Running Mindfully: Just Strides and Flakes

Today I am grateful for a visit with my friend Betsy and for the well-written sitcoms "Mom" and "Life in Pieces" and the laughs they bring.

Yesterday I went for a run in the cold with a cold. I have been fighting with the cold for four days and the cold is winning. But I still felt like going for a run outside. I was getting a little stir crazy.

As I started my run, I caught my mind going all over the place and I had to rein it in.

I tried focusing on just the run. Stride by stride. Slower when I hit an icy patch. Hood up when the wind came up. Stride by stride. Just running.

Then some light snow started to fall. I focused on a flake as it floated in front of me and then another flake. And another. Just a snowflake at a time.

It helped. My mind emptied out some of the useless rhetoric it had been busy replaying over and over. It brought some relief to this overthinking overdoer.

I'll take what I can get. A mindful run. A step at a time. A clearer head. Fewer thoughts, more focus.
The unnecessary fell away like the snowflakes. The clarity returned.

A full mind or mindful? It's a daily question for me.