Finding your first-wind, second-wind and making a gratitude list—lessons from running
I’ve been running for more than 30 years now but for the past 2 years it’s been very sporadic because of a nagging issue with my IT band (I ran only 7 times in 2018 and 2019). On the advice of a friend, two months ago I tested a knee brace and started back running and lo and behold - the acute pain was gone. But it was like I was starting to run all over again—I was taken back to when I first started running in 1987, feeling physically exhausted and out of breath—and that was just the first 300 meters !
Well the other day I had a breakthrough. I caught my first-wind on a run. I don’t know if anyone else calls it first-wind, but I do. The first-wind usually appears after 5-10 minutes when the stiffness and kinks are worked out. With it, you feel like you could effortlessly run forever. It is an awesome feeling and one I look forward to experiencing more frequently as I continue to run.
This got me thinking about gratitude and what I often hear from people who take up the practice of recording a gratitude list daily. When you first get started it can be easy but then it usually gets harder. It can quickly feel like you have to work to come up with just 3 gratitudes and it is harder still as you get beyond those initial things you’re grateful for. But as you deepen your gratitude practice, and almost miraculously, you find more to be grateful for in those initial things that were on your first gratitude lists and you find more people to connect with what you’re grateful for. It gets easier—like your first-wind it feels like your gratitudes can flow endlessly.
First-wind lesson - persevere with your gratitude list, it’ll get easier before too long.
But if you’re like most people, and as marathon runners would say, you hit the wall with your gratitudes. Whether it is life or routine, or simply human nature in how we adapt to the familiar, maintaining a strong gratitude practice can be challenging. And as you’ve probably heard, marathoners experience what is commonly known as the second-wind and after being totally exhausted, they usually find it around mile 22 (or thereabouts)—and running becomes effortless again.
Digression: When I was 32 years old I qualified for the Boston Marathon in the open division with a time of 3 hours 10 minutes. I was in the best shape of my life but remember, as fit as I was, had I (starting fresh), been added to the lead pack at mile 25 in the 34 degree Celsius heat at the recently completed Barcelona Olympic Marathon, you would have seen me left in the dust as they sprinted the last mile to the finish.
For me, discovering the second-wind and finishing a marathon are because of my running companions. My running buddies stretched me and without them, I never would have ran long enough to find the second-wind and never would have finished a marathon.
Second-wind lesson - don’t go alone, buddy up in your gratitude practice.
Support for your gratitude practice
I want to support you in your gratitude practice—in fact, I want to support anyone you lead or care for in their gratitude practice. Quite truly, building a gratitude practice is a marathon and not a sprint so we’re here to help with a habitual ritual that will help you discover your first-wind and your second-wind (which is very valuable when you need it). It’s called The Daily Gratitudes and you can get it by registering for a complimentary Basic Membership in One Billion Happier People community - https://one-billion-happier-people.gratitudeatwork.ca/plans/42081?bundle_token=bfaa04684896bebfdfc65b76a3283b1a&utm_source=manual
I hope to catch my second-wind from your gratitudes !
