#ShineOn

Today on my run I had an the most wonderful epiphany. It was that I wanted my light from within to shine so brightly that a shadow could not exist in my presence.

Hide it under a bushel? NO IM GONNA LET IT SHINE! 

Running. I freaking love running! Yes I have aches and pains like the next guy but I don’t allow them to stop me, for I know the benefits far outweigh the “don’t do it , be a whimp” voice in my head. The aches and pains that come out of me from running are usually more emotional and spiritual than physical. My body can go much further than my mind allows.

During a run I usually get deep down and real with myself, I get all up in my head and start worrying and pondering things that need to be dropped off and not picked up ever again, all those people who did this or said that, why am I’m running with them on my back? Do you even know how heavy they are!! Drop them off at the nearest bus station with a one way ticket to “get-the-heck-out-of-here-ville.”

Why do we allow one negative comment to consume us?
When 1000 positive comments come and go?
That’s craziness! Dwell on the good, not the bad! 

I’m going to get real and a little bit vulnerable with you guys today. Which is super hard for me to do as I have left that scared little girl behind… When I was younger, my childhood was “interesting” to say the least.. I found running as a teen doing cross-country in school. As I ran I would imagine the trees, mailboxes or signs were people who wanted to or had hurt me so I would race past them to leave them behind.  If I could outrun them, then I could outrun my problems as though I actually had any control over the situations in my life where I felt scared, alone, and abused. This was my very first feeling of empowerment. It was glorious!

As I have gotten older running has always been an empowering thing in my life. One that every time I do I ask myself why I don’t every single day!  Through my life I have overcome a massive amount of hurdles and have fallen and been kicked so hard, many, many times. There have been some dark skeletons living in my closet over the years and would come out at the worst possible times slap me around a while and try to take me down. And until about 2 years ago they usually succeeded. It was literally a wrestling match inside of me to work up enough courage to be brave and to shove them back into the closet, to hide them a little while longer. Then I could shake off the funk, dust myself off and pretend just a little while longer that everything was ok. I felt like a porcelain doll holding back the waters of Hoover dam, ready to burst and hoping no one would notice my cracks.

About 2 years ago something changed. I got tired of being bullied and scared and overrun and allowing people to treat me badly, most of all I got tired of them dang skeletons always popping out to ruin my day, week, month. I got MAD! And you have to get mad to make a change. Now every time a skeleton tries to pop out… I am braver than brave… And I jerk him out by his head, dismantle him and sling him into the eternal abyss. This one little saying changed everything for me….

“You have no power over me! ~ Labyrinth 

And it doesn’t. Nothing does unless YOU ALLOW IT TO!!! Isn’t that freeing?  Let that sink in for just a bit. “You have no power over me” say it out loud. When a negative thing fills your head tell it! You have no power over me! And drop it off at the abyss bus stop! Buh-bye!

Free yourself from the prison of others! 

Now when I run I imagine the shadows on the ground are negative thoughts, feelings, people, situations and I run them suckers over, sometimes I see a big one coming and I make sure to jump over them,  yep I’ll skip that disaster and soar though the air instead. Eventually my light will shine so bright from within that there will not be any shadows left in my presence! Now that’s what I call true empowerment.

Empowerment.

That is the most freeing thing you can find.
Running does it for me. Give it a try!
What empowers you?