You Can Literally Run Away From Your Problems
It is surprisingly effective
Christ, sometimes it all just seems to come down on you at once doesn’t it?
It would be pertinent to list all of the things happening right now and over the course of the last six months that have the potential for instilling complete cognitive and emotional overload on us. But it’s going to take a crack-team of 2030’s finest historians to accurately notarise the extent of the calamity.
For now though, here are the headlines: (you can skip this part if you’re already experiencing considerable overwhelm...)
Six months on from it’s unpleasant introduction to the global landscape, COVID-19 still dominates societal behaviour and discourse. Whilst the spread of the virus itself has slowed considerably, it is still sweeping through the world and unfortunately taking the lives of many, leaving us in environment that, for economic reasons must imitate pre-virus conditions, but for health reasons can only exist as a simulacrum.
I t has become apparent that there exists a major disparity in policing between races both in America and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom. Multiple times in the past few months, black people have been needlessly and violently slain in clear public view, and the response to these events have been publicly disruptive and destructive, which in turn has encouraged militia-like aggression from unidentifiable police forces towards civilians.
Geopolitical tensions, perhaps mostly as a result of the virus, are at the highest point that I have thus-far witnessed in my lifetime. The world is shifting towards authoritarian governance in ways that are equal parts appalling and utterly shameless. As of today, there is major, violent civil unrest in several states in America, as well as Hong Kong, Yemen, and Belarus, and certain global superpowers are becoming less bashful about their intentions.
Seismic political events are to take place in the coming months that, regardless of the result, are sure to stoke the fires of yet further civil unrest in the shape of Donald Trump’s re-election or departure from his position as POTUS, and Britain’s no-deal Brexit departure from the European Union.
A n unfortunate matrix of inflammatory news-media norms, extreme political partisanship, and algorithmic social media technology have conflated to create a wildly distorted, confirmation-bias led perception of reality that is proving to create untold levels of confusion, extremist beliefs, and hatred.
And it’s only September.
Pile on top of that at the individual level unemployment and financial desperation, inability to travel, health concerns both physical and mental, and whatever else that seems to randomly appear like an ungodly explosion here and there or a cherished celebrity’s unexpected death, waking up in the morning with anything else but a total sense of dread and despair should be considered a great personal achievement.
So what is one to do with all this information, all this tension? It doesn’t very much help to sit on it and ruminate. I know it doesn’t. In fact, the further one thinks about it, the more entrenched the idea of some sort of global collapse seems to become.
More so, to simply push these events aside, stowing away any harboured feelings about important global issues and blocking up any channels of new information (the ol’ ‘head in the sand’ technique), doesn’t really do much for me either.
The Solution
Having attempted to take in all the horror and figure out some central source, some semblance of logical progression to the place we are now — I found out that no such reasoning exists. Things simply occur, sometimes in the perfectly wrong order, and then we get to the place we get to.
In the same ilk, I tried burying my head too. Disrupting my phone’s news notifications, extricating myself from all manner of digital feeds and channels of information. That’s not great for a freelance writer, the world’s movements being something of a jumping off point for my work.
So I tried something a little different, and admittedly little cliché.
It wasn’t planned. Feeling particularly sensitive to all of the noise that day, I needed a solution — fast. This barrage of despair seemed to be localised to my house, where I get most of my information and do most of my subsequent overthinking. So I figured that the solution had to come from elsewhere.
But my trips to the supermarket never seemed to quell my unrest. It had to be something else. Something a bit more primal, instinctive… even aggressive.
So I put my running shoes on. And I ran.
Not like usual though. I usually run for fitness. Accordingly, I bring my Fitbit, track my times, and compare my pace to previous sessions. I make sure I am properly hydrated and adequately fed. I wasn’t running for fitness this time though. I was running for release.
After my shoes were strapped up, I hit the road without consideration for any of those factors. I didn’t have a route planned, or a target distance in mind. I simply ran.
What I gained back within 3 minutes of my run was a sense of control. I was suddenly at the helm. Deciding moment-to-moment where to go, leading myself to whichever direction I felt like at the time. My fate was no longer in the hands of a prevailing third-party, not that it ever really was. It simply feels like it is sometimes, after all that’s what they’re going for.
No evidence of any global disaster existed on my run. I looked around and what I could see was a dirt track, some grass, and a few cows. All I could hear was the wind gently whistling, and the occasional excitable trot of a dog and its owner. There was no economic collapse on my run, because ‘economic collapse’ is an abstract concept that is significantly less real than, say, the gravel beneath me, or the proper place in which to put my foot in the next stride.
When you’re running, it’s actually hard to think about anything else but your physical condition as you acclimatise to this new elevated state of existence. You’re wondering how long you can keep this up, what effect that inner thigh tightness will have over the next few kilometres, the optimal pattern of breathing.
Eventually, as your mind and body align, the act of running stops becoming an act at all, in the same way that sitting isn’t really an ‘activity’. You just are. It appears as if no effort is being exerted, and the thing that’s pushing you forward isn’t derived from your own efforts anymore. It seems to be an ineffable force of some sort, pre-existing momentum that simply won’t stop.
It is at this stage that your mind is free to think again. But the thinking takes on a vastly different character to the one that existed at home, ruminating. It’s utterly impossible to have a daunting or paranoid thought when you’re stomping one foot in front of the other, flying through the breeze. I find that every thought I have in this state is one of almost absurd optimism and confidence.
Perhaps it’s seeing the great expanse of the sky and getting a sense of the universe that exists beyond it. Perhaps it’s once again feeling that control that they have been taking from you. Truth be told, I don’t know what the hell it is and I don’t really care. When I reach this state, I am unstoppable in my outlook, nothing unconquerable and no idea un-explorable. I have ideas for new articles. I have sudden realisations about my personal life. I become the person I wish I could be all the time.
Does it last forever? No. It lasts about as long as the run, or if you’re lucky until you’ve finished the resulting shower. But that’s enough. That’s a quality injection of physical reality and untethered thinking. Of movement, of self-control, and of cohesive oneness with yourself and your environment.
So, if you too are easily swayed by the dour and unrelenting stream of negativity that this year has brought upon us, if you fear for what’s to come, if you’re anxious about what’s already here…
…Have you tried running away from your problems?
I can’t recommend it enough.
