How to Respond More Positively to (just about) Everything
A concept called mindful acceptance can help you stop negative feelings from turning into an emotional avalanche. To start, try to view situations as if you're an objective observer, not a participant. You could feel more positive and capable of persevering through challenges after one quick exercise. Read on to learn more ... If you've been rolling your eyes waiting for this meditation craze to stop, well, you may want to call it a day—and even give it a shot. Research shows the practice can provide many health benefits, including stress reduction and an improvement in your mood, both of which can help you persevere when you hit those inevitable speed bumps on the journey called life. And it doesn't require a major time commitment to get some of those results. In fact, according to a study done by researchers at Yale, Columbia, the University of Colorado Boulder and Dartmouth, one short course in mindfulness training can help you learn how to deal with pain and negative emotions better. The Science Behind the Om That study is worth exploring: in it, the researchers had participants who'd never meditated before take a 30-minute lesson on mindful acceptance. They learnt what the concept was (the awareness and acceptance of a situation without judgement) and how it works (say, after falling short of a race PR, you'd acknowledge and accept that you're disappointed with yourself without letting the disappointment make you feel guilty, angry or weak). They were also given metaphors about being a bus driver or sitting through a storm (we'll walk you through these towards the end) to help them learn how to apply this approach to real-life situations. Immediately afterwards, the participants were instructed to react naturally to seeing neutral and negative images and feeling warm and painfully hot temperatures. Then they were told to react to each with mindful acceptance. When participants accepted a negative image or painful heat, they experienced less negative emotion and physical pain than they did when they reacted naturally to them. The reason? Here's one: according to study co-author Kevin N. Ochsner, PhD, a professor and chair in the department of psychology at Columbia University, mindful acceptance changes how you interpret what something means to you. Another name for that interpretation is "appraisal", and it drives all your emotions. "Mindful acceptance can alter your appraisal by giving you a sense of being removed from an experience, like you're merely observing what's happening and not actually participating in it", he says. For example, say your goal was to complete 10 push-ups and you had to drop to your knees at nine. Your appraisal could either make you fixate on being one off and thus feel frustrated, or it could help you acknowledge that you came closer than you've ever been and motivate you to persist next time you're tempted to quit. "People have a tendency to let their feelings build on each other and snowball. You feel anxious and afraid, then you feel angry that you're anxious and afraid, then you're sad that you're angry and so on. But if you can mindfully accept the initial reaction as the way you really feel, then it will simply flow through you, you won't amplify things, and your emotional response won't be nearly as intense or long-lasting", says Ochsner. In other words, mindful acceptance allows you to just let it go, something to bear in mind next time things don't go the way you had hoped. Your Entryway to Mindful Acceptance Sound … lovely? It is. Try it for yourself with this intro to mindfulness acceptance, based on exercises from Ochsner's study. Sit comfortably in a quiet room without any distractions. Spend two to five minutes focusing on your breath. Then, imagine you're driving a bus. Passengers get on and off, but the bus just keeps on moving. Some passengers are loud and obnoxious. Think of them as unquiet thoughts or unpleasant emotions. Acknowledge and accept their presence without reacting to them. When they get off the bus, keep driving. Another approach: imagine you're outside and a storm is coming. The ground, the trees, the buildings and you are all still there, whether it's raining, snowing or sunny. Instead of running away, accept that the storm is there. Then let it pass. When the time comes, put what you've learnt into practice. If you feel a big emotion brewing, rather than judge whether it's "good" or "bad", channel your inner bus driver or storm watcher and try to attend to what you feel, then drop it off or let it pass. The great thing about this exercise is that you can see improvements after a single short session. And the more you practise mindful acceptance, the easier and more natural it will become, says Ochsner. "If you can set aside a few minutes a day when you just focus on your breath, sit patiently with your feelings and observe what's going on in your mind and your body, that's the first step towards improving your ability to accept—and change—things in your life". No one can eye-roll that. Words: Lindsey Emery Illustration: Sebastien Plassard CHECK IT OUT You know what goes hand-in-hand with meditation and mindfulness? Yoga. Find peace on your mat with yoga workouts in the Nike Training Club App. When you're done, learn even more about persevering through serious emotions during an enlightening conversation on the Trained podcast with bestselling author Lewis Howes.The best core workouts to do at home
Having a strong core keeps your spine, pelvis and hips stable when you run, preventing you from swaying side to side. This enables you to run more powerfully and efficiently, as it prevents the legs from having to work too hard just to keep you stable, and encourages a more upright posture. It also reduces your risk of getting injured, as a weak core can force unnatural movement compensations and increased strain on other parts of the body – including of the knees and hips. If you're new to running, it's worth building two core workouts into your training every week – and the three beginner core workouts below are a great place to start. These can be done at home and don't require any equipment. We've also included five beginner core exercises, which you can link together to form a circuit – repeat this two or three times.What does running do to your body?
When you run, numerous changes begin happening in your body from the moment you step out the door, throughout the exercise, and then for hours after you’ve finished. To start with, your body releases chemicals (endorphins) that provide you with the energy you need to move. You’ll also notice that your body temperature rises, and you will start to sweat. Depending on your level of fitness, after a certain period, fatigue may you to slow down and you will want to stop. If you run fast and hard, lactic acid starts building up in your muscles, which can make it painful to keep going. Post-run, you will feel energised, and your mood becomes elevated. This is because, during your run, the endorphins your brain releases for energy are still being released, so you get the so-called ‘runner’s high’. As your body recovers from exercise, you’ll also be burning more calories than usual as you clear lactic acid and repair muscles – this is sometimes called ‘afterburn’. It can last for several hours – or even days, according to one study in a sports science journal.Is it ok to run twice in one day?
Is it ok for runners to do two runs in one day? For most runners, doubles are a foreign concept, assumed to be the province only of those cranking out 100-mile weeks. Most of us don’t run twice a day – we don’t have time or there’s too much injury risk. But if you want to push your running to the next level, it may be time to reconsider.The ultimate half marathon training plan for beginners
So you’ve decided to enter a half marathon? Great work! Before you lace up your trainers and head out on your first training run, here's a few things you need to know... From developing the endurance to run 13.1 miles (without overdoing it and getting injured), to working on your physical and mental strength to hit your time goals, nailing your recovery and mastering your nutrition, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to running your first ever half marathon. Then, of course, there are the race-day logistics, working out which kit is most comfortable, and, most importantly, trying to remember that the whole experience should be fun. FIND A PLAN Half marathon training plans for every runner Given these demands, a lot of beginners come to the distance feeling a little anxious. ‘They’re nervous because many of them have never done 13.1, not even in training,’ says Jenny Hadfield, co-author of Running for Mortals. Luckily, the payoff outweighs the challenges. ‘Many beginners find running a half to be life-changing,’ she says. ‘They never imagined they could go that far.’ Follow a plan and give yourself 12 weeks The half marathon distance requires weeks, months in fact, of training (our half marathon plan for beginners – outlined below – is 12 weeks long); it’s not something a beginner can jump into at a moment's notice. ‘This is one test you can’t cram for,’ says Janet Hamilton, a running coach and exercise physiologist. ‘For this distance, you have got to put in the work.’ Do your easy runs at a slow pace Running slowly when you’re aiming to run faster does feel a little counter-intuitive, so while it’s tempting to think that all your runs need to be hard, improvement comes from a different approach. ‘From our research, it’s clear that elite athletes train around 80 per cent of the time at what we’d call low intensity, and they spend just 20 per cent of their time training hard,’ says Dr Stephen Seiler of the University of Agder, Norway, one of the world’s foremost exercise physiologists. Taking their example, you want to do the majority of your runs at a comfortable, conversational pace, and finish each run feeling like you have the energy – and desire – to run another mile. The biggest mistake first-timers make is running too many miles, too fast, too soon – and that’s a recipe for injury, loss of motivation and burnout. Why? Running fast fatigues the body, which therefore heightens injury risk and requires longer recovery times. ‘If at the end of your run, you’re gasping for air, or in pain, then you’re going too fast,’ says Hamilton. Basically, the slower you go on your easy runs, the better. RELATED STORY How to tell if you're running too slow Hit the hills Hill work builds leg and lung power. Start by incorporating hills that take 60 seconds to climb, says Hamilton. As you train and those 60-second hills become easier, challenge yourself with steeper and/or longer hills. On the plan below, when it comes to hill sessions, try and plan a hilly route where you can incorporate climbs, rather than run up and down one hill for miles! Build your endurance with long runs If you’re a beginner taking on your first half marathon, it’s crucial to gradually build up your endurance with a weekly long run. Our half marathon training plan for beginners starts with a four-mile long run on week one and builds up to 10 miles on weeks nine and 10. The aim is to familiarise your body with running for longer periods of time, and will help improve your shorter, faster efforts, too. This means that you’ll be able to complete a few more reps of your future hill sessions or endure a slightly faster pace on your shorter runs.
