The Power of Positive Thinking

Let me start this by saying I have bad days.  However, I am trying.  In the last few years I have tried hard to think more positively.  I find when you look at the positive side of things, all you begin to see is the positive.  My grandma always taught me to think positive.  And many years later, they made a movie "The Secret" all about the power of positive thinking.  Essentially, it is about putting what you want into the universe and believing you will truly receive it.

There had been some stress in my life for probably the last year, pressure I put myself under.  And when I find myself starting to really feel it I try to imagine a future with those problems solved.  Today, it was like a light came on.  Not only was a major stress relief lifted from my shoulders (Praise to the Lord....he truly works in mysterious ways) but possibly an answer to another challenge was answered too.  I cannot explain how great my mood was this afternoon, and still is.

I have found the same feeling with my running recently.  I wanted to learn to run because I couldn't.  It seemed like such a fundamental thing, running.  After I got chased by a dog, twice, and winter hit I put up my running shoes.  Then last August, I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition and saw this lady who weighed maybe 300 pounds run the Disneyland Half Marathon.  And I thought to myself, if she can do it, I can do it.  I bought a treadmill of craigslist and started training.  It went ok for a few months.  Treadmill broke, bought a new one (still cheap but gets the job done) and got back on track.  I refocused and started my serious training this February and it was going decently.  Then about a month ago a friend stressed the importance of reading the book Born to Run.  Such and amazing book.  It changed the way I ran, the way I view running, and how I now want running to be a part of my life for the long haul.  My workouts aren't as tedious and I find myself more joyous after the fact.  God made for us these incredible bodies and we aren't using them as we should.  We are made to move, made to run.  We have gotten so far from that, our muscles have forgotten how to work properly.  I may not be a great runner, or a fast runner, but I am a RUNNER.

this is me

(2011 Primo's 5k, my first race)