Transcendentalism

That's right. I said transcendentalism.  And I didn't really expect to see this word reappear so quickly.  This word, philosophy or idea is actually a concept I talk about with my students during the year.  My understanding of the word is that we are to think outside ourselves.  Anyway, transcendentalists inspired many Utopian communities to develop and form leading the way for abolition.  So it was much to my surprise when I saw the word being used in the magazine Runner's World.

Now that I have come to the conclusion, based on my last blog, that I am indeed a runner, I thought it appropriate to start acting like one.  And so I went to the store and picked up the latest edition of Runner's World and the article I was first drawn to was that which was entitled, "Transcendental Steps: Or How I Learned To Run Without My Ipod".  It quickly grabbed my attention because in the previous weeks I'd given up the Ipod I had just started running with.  I realize I never blogged about it, but nearly a week after using music as a distraction I quickly gave it up.  The couple of times I attempted to run with it, I ended up ripping the buds out of my ears.  But the idea of learning how to run intrigued me.  If I could learn how to get through it, I figured it would be like finally seeing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I know I'm different.  But I just couldn't stand the music in my ears. And while I had welcomed the distraction of music, I felt it was no longer serving its purpose - it wasn't distracting anymore.  I should mention I enjoy my own piece of mind and quiet.  I hardly ever listen to music in the car.

Anyway, this article gave me some insight on how to run because you don't exactly learn what you are supposed to be thinking about.  I've prayed a few times, but somehow the prayer ends up, "Lord, get me through this last minute!!"  Or if I'm perfectly honest, not all my prayers have stayed focused... "Lord, thanks for today, I pray you'd bless my husband... What time is Galen going to be home today?  Hey, look there's a rabbit.." And before you know it I'm wondering how I side tracked.

And so the article goes on about how the author goes to Buddhist Training Camp (to put it in my own words).  She talks about how she grew up Buddhist and never knew to apply those meditation techniques to running. (A side note here, but she talks about how she rebelled against her parents for awhile and became Evangelical Christian.  I got a good laugh out of that.  I struggled to see how she became a Christian for months only to turn back to Buddhist practices. My thought... she wasn't ever a Christian, only probably went to Church. I'll stop here - that's for another blog :)

I found some practical uses in this article for my own running life.  This Buddhist teacher talked about trying to focus on your breathing or your steps as you run.  Now I take things with a grain of salt and I'm not a believer in mixing religions to find the concoction that suits your life, however, I didn't find what was being said to be offensive.  I had to laugh though, the rest of the article did sound Utopian and like an out of body experience.  I was expecting to hear about how she had petted unicorns and ate lunch with the leprechauns while sitting on that magical rainbow. Ha, okay that's a little unfair. :)

After reading that article, however, I learned quite a bit and took some good advice from some experienced runners, but I left the article feeling empty for them as if they hadn't really tapped into the best resource.  Buddhism definitely seems to be an altruistic, "I'm going to bring myself peace and happiness" when unfortunately they are not tapping into the greatest resource of happiness and joy.  My joy comes from the Lord. It's not something I have to create for myself or fake when I don't feel like it.

But (back to running :) I figured if I can learn to run better then great.  If I can learn to be disciplined fantastic.  And that's what I took from the article along with a few other pieces of advice. Because of the advice of a friend I gave myself permission to slow my pace down.  Realizing I had the right to modify my own running was okay and who was going to criticize me for that? So I did, I slowed down my pace.  I also learned eating fiber can cause stomach cramping and since I eat nearly 100% of fiber everyday, that bit of information helped tremendously. Note to self: don't eat fiber one cereal, take fiber supplements on running days! Lastly, I discovered it was necessary to give my mind a mental warm-up and I decided it was time to walk for about 5 minutes before I actually ran.  And I needed that mental warm-up this week.  I had so much anxiety before running each time that I felt as if I had knots in my stomach - I had no confidence in myself. But after that brief walk, I felt prepared to go and endure the run.  In fact, there was a bit of excitement about the challenging run I was about to endure.

With those "tips" and honest to goodness God's help - I was able to accomplish it.  There was such a sense of victory at the end - I wanted to pump my fist in the air and shout - yeah, God that was for you! But it wasn't about what I did, it was what God's given me the strength to do and has allowed to do through me.  Now that's transcendental.