Things That Are More Therapeutic Than Therapy: Running

During my very extensive experiences with things that aren’t more therapy, and my not-quite-as-extensive-but-still-very-respectable degree of experiences with things that are therapy, and in said experiences I have found several examples of the former to be far more effective at achieving the latter’s stated aim than the lattter itself. One such activity has been running.

It has taken about 6 weeks for me to get over the Christmas-induced motivation-slump-and-caloric-intake-megaspike, but I think I am finally there. Today was the first time this year that I had gone for a training run without headphones - all I left the house with were my keys. By removing this most comfortable of distractions I had no choice but to entertain the din of thoughts circling my consciousness, with only the beauty of the Talbot Valley and a gentle pain in my calves to draw my attention elsewhere. As I have slowly cajoled myself into running regularly, I have found that my emotional state throughout is always a rollercoaster, though often a predictable one. Whatever unaddressed anxieties might be swirling round in my brain duly make themselves towards its forefront, leaving in their wake a dinstinctly unpleasant taste in the mouth of my consciousness, and much of my run is spent confronting and wrestling with whatever may have been bothering me, subconsciously or otherwise, rather than battling my legs and the pavement.

It’s painful, but bizarrely some clarity always seems to be found in the last kilometre or so - I suspect the endorphins and knowledge that the end is nigh lend themsevles to cultivating inner peace rather nicely. At the expense of sounding unnecessarily preachy, I’m sure spending the time outside, away from technology also helps a great deal. I have certainly noticed that I frequently accomplish a much more meaningful reduction of mental entropy in an hour of running than I do in an hour of therapy.