Thing #3: Running Makes Me Think Positively

I honestly can't even believe how much better I feel during and after a run.

I'm not sure how long it took me to stop thinking about the work and just let the ideas flow. For a long time it was a physical and mental struggle to even run two miles. I did it only because I felt I had to, to get in shape. But after a while I started to realize that while I'm running, I start feeling a little invincible. Not completely invincible; just a little.

There are days when I think, "This is going to suck." Maybe I've worked a long stressful day already, or maybe it's a 90-degree summer Sunday after a rain and I stayed out too late with friends the night before. And the first mile may be truly horrible, with me panting and feeling overheated or achy. But when my abs start to cramp, or when my knees start to ache a little, first the left, then the right, I somehow know I can just run through it. So I keep going. And then a mile or so later, I realize, my knees just don't really hurt anymore. "When did that happen?"

But where I really see the positivity in action is in my brain. Once I've launched into a run and am really going, I feel like I can kill any project I'm working on. I'm going to nail the interview, I'm going to sell the campaign, I'm going to forget that loser,  I'm going to break a 30-minute 5k, and I'm going to be amazing! I start plotting the details and talking myself up in my own head. Anything I want to do, I'm going to do it! Better than anyone else! And this positive energy takes over and makes my legs carry me the rest of the way, without any thinking about it.

It's like my friend in high school who used to run next to me and cheer me on as I tried so desperately just to finish a practice without walking. Only now I've been at it so long that I've learned how to be that voice for myself.

I know Life isn't always that simple. But I also know that people use a lot of worse things to get away from reality for a moment. Things that aren't constructive whatsoever. But my escape? I'm able to bring pieces of it back to my reality, and put them to use.

I get in my car and head home, and even if I don't have specific goals in mind that day, I at least feel accomplished. I just ran three miles.