Mary Clare Sweet is the owner of Lotus House of Yoga in Omaha and Lincoln. She’ll be running her first half marathon at the 2017 Good Life Halfsy.
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I am in the honeymoon phase of running, I dream about it, I stalk it on instagram and all of my outfits are filtered by, “Can I run in this”? I’ve been running for almost a year and things are going great. Yoga is my lifelong partner, the marriage that is my rock and anchor. It gets me better than anything else, it is my hOMe. Both yoga and running are ancient, healing, and life enhancing. We all get better with a little, but more often a LOT, of either. Yoga made me a strong runner and running made me a softer yogi. To experience the symbiotic relationship between the two has been like your best friend approving of your new romantic obsession. A mix of emotions is swirling inside wIth my first Good Life Halfsy weeks away. I need to remember that the training is my foundation and I have learned so much along the way.
- Yoga gave me the mental strength to start running. All my excuses to not run were mental and it took mental fortitude to bust through them. In yoga, when a pose becomes difficult, the practice is to turn concentration to the breath and focus your energy there. Our mind has a tendency to wrap itself around intense sensation. Both yoga and running are a simply a mental test, I had to let that stuff go.
2. Running really taught me how to breathe through the tough stuff. Where did my advanced breathwork go? I practice breathing every single day. In yoga, the deepest stretch won’t tempt my breath to leave, but when I run, my breath escapes the neighborhood streets, it ghosts. My mantra, ‘this is just a breathing exercise” helps me slow down enough to relocate my breath and journey on.
3. Yoga and Running connect you to your body. The physical body is always communicating with us. When my body starts talking, be it knees, shoulders, heart, or toes, my job is to listen. There is a difference between pain and intensity. The ability to discern the difference takes time and trial, just like a relationship. My journey has been to listen, back off, and slowly try again. There is no manual for this, it was all about developing a deep sense of trust.
4. Be here now, there is no other choice in running or yoga. I am doing this for a better life. Yoga and running create a richer experience of this one “wild and powerful” life. There is not a moment to waste on mediocrity, I want to experiment with the edges of the world. The present moment is invaluable, yoga and running are a direct plug into the right here, right now.
This is so much fun. I literally blow my own mind when I run and I cannot believe that I am doing it. Each time I lace up I experience a familiar wave of nerves, like a first date. But it’s a joy to comprehend that after just a few minutes, the run feels like a perfect match.
Join Lotus House of Yoga at the Bay for a special Good Life Halfsy Yoga Popup Event to kick off your race weekend on the right foot. This event is before the Good Life Halfsy Run Expo on October 28, 2017. Yoga starts at 9 am at The Bay. Freewill donations will support People’s City Mission and Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln.
Register here >>