RED January - Day 3 - Distraction
Claire Coveney
The kids are finally back at school after what felt like a long (enjoyable but long!), holiday. So its catch up day for me.
This usually happens after school holidays where I don't manage to keep on top of everything so that when they go back to school I have a huge long list of things to catch up with. But knowing that I also wanted to fit in a run I got straight into my running gear and heading off after drop off.
However the list of undone jobs were still there popping in at regular intervals distracting me from running.
The definition of distraction is "a thing that prevents someone from concentrating on something else." Of course in this instance I am the thing that is preventing me from concentrating on running and if I am not running with my attention on the thing that is doing the running, i.e. Me, a number of things could happen:
1. I am likely to lose good running form.
2. I am not as aware of my environment so more likely to trip and fall on my face!
3. It's not going to be much fun.
So today I satisfied myself with a short run gently encouraging my self to stay present with the activity of running before heading home to attend to the other tasks in the same present way.
As the zen saying goes "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." I'm working on it.