I try not to over complicate the slow days anymore. I actually enjoy the quiet moments in between happenings where there’s a quick reminder the day is there to make your own!
Usually Sunday’s we sleep in. However, Jfo had an early golf thingy and was up at 5:30. Perfect. I love getting that headstart. With this new job, in order to get my runs/ workouts in I will have to be a part of that 5am club again! And like I said before, I loOVe it!
Today was one of those mornings! Now don’t get me wrong, I adore the slow mornings with my family. Getting to lay in bed, soaking up all the snuggles. I love that SooOo much! But, sometimes, the early rise just hits different, Ya know?
While I was still tucked in bed, I turned on “Think Again” – Adam Grant, I only have a couple more chapters before I’m done, and I can’t express enough how much this book feels needed right now. The more I read it, the more I want to shove all these pages down everyone’s throat (but in the nicest way possible, I’m a lady).
This wasn’t a planned read, No one recommended it to me — I walked past it in the airport, felt pulled by it, bought it, started it, and haven’t been able to put it down since.
I love the way this guy thinks. He’s scientist, but much to the point of his book, he isn’t unaware of how messy, stubborn and human we all can be. I think the world is having a hard time recognizing we are all in this, as Humans, together. Not against eachother, but for each other.
Well, maybe that’s why I have such a hard time with certain topics lately… because it all feels so unequivocally divided. Plus, I’ll admit, I’m just not educated enough about it.
If you aren’t for One, you can’t be for all…. and that doesn’t make sense to me in the slightest. So, in an effort to try and understand I just read and try to learn. Then I share. This is me sharing.
Disagreement doesn’t have to be war.
The “Run It Out” Mentality… it really works.
In other efforts to manage the energy in the world right now, and after getting all fired up over “Think Again”, I was ready to hit the running trail. Today is my first day running outside (offically, without calling it after 30 minutes… BUG HELL) in a long time.
My treadmill is my safe space, YES! But “half marathons aren’t ran inside” – well the one I signed up for isn’t. So, prepare we must.
I like to put a little snack in my belly before I do anything longer than 3 miles, furit is usually my go-to, today it was fresh raspberries and strawberries. I feel like it helps, maybe it’s just in my head –
but I swear it makes a difference. Either way, this is my body doing the work, so I’ll fuel it the way I want. And honestly, berries are always the move.
We’ve also really gotten into redlight / sauna therapy lately. I love it, I’m sippin the Kool-Aid big time. More than anything, I think what I like the most, is that they both force me to sit with myself a couple of times a day. Most mornings, it’s become part of my routine. I romanticize the routine a little bit, because, why not! I love the soft pause it gives my morning, and I like where my head is leaving both.
With the LED panel, that one wakes me up, gets me out of bed, I’ve got a little line up of drinks and fruits that I put on a tray and enjoy for the 15 minutes I’m in front of the light.
Sometimes, if I’m feeling real bougie, I’ll add a little flower vase or a candle and set it up like room service. lol, the little things.. even if it’s prepared and delivered by me. I can make that fun too- 🙂
Taking It Outside!
Anyways, the treadmill may be my safe place, but running outside reminds me that the real growth happens when you put yourself out there, when you leave your comfortzone.
Think Again pushes me in the way I think, and running pushes me in the way I move. Both feel very strategic in the way I want to move through life.
I broke two PB’s today (treadmill time is diferent time, imo). I killed it. Breaking a PB for me, in running – is like breaking old thought patterns, slow and stubborn, but possible because I keep showing up.
It was a 5.5 miler, and training wise I have a long way to go before I’m hitting 13 miles. or 26 miles, but this was a great start. I have to remind myself that all of these runners I’m seeing on socials putting in the 26-30 milers, they’ve been doing this a while. And, Yes, although in inspiring, I am hyper aware I’m not there yet. Motivated to be, so see y’all soon! -ish.
JFo keeps reminding me, I’m not comepeting. lol There is no comeptition (other than my half marathon) but even that – I am not competing against anyone, I’m just showing up for myself and forcing myself to be out of my comfortzone…. yet again!
Runners don’t compete with each other, they compete with their last mile. Same with thinking, we don’t have to tear each other down to move forward.
We all just need kindness right now, on every level.
Grateful I get these soft mornings. Grateful for the messy mornings that come with it.
Think Again = cognitive flexibility → Running outside = physical flexibility → Both spark plasticity.
Cool Links
Lately I’ve been down a rabbit hole of brain and body science, and every piece I’ve read feels connected. Interoception research shows how tuning into heartbeat, gut, and breath shapes the way we feel and make choices, while tribalism studies remind us our brains are quick to divide the world into “us” and “them,” even when it doesn’t serve us.
Mirror neurons explain why just watching someone else can shift our own mood, and hormetic stress shows that a little discomfort, heat, fasting, running, actually builds resilience. Even science itself isn’t immune to bias, shaped quietly by values and incentives, which makes metacognition, the practice of noticing our own thoughts, feel even more important. And then there’s the brain’s default mode network, the system that goes off when we daydream or imagine new futures, maybe this is where all this rethinking really takes root.
- Making Sense of Interoception – Harvard Medicine
- The Neuroscience of Tribalism – Psychology Today
- Mirror Neurons Explained – Positive Psychology
- Hormetic Stress – Verywell Mind
- Bias in Science – Joshua May (Synthese / JSTOR)
- What is Metacognition? – Psychology Today
- The Default Mode Network – Neuron (ScienceDirect)
These are all great reads, if you’re feelin’ frisky!
Take what you need!
- Lifestyle Factors: Regular physical activity, such as running, has been shown to nearly double the number of dividing cells in the hippocampus, leading to a significant increase in new neurons. This activity may also help alleviate depression, possibly by promoting neurogenesis (p. 52).
