Mantra

I don't think I'm the only one who has ever experienced this.... When you go in and buy a car, a car you feel is not very common, you buy this car... and suddenly it is EVERYWHERE! You see every color of your car driving down your neighborhood roads. Well I didn't buy a car, but recently I've been having this experience with my thoughts! A month ago I had never even heard of Quinoa and now suddenly it is in every other recipe I pick up! When I decided to start training for a half-marathon, the first magazine I picked up had a beginners guide to training! I've also been reading about the power of mantras and what do you know?! I picked up a random running magazine and it had an article about it, two days later my Fitness magazine came and had a similar feature, then my Aunt Dawn's Facebook status talked about her own mantra. I understand that all of these things have been out there and that I just wasn't conscious of them before I became interested.... But still! Sometimes I feel like someone is probing my brain for ideas! :)

Speaking of mantras... The reason I've been reading up on them is to help with my training. I heard once that if you can run 8 miles your body can run almost any distance, the rest is just getting over the mental aspect. I hear reciting a power mantra to yourself when you are feeling like quitting helps. Mantras have long been used during meditation to focus the mind, but many athletes also use them for focus while training and competing. In the past I've used songs on my ipod to help me get through a tough run, but those tough runs where really just me being out of shape struggling to run for ten minutes. Now I need something more to get me past four miles. "I can do it," isn't cutting it. So last night while I was struggling with being sore from my hike this weekend and my ipod dying on me, I did the only thing I could think of. I created a mantra. The act of discovering it really helped with the last ten minutes of my run. I chanted to myself a lot of different things before I settled on one, "Conquer it." I decided this is going to not only be my running mantra, but also a mantra I can use in my everyday life. When I woke up this morning I said to myself, "Conquer it, today is your day." When I went into my living room and saw all the laundry I needed to do... I said "Conquer it." Overcome, be better than you thought you could be, trust in your success, reach your goal. Mantras aren't meant to be used forever, as your life changes and your goals mature your mantra changes. But for now, I'm heading off to conquer the day.