It's All About The Body
I am racing to write my blog, before Anadi and I go out for our New Year's Eve dinner date, booked for 9pm...
I have half an hour...!
We plan to linger over dinner and then come back to our hotel for a 'sacred space cuddle' to see the Spanish New Year, in and then go out into the streets of Barcelona to find a cocktail to celebrate New Year bresking the UK!
I like to plan... !
And today over a piece of delicious carrot and tofu cake, my pre race fuel, Anadi and I explored how we feel that we must just 'keep going'...
Keep trusting, keep clearing, and however much I like to plan, allowing it, its own unfolding.
We had spent the morning working, and had wandered out into the busy New Year's Eve streets at around 2pm...
We both felt exhausted, and enjoyed just wandering and watching, and unwinding and being together in this beautiful City.
Our wandering took us up to the park with the golden horses, and we could feel ourselves breathing in this new land that our travels have brought us too...
We had spotted the cafe with the cakes earlier, and a 5.30pm race meant something was required around 3pm to propel us around 10k...!
Anadi chose spiced bread pudding, and we spoke about how we feel, that although we do attempt a bit of directing our lives... And as I said, I do enjoy a bit of planning...! As we journey it seems that the plan well and truly unfolds of itself, as we simply remain with our intent to stay still... To drop between any thoughts into that place at all times, so that any pain or distraction, that arises can be cleared straight away...
And what seems to be happening is that although there is a kind of a route we have mapped out for ourselves, Anadi's platform keeps changing and shifting, as the clients ask for new updates, he responds, and he has so much work to do...
Our adventure is exciting, but our position still precarious...
And I make great plans to focus on my running, and I have committed to training with focus... But since that time, I have got busier than ever... And I am asked to work with people, they find me...
And even though I made a bold attempt in October to halt it a bit... It seems this is the path unfolding...
and I love it...
And know deep inside, that all I must do it clear and clear, and be still and see what happens....
'I have no idea how I am going to be able to run!' I said to Anadi 'I feel so tired....'
We made our way to the race start...
What an atmosphere.... 11,000 runners gathering to race around these beautiful streets...
We sat and drank a coffee, and it felt like there were too many people... And I was too tired.
'It feels strange to not be wanting to do the thing I want to do' I said to Anadi... In speaking this out, it allowed this 'stuff' - some kind of struggle within, to float away, and as I drank my Cortado, I felt a lightness come over me....
We found the 'Running Crazy' gang, and Malcolm greeted me warmly, he was taking photos of all the runners, so I posed for him!
Thousands and thousands of runners lined up...
I felt relaxed, and at one point as I was pinned together with hundreds of people all speaking a language that makes no sense to me, I thought this thought...
'This is all an illusion, none of this is real...'
The gun fired and we were off...
What a beautiful fabulous route... The sun set as we ran... The last day of the year started to fade, and we ran in the darkness...
At one point as I was running along, aware I was running faster than my last race in San Sebastián, the thought came to me
'Its all about the body... It's nothing to do with the mind at all... The mind limits'.
If we are still and allow whatever arises from that stillness out, we do not need the mind...
The mind has no purpose...
It is all about the running, and so while we are here, that means the body; in the same way for a musician it is all about their instrument and letting whatever arises from the stillness through them and their instrument of expression... I ran 43.55 - a minute and 18 Seconds faster than five weeks ago...
My body is responding to the training and to the meditation in action....
