Recently, I’ve been reading a book called ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by best-selling Japanese author Murakami. It’s got me thinking a lot about the connection between running and mental health. Let me explain…
Overcoming Cognitive Blocks to Running
I started consistent running about a year ago, during Sydney’s extended lockdown. I did it every day, with no particular goal apart from using it as an opportunity to leave the house and trying to move my body for at least half an hour. Soon I realised that the hardest part of running was the connection point between my brain thinking ‘I should go for a run’ and actually exiting my front door. There were so many things that could get in the way of that- a look out the window at the terrible weather, the annoyance of changing into exercise gear and the feeling that I don’t have enough time.
If I got too caught up in how hard it was to go running, then it was impossible to convince myself to actually do it. My thoughts, or cognitions, could easily block me from getting out the door and running. I learnt that thinking less, and trying to do things as automatically as possible was the best way to approach running. After I got into a routine, I started to enjoy the dopamine hit from a long run, as well as the way my body became leaner. I even began to look forward to running!
Running, Mental Health and Pain
Running is often a metaphor for approaching difficult things in life. As Murakami puts it;
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore’. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.”
There are so many things in life that are painful- relationship issues, pressures at work, doing your taxes, raising children. But all these things have positive elements to them too! Whether or not we let something painful turn into something that causes suffering is largely up to us, and how we approach the painful thing.
Running and The Wall of Awful
With my patients, I often use a metaphor called ‘the wall of awful’ to represent the barriers that we can build in front of something that is painful or difficult. When we are in a bad mood, we can project many negative messages that build up our walls of awful. Just like the messages I would tell myself before going running like, “it’s too cold outside” or “I have too much work to do.” This makes the task at hand even more daunting or distressing.
Or we can approach our walls in a way that doesn’t build them up- reminding ourselves that we are strong enough to get through things, asking someone else for support or encouragement or trying to find a routine or rhythm that involves less thinking and more doing!
I learnt to run through my wall of awful, instead of building it up, and I’m enjoying the view on the other side.
