Learning little by little

I was going to write this blog about Cambodia itself, what the country is like etc. But I will save that for another day

Run Fat Boy

So today I started week 4 of my programme. Its weird, 4 weeks ago I would have never of thought that I could do this, yet today I did run for 5 minutes, walk for 3 x 3. That plus warm up and cool down meant 30 minutes of running machine. A beast I used to be scared of .. lots.

I think now I know I can do 5 km without the need of defib or ambulances! Does it mean I can do 1/2 Marathon... well based on the fact I couldnt do this .. maybe.

Barefoot running shoes are still doing their job. For a chunky monkey I seem to be relatively ache and pain free.

Bonus of the week is that I bought the shoes in KL. Had them 4 weeks and the toe has come unglued on one side. They retail for 70 odd quid so bit annoyed. Emailed Merrell who have said they will give me 75 quid credit on their site for new shoes to be delivered anywhere in UK.

So massive double wattsy special thumbs up to them.

Non running bit

One of the things i have learnt /still trying to learn this year is about being positive. Here is Cambodia most people are positive mainly because they let things go.Stuff that stresses westerns for them is not an issue...in fact most things arent an issue.

Yes it is bloody annoying but like everything in life it has a grain of truth...

Why do we get angry? To try and control those things we cant. If we cant control them, then why worry?

Sounds simple. But hard in practice. The beauty of being here is that I get the time to think about things like this. If I get angry I can step back, review situation and adjust my attitude. Positive re framing, what are the good things??? God I sound like a Hippy!

It works. I am less stressed because of it. Not perfect and something Iwill try to do more and more but helps.

If you read the last entry you will see the type of work I do. The reality is that I see no immediate output from it, in fact often it looks and feels like I am chucking my energy and ideas into a black hole!

At this point I rely on the Wisdom of Steveo Varminater who said that as lecturers "all we do is sow seed, sometimes they sprout other times they dont, some are instant growers, some take years" and that is what we are doing here. Ask me to list my achievements and it runs to two pages, yet not much of it is visible and hence can feel very disheartening.

Stamping your feet, banging your head against the wall and shouting do nothing. So why do it.

So why talk about this rubbish? It isnt different to real life ... No but i guess for me I have started to try and work on it. Work on me ... I am scared that in the UK we are too negative too quickly. .. reading the papers from a distance it certainly seems that way. Facebook is a useful tool but people are quick to be keyboard warriors and tell everyone what to do with their lives.

Reframing it positively, I have deleted some people, blocked others, lefts some FB groups and stopped replying to negative emails.... I feel better already!

What is really nice is to see people making active positive changes to their lives and loving it ...they know who they are....  being miserable is much harder than letting go and being happier!

Again not funny or ranty but there you are ... sorry :-P