Head Over Heels: Mini-Vacation Sanctuary

December 15, 2009

Mini-Vacation Sanctuary

When I run, I find inner freedom and peace. I know how cliche that sounds, but it's cliche because it's true. Right now, for example, I'm sitting on my bed with my laptop. I have a graduate class final presentation to give tomorrow night, and I'm beyond worked up about it. I've been sitting here all morning with the slides running on my laptop while I try to talk along with them. However, I keep stumbling over the most basic words, thoughts and ideas and now I'm sitting here way too worked up to continue properly functioning. The solution? I'm going to go chug some water and go for a run. Going for a run allows me the freedom to escape from graduate presentations and work stresses and life puzzlers. It allows me to tune in to my music, and tune out the rest. Taking a mini-vacation from your daily routine and stresses is essential to being healthy. I know if I continue to sit here for the next few hours without taking a mental, and physical, break, I'm going to fall apart. Knowing when enough is enough is important. Sometimes the best studying we can do is when we close the book. And sometimes the best therapy doesn't exist in thinking, it exists in putting on your sneakers and hitting the pavement. So go take a mini-vacation from yourself, even if only for 30 minutes. Hey, at least it's cheap :)

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Welcome to Head Over Heels!

Like many 20-something women, I woke up one morning exasperated. It seemed like every day I would find a new passion, a new dream, and get excited about yet another project, just to find that they would all crash and burn. I wanted something that I could control and that would be all mine.

Because our 20s are a time of exploration and discovery, it's very hard to find that path that directs us exactly to our dreams, especially because our dreams have the habit of evolving overnight. I had worn myself into a tizzy of exhaustion, disappointment, and an overwhelming sense of having no control over my own life. And that's when I went for that first run.

Two minutes later, I arrived back at my apartment steps, panting. As long and as torturous as those two minutes felt, they also gave me a sense of liberation, a feeling that had been severely lacking in my life. The next day, pathetically still sore, I again put on my sneakers. Three minutes, yes! This routine was repeated daily throughout the summer and now, I'm a half-marathoner! My ultimate goal, a marathon, still looms in the distant future, but the even bigger goal is one I can actively work on every day: learning to gain control over my own life and learning to fall in love with myself one step at a time.