Brave Trails - Confidence and Strength for Runners Facing Health Obstacles

Hi there and welcome to Off-Trail Training Tuesday. This is my second retake of the day. I'm just pausing because I've just done a full session and then realised that it didn't go live, which was really strange. I'm having one of those weeks, so a massive apology for those that were expecting me here at 8. I did do the session, it did start a little bit late, and the live would not let me start until I realised that I'd not typed something in a particular box. So for those that have not met me before, I'm Jo Smith, I'm a health coach for trail runners, and I've been having my own health challenges this week, and that's what I'm going to put down to the reason why I got very confused with setting up this live. You wouldn't believe that I've been doing this every single week for 9 months now, and I do Monday— not Monday, Tuesday at 8 PM, I do an off-trail training session just talking about relevant subjects that will hopefully be of help to you guys who are wanting to recover following any health issues. So today's session that I really wanted to talk to you about is about being brave. Brave Trails, I've called it. Which I know I need to be brave on the trails, especially on the weekend, and the confidence and strength that it'll take for runners who are facing health issues to continue with their journeys on the trail running. So yeah, I had a couple of double whammy of falls this weekend. I mean, it's quite funny now afterwards, I was watching the videos where runners go run, run, and then they end up down in a bog like waist deep, and I always thought, oh, that's never happened to me. Well, it did on Saturday. I went absolutely down to my top of my thigh, boom, slipped off the side of the path, and I ended up right down with one leg, uh, stuck up the top and one leg right down in the bog. And then soon after, the rain comes in. I'm like getting my rain jacket on, my glasses are wet, I can't see where I'm going. I should have stopped and walked, but I didn't. I just decided to go bang, face plant right down on the ground. Luckily, I lifted my neck right back. jolted all my neck, both knees are fully bruised, elbow, you name it. The run then followed by a triple whammy migraine and basically I was stuck in bed all afternoon, so my biggest takeaway from that is don't go on a 20-something mile training run over the moors less than 2 weeks before a planned 100-mile ultramarathon. Take it Steady, look after yourself. But let's talk today, the session is about tapping into your innate abilities. So innate meaning you're born with this, this is the powers that we're all born with that we're not tapping into, we might not be aware of, and this is what I use in my trail running journeys, my ultra running, all what I'll do to take me through tough times, Whilst living and dealing with health issues and the obstacles that come along with having fibromyalgia, which is— can be very debilitating. And I did have a real big week of lots of pain last week, so potentially I should have listened to myself in last week's session about listening to your own body and listening to the whispers. But never mind, we all learn from our experience. So for today, I want to start with, well, this is what I'd describe as what they would call the 3 principles that are behind all human experience, and being aware of these is going to really help you with how it can benefit you in running goals and improving your health and fitness in general, whether or not that's with running or any other exercise, it doesn't really make a difference, it's life experience It's just about life, human experience, and what we all have massively in common is that we all do the same things. Even though we might feel that we're separate and that we're different to everybody else, we're all doing the same things and we're all using these 3 important principles which create our experience. So I'm going to talk you through them and how they'll potentially benefit you with your bravery, your confidence, and your strength. To overcome those health issues and continue to achieve at the same time, which is what I managed to do using these 3 principles. The first one being the mind, and the mind is not very well understood, you could say, compared with what we know about physiology. Like, we're light years ahead of our understanding on how the body works when it comes to the physiology, how the organs work and everything to do with that, but how the mind works, we really are in our infancy, you could say, with understanding this. And how the best way to describe the mind is, is what they may call like the universal intelligence, like the life force that's behind experience. So it's like the power It's what powers us, it's our energy source, so it's a bit like the source of electricity. So I always see it that we've got our own mind, our mind is a bit like how you might describe an electric bubble-making machine, so we've all got our own personal bubble-making machine, and normally you'd plug in a bubble-making machine, you know, the electric ones that plug in and they kick out bubbles, so the equivalent of that, we have our own personal bubble-making machine, and the equivalent is our mind, and it's spitting out 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts every day, some, for some people even more, and it never ever goes off, it never switches off, the mind is always there, always working. Without mind we've got no experience, no life. So if we can tap into that, harnessing that power of the mind, and a lot of people, you'll say they've got, they're able to use their mind to their advantage, and a lot of people innocently without realizing, not knowing that they're doing this to themselves, they may use it to the disadvantage. So we really do need to be connecting with the power of that, so that we can release that innate well-being and resilience that we've all got on offer for us all. Not one person has more than another, we're all having the same chances here, so if we can understand how that mind works, then it can be really helpful in clearing up what they'll call maybe like brain fog, mental fog where you just can't see or think clearly, because behind the thoughts, often when you're getting that fog and that brain fog, or for me the fibromyalgia fog, whatever it may be called, is because you're not tapping into what's before that, the mind. So in a quiet, when the thoughts settle, in a quiet mind is where you can tap into that power. And that's why some people sit there for hours and hours and hours meditating or whatever they may do to find a way to get to that. But the good news is you don't have to do anything to get to that. If you understand how it works, then it's possible to harness the power of that in seconds without needing to search or go deep for it or anything. It's there, it's always there working for us at every minute. So especially when you're running, having that knowledge on how that really works and knowing that your thoughts are going a little bit fast and a bit crazy, and if you know that that is what's creating that overwhelming feeling, that barrier that you might get, if you know that that's just the thoughts going a bit fast, It doesn't mean anything, it's not real, you can back away from that and it can start to slow down the mind, and that can really get you back to that innate place of peace and calm where the confidence is, and where you'll start to settle down and feel better. So just trust that you do have this inherent ability within you, it's there for everyone. So the second part of this is the consciousness, which is our ability to experience life. Without consciousness, no experience, no life experience. Without mind, no life experience. There's no energy, there's no power, there's no nothing. So without these things, we've got no experience. So if we can elevate that level Of consciousness. Again, I describe it as an understanding of what's actually going on. So you, you're getting an experience which is created via your consciousness, the gift of consciousness. So by having an understanding of that, we can recognize that the thoughts that we're having Shaping the feeling, the feelings and the experiences all coming together to give you that present moment of experience, so having a bit of a heightened awareness of this during running, it can really help you to handle when, like for me, when I face-planted and full-on double-decker'd myself and jolted my neck and hit my ribs and Both knees, swelling, you name it, like, I, I could, um, realise and get through that quickly by harnessing that understanding of the experience. Um, so yeah, it can really help you with improving, um, and handling when things happen. So, um, I'm just thinking that when it comes to other things that would happen naturally, you don't need to do anything special, most people are able to naturally, like I said before with the, when you're projecting, so what you're seeing is a projection that comes via your senses and you project a picture, so you're not actually seeing what's really happening, you're seeing a projection of what's What's happening for you. So with a bit of, for most people, just knowing that that's happening, and a lot of people will naturally with this projection, is what you could describe as like visualisation also, because this is what visualisation is, it happens to us without us needing to purposely do anything. But it can happen to us to our advantage in a good way, or it can happen to us to our disadvantage. But just knowing that it's coming from you, within you, what is happening, and a good way of looking at it is to know that it's not the true reality of what you're seeing. You're seeing a representation of your thoughts, which are then recruiting your senses and then creating a picture for you to watch back on the big screen, and if it's not feeling right, then if you know that's happening, you've created yourself some time, some space to step back from that and not take it so seriously, back away from it, know that that's not, not the truth, it's not reality, so that can be really useful and helpful. The thought is probably the biggest important crucial part of this, because the thought is creating the experience through the thinking. So it's a bit like what I just described there, where you're physically— the thought is a bit like a paintbrush, and it's creating the images like on a canvas through your consciousness. So mastering that and understanding that can really give you a better outcome with recognising, and you don't have to physically like pump energy into it and do anything special, just know that you can't have no control over it, but if you know that's happening, then you know that you can take a step back from it. And I'm sorry I'm rushing today, it's just that I've done, I've been going live for quite a while. And I've forgotten what I've said and what I've not already said, and because of the timings, there's movement going on in the house that's not normally going on at this time, so yeah, it won't be too much longer, we're getting there with this, but I just wanted to, I didn't want to not do this at all because I'd gone, I didn't want to not do the session just because of my technical issues, so yeah, so integrating these principles of mind, Which is your energy, your life force energy, your consciousness, which is creating your experience, and your thought. Just being aware of all those things that are working, that you've got the gift of those things, that you could use them to your advantage once you understand how they're working, or you could know when they're not working to your— when they're going on to your disadvantage. is going to be really helpful for you to overcome challenges. Massively helpful for me, just knowing that this was happening and knowing that there's a power going on in the background that I could tap into that I didn't know were there, because I was oblivious to it for so many years, struggling, struggling, struggling, taking all those thoughts so, so seriously. believing that that is real and holding me back and making my health, making me not well, like literally tormenting me, you could say. So I'm not saying that this understanding, it makes you completely immune to human experience because we are designed to have various feelings and what I describe as changes in the weather, changes in the mood, Like, that is natural, that is normal, knowing what's going on and understanding that you're no different than anyone else, everybody's doing the same thing, and we're all using our mind, our consciousness, and our thinking to experience, and without any of those 3 things, there is no experience, so let's use it to our benefit and let's just Be brave and just release that inner confidence that we had when we were first born, because we had no issues with confidence back then, so there's no reason why we'd have no issues now, because they're still there within us, and all that's happened is that it's got covered up and layered up and layered up in the— you could say it's got dusty, it's got muddy, it's got covered in filth. With all these experiences that might not have been nice, or that things have told us, or things that people have said to us, and bit by bit by bit it just gets covered and covered and covered in that, and that is just thought, and without those we're all on to a great day, we're all going to feel really confident, so knowing that gives us a bit of time To just back away, see what's happening, and not take it so seriously. So good luck with it. And if anyone needs any help with anything, or anyone wants me to explain it in a different way, because I'm still— can't get my words out this week, I'm still recovering from my falls and my migraines, but I just didn't want to not show up for you today because I absolutely love being able to help and share, and I love the fact that others are doing the same. So really, really thank you for helping and supporting each other. Please type in the chat if you are watching our replay, and please reach out to me. I do have sessions. I have plenty of complimentary sessions which are one-off sessions, so I can help you to get started, help you think through some of the, the problems that you might be having right now, and I'd absolutely love to help you. So reach out to me. I can send you a link. and I can book you in a meeting. I have meetings pretty much on Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays— they're my main coaching days— weekend afternoons, and I also have sessions on Thursday evenings and Friday evenings. So I'm really flexible, so reach out to me, I'd love to help you. And yeah, thank you for being here, and I will see you next week when I'm fully with it. and I'll be all pumped up and excited for Enduro 24, going for 100 miles, because I'm just gonna go for it, be brave, and tap into the power of my mind. I'm going to tap into the power of all the gifts of mind, consciousness, thought, and I'll be fully aware, and this is what's going to help me do this. And also, a big shout out to all my friends who are doing the spine, the Montane Spine this week. You're making massive progress, you're doing brilliant, you're amazing. Well done! Big shout out to Gary Smith. You are absolutely smashing it. You're gonna finish, I know you are, and I'm so excited for you. So yeah, have a brilliant time and I'll see you next week. Thank you, bye!