Finding Peace

Dear Reader,

Have you ever had so many conversations, thoughts and ideas running through your head at once, that you can't even hear that little voice inside begging to be heard...telling you to just...STOP? Thoughts of deadlines, projects, side projects, travel plans, friends, family, the gazillion emails I have to respond to, and making lists and checking them twice. Thoughts swirling around in my mind, seemingly without any logical order, all started to make as much sense as Charlie Brown's teacher...wha, wha, wha, wha....

That, my dear, is how I was feeling yesterday and how I woke up feeling this morning.

When I woke up, laying in bed attempting to put these thoughts in order, I initially convinced myself that I could put off running for this evening or tomorrow so that I could focus on organizing my thoughts and myself for the day ahead. Luckily, that little voice from within...I think they call it the 'voice of reason'... stepped in long enough for me to hear, "RUN!" I dragged my bones out of bed, slapped my running clothes on, set my funky Garmin, turned my jazzy pink iPod on to the most upbeat of tunes, and hit the pavement. Within the first few steps (more like within the first mile), my mind was clear. All of those thoughts, feelings, and tasks on my 'to do' list seemed to fall in order with each foot step. My focus changed to the sound of my breathing, the rhythmic beating of my heart, the cold morning air on my face, and the bounce in my stride. I felt...at peace.

For many of us, the myriad of daily stressors are enough to overwhelm even the best of us. There are the bills to pay, deadlines at work, school projects, Occupy Wall Street protests, bad hair days, wearing white socks with black shoes, personal relationships, Kim K's divorce, traffic woes...heck, and now we have to worry about the upcoming rapture as a result of the Mayan calendar ending in 2012! We all have that little voice inside reminding us that we need to...STOP...take a breath...refocus...prioritize...relax. Unfortunately, it's often difficult to hear that little voice, so we keep chugging along in our daily lives with gazillions of thoughts running through our heads with no clear picture of how to move forward.

For me, running does the trick. Running helps me to settle my emotions, clear my thoughts, and put challenges and frustrations into perspective. Now, I'm not about to tell you how to deal with all of the things going on in your life, but I am encouraging you (as well as myself) to take time for yourself every day so that, at least in those few moments, you have peace.

Until next time...put one foot in front of the other and...keep it movin'!

Yours in (finding peace) training,

Dani