#7: Endorphins Baby, Endorphins
Living gratefully today, I appreciate my sense of hearing and the songs that help me know both joy and sorrow. I am also thankful for endorphins.
Point of Clarity #7: “Endorphins are free and very effective.” Nature's own pain and stress relievers. One of the "feel good" chemicals in our brains, they are mood altering in a healthy way. Sure, I may be hooked on them, but they won't kill me like alcohol would have.
A bulk of mine are generated in the footfalls of my runs, but I also walk, bike, and do some strength training and targeted exercises. These babies work, never failing to help boost my energy and mindset, even when I might have to push myself out the door.
They helped me when I was recovering from surgeries and on my worst post-chemo days. Even if all the further I could go was a couple blocks walking slowly, or as I did my physical therapy to regain my arms' range of motion post-mastectomy.
There was something healing about the left/right bilateral movement of my legs and body after bilateral mastectomy. I remember quite clearly my first flat-chested run. It was in Vegas about five weeks after surgery. I was there with my sisters. I felt vulnerable, but free too.
A few months later, I have another vivid memory. The first time I headed out my own front door on a warm spring day in a short sleeved shirt. I was coming to terms with the loss of my breasts, getting beyond my self-consciousness at running flat and wondering what others saw and thought.
A feeling of unfettered freedom washed over me just down the trail from our house. The self-consciousness didn't fall away completely, but my new normal was emerging in welcome ways.
My sister Mary Jo wasn't one to run much, but she still joins me on many of my runs.
And through it all--the grief, healing, joy--it has been the endorphins that lead the way. Endorphins baby, endorphins. Go create some today!
Point of Clarity #7: “Endorphins are free and very effective.” Nature's own pain and stress relievers. One of the "feel good" chemicals in our brains, they are mood altering in a healthy way. Sure, I may be hooked on them, but they won't kill me like alcohol would have.
A bulk of mine are generated in the footfalls of my runs, but I also walk, bike, and do some strength training and targeted exercises. These babies work, never failing to help boost my energy and mindset, even when I might have to push myself out the door.
They helped me when I was recovering from surgeries and on my worst post-chemo days. Even if all the further I could go was a couple blocks walking slowly, or as I did my physical therapy to regain my arms' range of motion post-mastectomy.
There was something healing about the left/right bilateral movement of my legs and body after bilateral mastectomy. I remember quite clearly my first flat-chested run. It was in Vegas about five weeks after surgery. I was there with my sisters. I felt vulnerable, but free too.
A few months later, I have another vivid memory. The first time I headed out my own front door on a warm spring day in a short sleeved shirt. I was coming to terms with the loss of my breasts, getting beyond my self-consciousness at running flat and wondering what others saw and thought.
A feeling of unfettered freedom washed over me just down the trail from our house. The self-consciousness didn't fall away completely, but my new normal was emerging in welcome ways.
My sister Mary Jo wasn't one to run much, but she still joins me on many of my runs.
And through it all--the grief, healing, joy--it has been the endorphins that lead the way. Endorphins baby, endorphins. Go create some today!
Comments
Post a Comment