If you have a minute to read an excerpt from long-winded Lauren’s heart:
I run. I run often. I enjoy it. It relieves stress for me.
I think the reason I truly enjoy running is because for that moment you dedicate yourself to running — it’s the only thing that exists.
Problems outside your track or trail aren’t valid in those miles.
The only thing that matters is one foot strike after another.
It’s just you, your sounds of choice (I listen to music) and what your body is saying to you with each stride.
Even though, to many, it’s you against others, or you against miles — it’s really not. It’s just you and the next step you make.
You and your brain and body are just communicating over and over that you’re making a conscious choice to stay in motion….
And that’s like life, right…
It’s liberating. It’s freeing. It’s peaceful.
So with injuries limiting your ability to follow through with this solitude — your heart and mind can break. You have a slow burn to return in fear of reinjuring or pain returning, losing the momentum and skill you created or worse — not finding that same freedom as before.
I say all this long-winded love to say: Pauses are good. Breaks can help you appreciate your sport of choice. They can give you the fuel you need to start back strong, improve and remove the burnout (or in my case, immobility.) Pauses can remind you how GOOD you have it.
But know the difference between hitting pause and hitting stop — in all things in life, stopping is the opposite of pausing.
- Pausing lets you catch your breath
- Pausing creates the notion of a planned and structured restart
- Pausing allows refuel and focus
- Pausing means starting again
Stopping we’ll use as a synonym to quitting or taking a break without a “plan.”
- Stopping provides no intention or rejoining
- Stopping, in many accounts, allows you to lose your sense of structure, accountability and overall wellness awareness
- Stopping says I don’t want to prioritize my time or time management
- Stopping says I don’t want to do this anymore because other things are more important, and I’ll start back when things slow down
The reality is: things won’t slow down. Ever. Ha-ha.
They will not.
The best time to commit to a program, to work on yourself, to RUN is when you are BUSY.
Please understand — recovery, rest days, that’s all a part of a pause — those are a MUST have!
Because if you do it when you are busy — it becomes your lifestyle. It becomes your stress reliever, it becomes your safe and healthy habit of choice when life throws crazy pitches.
Pause when you’re injured, pause if you need to while you’re tired.
Just don’t stop. Because it’s SO hard to start back, when you allow stopping to become an option.
The greatest regrets I have in life started with stopping.
So here it is: Make time for wellness, or prepare for illness.
You can pause — just don’t stop.
