How Running Promotes Long-Term Recovery

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.~ Dean Karnazes

Running offers many benefits for anyone interested in maintaining good health. It could be the perfect option for someone in recovery.

Until recently, I’ve enjoyed running for most of my adult life. Now, I take long walks for exercise because of knee issues.

I have loved running and recommend it to anyone looking for a healthier lifestyle.

I started running in my 20s while working for Levi Strauss. We would run down the Embarcadero in San Francisco during our lunch hour.  What I loved about running was the simplicity. Grab some workout clothes and a good pair of running shoes, and you’re off. 

I wasn’t one to run in races throughout the years. Usually, running was a way to exercise and stay fit. It makes you feel like you’ve done something positive for your body.

I have run the Bay to Breakers several times, and the Wharf to Wharf in Santa Cruz, which is a fun race. Several days after my dad died, I ran in his honor in a race through Newport Beach. 

I ran the Orange County Half Marathon with my daughter a few years back. That was a great experience. Running through Newport Beach and ending up in Costa Mesa was a beautiful run.

I have enjoyed the few races I participated in, but running is much more than that. It’s a way to keep my mind and body strong. It makes me feel calm and relaxed. For several hours after running, I can still feel the energy from the endorphins, or as they say, the runner’s high. My heart is pumping, and my blood is flowing. It’s a healthy feeling.

For those in recovery, it is essential to have a replacement so you can fill the void.

Becoming a runner has helped many change their life.

I recently read “Positive Addiction,” by William Glasser. Some of the ideas about addiction have changed since this book was written. The idea that a positive habit can replace a harmful addiction is still very relevant.

We drink, smoke, and eat too much because it’s easier than disciplining ourselves to say no. ~ William Glasser 

According to Dr. Glasser, a positive addiction needs to fill the following criteria:

• It is something uncompetitive that you choose to do. 
• It is possible for you to do it easily, and it doesn’t take a great deal of mental effort to do it well. 
• You can do it alone or rarely with others, but it does not depend upon others to do it. 
• You believe it has some value (physical, mental, or spiritual) for you. 
• You believe that you will improve if you persist. 
• You can do it without criticizing yourself. 

Dr. Glasser explains the difference between a positive addiction and a negative addiction.

A positive addiction increases mental strength, and an unhealthy addiction saps strength from every part of your life. A negative habit feels good but does harm. A positive addiction can feel bad, but does good.

A negative addiction is so powerful and challenging to break because it relieves the pain of our failure to find love and worth. Also, it provides an intensely pleasurable experience.

Running, he says, is the hardest but the surest way to positive addiction. It is our most ancient and still most effective survival method. 

Running, perhaps because it is our most basic solitary survival activity, produces the non-self–critical state more effectively than any other practice.” – William Glasser 

In “Positive Addiction,” people share their feelings about running.

• You become running itself. 
• When I am running well, I am happy. 
• Running is getting to know yourself to an extreme degree. 
• There is nothing like the feel of your feet against the road, the pleasure of motion produced by your own body. 
• Something takes over, not just you, but a sensation of movement. 
• Worrying and running are impossible to do at the same time. 
• A self-centered state develops in which you feel like a natural organism working very hard. 
• Everything is floating around in your mind while running, including your problems, and sometimes a solution pops into your mind without effort. 
• When I miss my workouts, I feel as though I have let myself down. 
• I don’t have to worry about overeating. 
• Lowered pulse rate and blood pressure. 
• After the first mile, my subconscious takes over, and my body functions automatically. 
• There is something about most runners that makes them feel a little better than other people. 
• The only things I don’t do more of now are watch TV, drink, and waste time in general. 
• Runners think they have a better life because they run. 
• Running gives me all the self-confidence I will ever need. 
• It all seems so right with eternity, personally and collectively. 
• Competition is the spice, running the main course. 
• Thoughts become long, slow motion, drawn out. 
• I feel lazy, lethargic, and cranky when I don’t run. 
• For a while, the world completely stops while I am engaging with my run. 
• I am frustrated, aggravated, hostile, irritable, and generally unpleasant when I miss a day’s run. 
• Heightened awareness of light, temperature, odors, sometimes an inexpressible joy. 
• I don’t need as much sleep. 
• I feel the so-called happy, warm feeling or glow. 
• It is as if my mind is floating beside my body, looking at it in a humorous way, watching it struggle to run while it (the mind) is free-floating along, ahead of it, behind it, below it, above it. 
• It is best to run in a peaceful, natural place. 
• I float. I run like a deer. It feels good. I feel high. I don’t think at all. 
• Brain chatter is gone. 
• I am more open with people, and my interpersonal habits or skills have improved. 
• I am much less serious, far more easy-going, less committed to abolishing all the evils overnight, and easier to live with. 
• Everyone should run. It would drown hate and aggression, make people happier, and create a greater sense of self-worth. 

We were not born to sit around. We were born to be active.  If you are positively addicted to what you do, you will live a long life and enjoy every moment.

Think about running. It could make a difference in your life.

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