Mental Game

Just don't think about your hip hurting...imagine it doesn't. It hurts partly because you think it will. ---advice from coach.

I've been told by people...more than once...i'm somewhat of a complex person. I usually think: who isn't? But I guess not everyone is complex or 'multifaceted'. I can't figure myself out most days so I don't expect other people to figure me out either. But sometimes I feel very duel in nature...and here is one area that I feel somewhat duel because while I love science and experimental evidence ect... that isn't the whole picture either. I've just run into a lot of people who expect that if one thinks that way a lot of the time that many times...they also expect them to behave that way and are a little taken aback by how emotional/spiritual/intuitive I can be also. It doesn't always make sense to some people. (It doesn't always make sense to me either) I'm ok with that.

So the mental game that is also important in sports...like dealing with a nagging injury that just won't go away...maybe just telling my body I am healthy will heal it...right? Coach told me to try it. And here is where my duel brain has a big old thrown down going on inside one side thinking:

What are you talking about...just WILL it better? Are you crazy you aren't doing anything to it! How can it get better?

And the other part thinks:of course you can will it better. Mind-body connection is more mysterious than any science project can figure out.

It can be interesting the weird fights my little brain can come up with but this happened to be the one for today. Not much else is working at this point with this injury so I might as well try this technique. So whenever my mind wandered to my hip on my run today I thought:

my psoas is getting longer, running makes my psoas happy.

Basically any positive thought about my hip...i thought. And well...it really wasn't irritated when I finished. Minor trigger point I've been releasing all day...but not too bad.

I've actually done this sort of mental gymnastics before. I was about 15 when I was on a ski trip where I was cold and had no opportunity to warm myself up and we weren't leaving anytime soon...so I just told myself: I'm warm. Think of a hot tub...YOUR FEET ARE HOT....warm, warm, warm. And I remember warming up. Some people are better trained in mental gymnastics like these Tibetan monks who can dry wet blankets with just their body heat or there are some yoga techniques where yogi's can slow their breathing down to ridiculously slow rates and low heart rates. It all seems crazy at first glance but really...how much do we really understand about how the body works or even how the mind controls the body?

In my opinion, I don't think we understand much at all. Knowing what I know about science, we know so little about much of anything in the physical world it really is amazing how much there is to KNOW and how little we really understand. Much of what we understand we only sorta understand and much of what we think we understand we are really taking a stab at. Much of the time it is only possible to disprove something, not actually prove it. I am more mystified by how much we don't know...and the fact that many people seem to think that science is one step away from unraveling the all the mysteries of the universe. It isn't.

The mind-body connection is quite mysterious and I know I over look it. And positive thinking, while sometimes seems cheezy to me, can actually do something...even though it doesn't feel like it should (at least to me).But I know the power of positive thought has gotten me through many situations that have been particularly difficult. And even through descending down a hill that has freaked me out where i've just told myself: I AM a good descender...and while it hasn't made me ease up as much on my brakes as I would really like, it has helped me relax a lot.

I have some challenges I am thinking about with the whole mental game...i'll post on those in a few. Till then...my psoas is not spasming...it is getting longer...it loves to run...running helps.