is an example of an inner monologue often goes like this.."You are a flippin' hypochondriac. Move your ass hypochondriac.  You know this of yourself. The likelihood of you buying the proverbial farm is slim.  If you do die however, you would rather die running than sitting on your ass somewhere.  And when someone asks your spawn what happened to their mother, they can say she died out on a run.  She was cool like that."
I get all boot camp army sergeant on my ass.

"You've. got. more."  I say this over and over.  Its easy to say and I believe it.

"It hurts worse to stop so don't."

Every person's death is a tragedy and its destined to all of us. As far as deaths go, on the run wouldn't be so bad.

"You have so totally freakin got this!" (thanks to EMZ :)

Embrace the pain.  The discomfort is part of the joy.  They go hand in hand and are a part of each other.

I sometimes pretend that I am on some distant planet running from aliens while I am trying to save the universe with my kooky companions.  I usually hum a theme song while in this state of mind.

C-section recovery and three natural childbirths.  I can take the pain.  I can embrace it and learn to love what my body is doing.   I think lovingly of their births.

Pain is not without beauty.  Its all about perspective.

I count my breaths in and then count out.

 I think of Ray and Japhy in Dharma Bums.....I should read that again.

I recite the Bene Gesserit mantra from Dune.
I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.


I will probably add to this list as new ones come up.