Running
Last winter, I did a post on Instagram about how it is sometimes difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning to go on a run. A few people expressed surprise and assumed that I always leap out of bed raring to go. After all, running is something I enjoy and look forward to.
I will let you in on a secret. Most days I have to push myself to get up. I struggle when it is dark and cold or wet. To make the getting going a bit easier, I lay out my running gear the night before so when it is time to drag myself out of bed, everything is accessible and ready. There is always a reason not to run. Too tired, too busy, too hot, too cold. If I waited until I felt like it, I suspect I would run far less often. However, once I get started, it gets easier, and once my feet find their rhythm, I get lost in my thoughts and nearly always end up going longer or running further than I thought I would.
And I never regret going for a run, however tough it was to get going.
The trick is that you need to find an activity you enjoy, one where you are completely immersed in the experience and your sense of time vanishes. Bruce Lee put it aptly when he said, ‘Be water my friend.’
This state of being completely immersed in an activity has been coined ‘flow,’ and occurs when you are so involved with what you are doing that nothing else matters. And this is what motivates me to get up day after day, year after year to lace up and pad along for kilometres. This sensation of getting lost in my head and leaving all the worries and tasks that await me behind for a while is something I need, in the same way I need to breathe, eat and sleep.
When you line up at a running event and listen to the passionate way participants discuss the ups and downs of training, you begin to understand how immersive a regular running habit can be. Running, however, is not for everyone. The secret to finding the motivation to repeat an activity again and again is finding one where you reach this mystical state of flow.
I mentioned Claire Keegan’s gymnast in my introduction. A young woman who had mastered a complicated routine on the beam and was performing at the Olympics. She would have trained for years to achieve that level of mastery. Endless repetition of exercises that enabled her body to become strong enough, flexible enough and confident enough to do that single performance. I have no doubt there were times she was not in the mood to train and would have preferred to curl up under the doona, but regardless of her mood, she would have showed up. Again, and again.
Very few of us will become Olympic champions, but we do know that our bodies and our minds benefit from regular activity, and it is easier if you find something that you really find fun. There are endless ways to enjoy your body and the way it moves. One of my patients is a woman in her seventies who has been running dancing classes for seniors for years. She looks ten years younger than her age and loves not only the dancing but all that flows from it. The social engagement, the events she attends, the joy of knowing the steps to a complicated routine and thrill of performing for others. Another patient, Gemma recently retired from a job that consumed so many hours of her life, she spent little time exercising. She has discovered pickle ball and has become very competitive. If like me, you have never heard of pickle ball, I have provided a link which outlines this very popular game. I know a few yoga advocates, and others who enjoy swimming. When I spend time in Bundjaling country, I go for a rainforest/beach run and then enjoy an ocean swim with a group of women who swim all year around, every morning. If you are looking for inspiration to motivate you, do have a peek at Swimming through about three women who did this through the pandemic in a frozen lake.
I can’t promise you that getting started with an activity will be easy or that you will find yourself enthusiastically getting out of bed day after day, week after week. However, once you find an activity where you can lose yourself, the rewards will be enough that you will push yourself through the challenging ‘getting started part’ to achieve that state of flow where for a short time, your body and mind become a single entity and everything falls into place.
I will leave you with the words of Aristotle. ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.’
Writing
When my children were still in primary school there was a wonderful artist in residence programme where a local artist came along and prepared an art programme for each grade that extended over several weeks. I took a few hours off work to be one of the parent volunteers. I still recall on my first day, our artist in residence. Mrs G explained that when she asked the prep and year one classes how many of them were artists there was an enthusiastic showing of hands with every child excited to get started. By grade three and four, only half the hands were raised and by grade six, a couple tentatively raised their hands only to lower them again when they saw they were the only ones.
At Claire Keegan’s book event, she told a similar tale. When she invited children to write a story in half an hour, every child in the junior years wrote a story and managed to illustrate it in the time given. She said that they all understood that a story was not, a cat sat on the mat, but a cat sat on the dog’s mat. The enthusiastic young authors all knew the importance of conflict without being told and were delighted to share their prose with their peers.
Somewhere along the way, this innate creativity is educated out of us. We no longer raise our hand when asked if we are artists and balk at the thought of writing a story within a time frame. We worry about getting it right, about not being good enough, not having ideas or even worse, making a fool of ourselves. And yet, creativity is fundamental to being human.
It may be expressed in different ways. With a colourful garden, by making delicious cakes for special occasions or knitting gifts to donate to charity or for family and friends. I recall a patient a few years ago who could be quite prickly, and I used to brace myself when she came in for her monthly check-up. One day she advised me she was expecting a new great grandchild and showed me the quilt she was making for this new family member. When I invited her to tell me about her quilting, she beamed and scrolled through her phone showing me the unique and beautiful quilts she had made for each child, grandchild, and now great grandchild. Each one involved hours of planning, weeks of work and she often became so absorbed in her activity, she forgot to have lunch. Her enthusiasm absorbed the entire consult, and I no longer recognised my usually grumpy patient. She quite literally blossomed when sharing her passion for creating beautiful quilts.
In my last newsletter I promised to elaborate on the Japanese idea of ikegai – finding a purpose or the reason to get up in the morning – knowing what it is that brings meaning to your life.
Think about a time when you were completely absorbed in what you were doing. Hours passed and suddenly you realised the day had disappeared. For many of us, the last time we were so immersed in an activity was childhood, but placing ourselves back there is the key to ikegai. Take the time to find something that makes your heart sing. An activity where you focus only on the moment, a state known as flow. It may be something simple like reading a book in your favourite chair or more involved like the preparation of an elaborate meal to feed your friends. The key is that you are fully focused on a single activity and not worrying about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. You are not multitasking or checking emails and social media, not distracted by mundane chores or worried about your to do list.
We all have ghosts, backstories, pasts which may be painful or shameful. Our brains are constantly processing information and using our past experiences to make sense of our outer world, and this in turn informs our inner world. Our creativity, if we allow it, is a highly effective way to bring make sense of our often-tangled inner world by expressing our fears, daydreams and our past traumas in ways that can be healing and beautiful. Brené Brown wrote, ‘Unused creativity is not benign. It metastasizes. It turns into grief, rage, judgement, sorrow, shame.’
We place such a high priority of doing mundane tasks and ticking off endless jobs that our creativity can be lost under the burden of ceaseless activity. Magic happens when we stay in the moment and find the thing that makes time stop, the activity that brings us joy and heals us from the inside out.
Take the time to find your ikegai, pause there often and allow your creativity to flourish. It will take you to places you never imagined possible.
Book Reviews - What I am Reading
Between Before and After
Edita Mujkic wrote her award-winning memoir, Between Before and After following her lived experience of being a refugee. Reading the personal journey of someone who was forced to flee their homeland and find refuge elsewhere has never been more urgent or relevant.
Who could fail to be moved by Russia’s latest atrocities in Ukraine or the missile strikes on hospitals, schools and residential areas in Gaza. However, we will have long forgotten today’s news headlines in years from now while those citizens impacted will still be struggling to reconstruct their lives, forced to flee the country of their heritage living as refugees and hopeful of finding somewhere they can call home.
The beauty of Edita’s story is that she brings a personal perspective on what it means to be a refugee, a mother trying to do the best for her children while hoping to be reunited with her husband. It is a story for our times, one which is a reminder of the lasting impacts of war, the lifelong consequences for individuals who are forced to uproot their lives and rely on the kindness of strangers for survival.
For me, the book made me reflect on my Hungarian grandmother who fled when Russians invaded her country in September 1944. She fled with her daughter and one suitcase filled with oddments that were of little use in her new life in displaced persons’ camps in Germany. After applying to several countries, she came to Australia with her husband and daughter (my mum) and lived in the Bonegilla migrant camp. She spoke little of the years she lost, the hardships endured and after reading Edita’s book I would love to ask her all about it, but she died a long time ago.
I recommend this heart wrenching book, published by Hawkeye. It is a necessary and timeless story being repeated hundreds of times by those forced to flee to survive. Grab your copy of Between Before and After or listen to Edita’s interview on ABC National’s Conversations.
Her memoir was the winner of the Lakeland Book of the Year 2023, The Bookends Prize for People and Business and runner up of the Lakeland Book of the Year as well as winning The Hunter Davies Award 2023. Edita has been appointed national ambassador of the refugee council of Australia.
Getting to Know the Birds in Your Neighbourhood – A Field Guide
A friend and colleague, haematologist Lydia Pitcher, gifted me this beautiful book by ecologist Darryl Jones who will be presenting at the Brisbane Writers Festival. I have to confess, I am not a twitcher, but I do enjoy birdsong on my morning runs and delight in the feathered friends who visit our backyard daily. But this book is so special. The photography is breathtaking and could easily become the subject of an exhibition showcasing the birds who visit our suburbs. And it focuses on the birds we are likely to see in our cities rather than including every species found in Australia. The book is so cleverly set out, so that even someone like me, with little knowledge about bird species can use it and learn about more about the incredible birds who share our urban environments.
Each bird has a page devoted to it, with its common name and scientific name at the top followed by silhouettes of common birds to indicate its size in relation to species we are familiar with as well as a map showing distribution. In the left margin, there are icons that show us where the species is at home, its diet and active zone. The text is brief with features enabling easy identification, similar species, ecology, and breeding habits. And then, my favourite bit, Did you know? at the bottom of every page with fascinating information about habits, quirks or historical facts about a particular bird.
This beautiful book will join us on our back deck with a pair of binoculars and will accompany us on all our camping trips.
If you are in Brisbane, do go and listen to Darryl speak at The Brisbane Writers Festival. I will sadly miss this one as I am on my writing residency. I was lucky enough to meet Darryl at a dinner with friends where he signed my copies of his books.
Darryl Jones' latest book (he has written eight) would make the perfect gift for anyone who loves birds, the outdoors and beautiful photography. It is a very practical guide to backyard twitching.
