You guys- what a week. Soooooo many things went wrong, but here I am, one day before my race, and I’m ready to go. What went wrong, you ask? WELL…
My “difficult foot,” the one with plantar fasciitis, decided to implode. Yes, on a week with no long runs and no hard strength workouts, my foot was really sore. I did my stretching, mobility work and massage, and in desperation pulled out my trusty Louise Hay.
You Can Heal Your Life was published in 1984 and I read it in the 1990s. Louise believed that all of our physical ailments are caused by thought patterns, and said that positive affirmations can heal everything, including cancer. As a matter of fact, she claims to have healed her own cancer this way.
Well… I’m pretty sure if I ever get cancer, I’ll be rushing to the hospital for my surgery and chemo treatments, but I do believe there’s a place for affirmations. Flooding your mind with positive thoughts can only help.
You can see there’s a list of ailments, what thought patterns supposedly cause them, and an affirmation to heal each one. For “foot problems” the cause is “fear of the future and of stepping forward in life.” The healing affirmation is “I move forward in life with joy and with ease.” I’m pretty sure it didn’t heal my foot, but it really helped to calm my mind. “I move forward in life with joy and with ease” is a much better thought than “OMG I can’t believe this is happening, what if I can’t run, what will it feel like to run 31 miles with a sore foot, this is a nightmare!”
By Wednesday I was feeling more optimistic about my foot, and was enjoying my day off… until I got a text from my daughter asking to be picked up from school early. WHAT? When I picked her up she said she was achy and was so tired that she fell asleep in one of her classes.
OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE’S SICK NOW THERE’S JUST ENOUGH TIME FOR ME TO GET IT AND MISS MY RACE WHAT IF IT’S COVID… no, no, no. I pulled out the affirmation for “colds”, which is “I allow my mind to relax and be at peace. Clarity and harmony are within me and around me.”
Well, I’m not sick! (And neither is she, it turns out. She slept for twelve hours and woke up feeling completely normal- PHEW.) I’m not sure if the affirmation actually boosted my immune system, but it definitely helped me to calm down and get a decent night’s sleep.
You know what’s just like affirmations? Mantras! Most runners have mantras they use during a hard run or race. One of my favorites is, “I am strong, I am good at this, I can do it.” It also helps to have a shorter mantra, something like “quick and light” or “fast and strong.” I’m going to modify the Louise Hay foot affirmation to make it a mantra for my race: “Forward with joy.” In Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run he said that during a particularly painful section of a race, he repeated “This is what you came for” over and over again.
Do you use affirmations or mantras? – if yes, what’s one of your favorites?
I’ll be back on Sunday to tell you how the race went!
25 Responses
I’m sorry for the stresses of all these issues, but glad they seem to be resolved and you are ready with mental tools and mantras — I hope that you really do enJOY your race!
I do draw on mantras in a tough race (or steep hill on my hike). I truly believe what they say about running being mostly mental~
Thank you Coco! I definitely feel like I’m ready mentally… now my foot just needs to hold up (it will!)
Jenny!!! I have been thinking about you all week! You are so close!
Such a bummer about your foot, but I am hoping that once you get going it will calm down and feel good. (I base this on my own experience, which seems to be that my plantar fasciitis prefers to be in motion rather than still. Waking up and standing after sitting for awhile can still be very painful, but once I’m out and walking the pain dissipates. I am hoping the same is true for yours!)
Your mantras for the week sound very soothing. I’m glad you have been using them. My parents have used what I guess are affirmations all my life and two of the big ones are “you can hold your breath that long” to remind us that a difficult situation is temporary and “there will be a beneficial outcome.” I find them very useful, as an adult and as a parent. I also like, “there will be a time after this.” One mantra I use is “I have no control over this.” I most often use it on airplanes during turbulence, and find it surprisingly calming.
Sending you ALL the healthy, good weather, pain-free thoughts for your race!
Thank you Suzanne!!! Yes, my hope is that once I’m running, my foot will be okay. It usually is, but this week it was it was behaving strangely. I can see how “i have no control over this” would be very helpful, in situations where you truly have no control.
Oh my goodness, Jenny! For both the foot and the not-Covid thing. I’m so sorry about all the stress! Of course I was interested in the affirmation about the foot since as you know I’m dealing with a bad foot issue. And I must say for myself it was very spot on and I might use that affirmation too, although I definitely believe more in science than in affirmations. Positive thoughts and stress relieving strategies have a lot of good effects for the body so they certainly have a place too.
Go with your runner mantra, you can and you will do this!
I have some mantras, for most issues in life and it’s like “It’s going to be ok”, “I’ll get through this, I always do”, and something in terms of “Other people can do this so of course I can!” and with injuries “This is only temporary and I’ll be ok”.
“This is only temporary” is a great one. And for the foot- the way I look at it is, I’ll do anything I can. I’ll definitely seek out medical interventions if possible, but I figure throwing some affirmations in there as well won’t hurt. I hope your foot feels better SOON.
All the good thoughts (and extra for that foot)! Hopefully you got all the bumps out this week and your race is smooth sailing! I love mantras and affirmations (and so does my daughter); right now, our faves are “forward is a pace” and “I’m strong. I’m brave. I’ve got this.” (As well as the perennial “watch out world – here I come!”)
“Forward is a pace” might come in very handy tomorrow. Thank you, Lindsay!
You’ve got this Jenny! I am so sorry that pesky foot had to butt into your week, but I love that the mantras are helping you focus. I am BEYOND excited to hear about your race. I hope tomorrow is insanely fun and you worked so hard for this and I am incredibly proud of you <3
I collect quotes like crazy, but don't necessarily turn them into mantras very often. A few mantra-like things I do say:
"You can do hard things". (Either to myself or, more frequently, my kids. I'm not trying to say the things they're facing aren't hard…just that I know they can do hard things).
"The only way through is through."
"Just don't die". This was my skiing mantra this winter; I'm actually blogging about it next week. I would repeat over and over: Just don't die. It sounds horrible, but it was actually very comforting and helped me focus on staying safe and reigning myself in when things felt a bit iffy.
A friend recently commented about "Start with the easy stuff" and that has been tremendously helpful as at least once a week I hit a wall and feel overwhelmed by all the things that need doing. Now I try to just start with the easy stuff! It really helps.
I LOVE "Forward with joy" and it reminds me of advice I heard recently to put yourself in the path of things that will make you happy. No pressure to BE happy, but do things that are likely to nudge you in joy's direction. And I love that Scott Jurek quote. It's a bit like Elizabeth Craft's saying: Don't treat a gift like a burden!
Time for me to stop. Gah. I love quotes and aphorisms and mantras!
Thank you Elisabeth! I’ll think about a couple of those tomorrow- “The only way through is through” is a good one. I’m laughing at “Just don’t die.” Hopefully my race won’t be THAT difficult, but if things get really bad tomorrow, I’ll think of that!
So glad no one is sick at your house – especially you! My husband’s foot is feeling better and he is “game on” with his marathon on Sunday. I am feeling “eh”, but not expecting anything for my race. No goals, other than to not injury myself beyond repair! I do have a very full workload of stuff going for both the race and for a band event in the next few days. They are all things I signed up for though, and I enjoy all of the volunteering. I feel like a line from a recent song speaks to me so much… “I welcome the pressure”. I do work better under pressure, so hopefully a positive spin on it will keep me moving through my race on Sunday!
Hope your race goes great – and see you on the other side!!
YES! Good luck to you and your husband (glad his foot is better- he must be moving through life with joy and ease.) You do have a lot going on in your life, all the time it seems. I can see how you would thrive under pressure.
Oh my gosh, what a week! I am glad your daughter wasn’t actually sick. This is getting into TMI territory but maybe she’s getting her cycle or something along those lines? That’s where my mind goes when you feel off and it’s not viral/some other illness.
I have to roll my eyes a bit at this author’s thought that you can heal yourself, especially as a person with a stupid chronic illness with ridiculously expensive meds. If only I could heal myself! I spent 45 minutes on the phone this week trying to figure out how to get my $3,300 copay for my expensive RA injections covered this week – and I’m getting a flare while on these meds so I discussed other options with my doctor yesterday, one of which is $8000/month! It’s madness! But – I do believe in the power of positive thinking. It just has it’s limits IMO.
I am sending you all of the good thoughts and can’t wait to read your race report. One thing I’ve done during my last several marathons was to use the pace bracelets they give out for people who are trying to hit a certain pace and by each mile, I wrote a person’s name that I would pray for/think about during that mile of the marathon. It was a great way to take my mind off the pain. I put people who needed extra prayers/thoughts during the final 6 miles so I could sort of offer up my pain for them. But they don’t do pace bracelets for ultras, or I doubt they do, so that technique is probably not super applicable to an ultra!!
No, they don’t do pace bracelets- but I could always write things on my arm.
And yes, I think that’s the flaw with “heal yourself through positive thoughts”. If that really worked, no one would ever be sick again. Louise Hay supposedly cured herself of cancer, but there are people who die of cancer all the time- it’s hard to believe it’s because they weren’t thinking the right thoughts. Anyway, we’re in agreement- the power of positive thinking definitely has its limits.
I’m so excited for you! I can hardly wait to hear about how your race goes. I bet it’s amazing!!
I’m with Lisa, I think, in that the power of positive thinking only gets you so far. I do think it’s helpful to have mantras if that’s something that helps you focus, but I always found a lot of the power of positive thinking kind of victim blame-y. Ha. Anyway, here’s to a joyful and easy race!!
Oh man, all of the pre-race drama is out in full force. YOU’RE ALMOST AT THE START LINE!!!!!!!
Enjoy every second of your race! You’ve got this!!!!
Thank you! Yes, lots of drama that I could have done without- but it is what it is.
I hope your race goes well!!!! I am so looking forward to hearing about it. I remember when you first wrote about signing up to do it and I thought, “April is so far away!” And here we are. I am so inspired by what you undertake and the positive energy you put into your running.
My son’s preschool class had a daily affirmation that they would say every day – I thought it was cute, though I don’t remember them now. I don’t have any myself, I don’t think. But maybe I do – I’ll have to start paying attention to what I tell myself when things get hard.
I think Hay’s affirmations – even if not the cure-all they claim – they seem like generally good things to tell oneself to develop strength mentally and emotionally.
Good luck!
Thank you Diane! I know- when I signed up, April did seem far away, and here we are. The time passes regardless so we might as well spend it in a productive way!
Good luck! I think that you are having a bit of the taper tantrum; every time I have a taper week, it feels like everything hurts and I start to doubt myself and I wonder why the &*$) I signed up for the race. BUT you have to trust your training! You are going to do great. GO GET EM!
Yes, “taper tantrum” is the perfect way to describe it. WHY does that happen???
Good luck today Jenny! I will be thinking about you! I hope all goes well. Love the mantras – I am a big believer in positive thinking, although maybe not in the “curing cancer” kind of way. I can’t believe that the day is finally here! Looking forward to hearing about it.
In terms of mantras, in the summer of 2020 I watched Hamilton and became obsessed with the Schuyler sister song that goes “look around look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now” and I think about that all the time.
“Lucky to be alive” is a great mantra! I love it.
I love a good mantra and affirmation, but whew, that page you turned to in that book is SOMETHING. I do not believe you can cure cancer (LOLLLL) with mantras/affirmations and that’s actually very hurtful to people who have lost loved ones to cancer. Like, my grandma did not die from cancer because she didn’t have the right mindset, you know? (I am not saying YOU are being hurtful, but the book is.) Anyway, I use them a lot when I’m in an anxiety spiral and they really help to center me in the present moment.
Yes, I agree. It can actually be seen as judgmental (you got sick because you had the wrong mindset.) But there’s definitely a place for mantras and affirmations. Using them to get out of an anxiety spiral is a perfect example.