Is my mind playing tricks on me? That is the reflection of the day. This morning, I needed to get up and join my running partner. We are starting to train for the Chicago marathon as I mentioned in another podcast and even if it may not happen because of the pandemic, we decided that we’re going to train anyway. Because when you have a purpose and you wake up, it is so much easier to be able to get things done when you have a clear purpose. But your mind loves to play tricks on you and most of the time your mind wins. So think about it, how many times do you get up and you have the idea that you were going to wake up and workout. In the morning, your mind starts telling you, “Don’t get up! Your bed feels so good. It is cold outside.” There are a million excuses that your mind starts coming up with. It’s playing tricks on you. My mind started to play tricks on me the night before I went running and I started reflecting on that today because I realized how I’ve been winning. I’ve learned to win over my mind. All those tricks that it begins to play, I know that they are tricks and I begin to fight it. How do I fight it? By creating habits. So last night, I was like, my knee is hurting a little. I don’t know if I want to work out tomorrow. Maybe I should call my running partner and cancel. Tell him, I’m tired and it’s only one day of the week that I haven’t worked out. Come on Maria, you can rest. I recognize that by now, my mind can go someplace that I don’t want it to go. Then how do I get it back? By creating habits. I have the habit of taking out my gym clothes. My running gear, my sneakers and getting everything ready. So when I wake up, I have less time to get ready and I did it even though my mind didn’t want to do it. I did it in the morning when I got up and I really didn’t want to get up. I just wanted to stay in bed. I could see and I could feel my mind starting to work on me. Saying, you have time to call and cancel with your running partner. It’s okay, you don’t have to do this. Your body is tired. You’ve been working hard this week. Every excuse in a matter of seconds. This is how powerful your mind is. I think you can relate to this because I think we could all relate to the mind playing tricks on us all the time. The other thing that I decided to concentrate on, this is something that for me works wonders, is that I concentrate on the feeling that I’m going to get after I’m done. When I’m done, that feeling of accomplishment where my body feels tremendously accomplished. It’s hot, I’m sweating and breathing. It just feels amazing and I’m outside. It is just indescribable. So I went back to that feeling this morning. I’m getting up even if I don’t want to get up. I got my run for the day. It felt amazing and that is how I win my mind when it is playing tricks on me. Let’s reflect, reset and reconnect.
