Hello Reader!
How have you been this last week?
I had an excellent run on Sunday, one of those ones where things become increasingly effortless the longer the run is. I arrived home nicely tired but also refreshed.
Early in the run, I found myself tuning into my breath not just the physical motion of running, and I fell into this lovely rhythm. I had spring in my steps. I felt my form coming right (finally). I got faster with each passing km. Those of you who run will know what I’m on about.
It was a welcome feeling for me as I find my running groove post covid.
It’s funny. We tend to focus on the ‘thing’, thinking that in doing so we’ll be most effective. But on this run my focus was on my breath, not the action of running. Some magic happened in the space between the two that elevated the ‘thing’ I was trying to do well. If I was to borrow an aspect from Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas about flow, it was like there was synchronicity between my inner and outer lives.
Is this something you’ve experienced too?
I loved this comment from Andrew in response to last week’s post
“I’ve wondered a lot about the combination of the physical world and mental world. I find them harder to dissect or separate. And I think how mental health and physical feed each other.
I’ve tried having students do this kind of thing. Reflect and report on something in a topic .. but if they write then they choose a YouTube clip of a piece of music that can relate directly , or implies a mood - and paste in so as a reader I have to listen to that whilst reading or prime to read /listen to verbal report. And then sculpt the topic in art / plasticine, Lego sculpture. And take a photo and stick that in. We’re calling it 3 point trigonometry …
… Some have given instructions to me to read slowly so the chorus lyrics are perfect at the right part of their report / story.”