You CAN achieve

About 3 months ago, I started something on a whim. I've always wanted to run a marathon, although I hesitate now. 🙂 I knew the training would take lots of time, and I guess I should say I am not committed enough to put that kind of time in. So, I had been thinking that maybe I could try a half marathon. I mentioned that to my Dr when he told me he was participating in an upcoming 104 mile bike ride. Wow! I thought that was pretty cool. And when I mentioned my thought about a half marathon, he told me that there was a half marathon in conjunction with this bike race. Hmmm. I did about 15 minutes of research and decided to plunge in. The saying comes to mind, fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

But seriously, I was nervous and excited about the proposition. I well remember Monday morning when I woke up in the 5am hour, something I find completely distasteful, and my first thought was, "there is NO WAY you can do this!" I was running every week on Monday, Wed., Thurs., and Saturday. On Wed, when I woke up my first thought was, "what are you thinking, you are over 40!!!" What do we call those? Limiting beliefs. I must have thought somewhere in my brain, "I am too old and too out of shape to do this."

But because I have been working on my thoughts and feelings for years now, I knew those were not thoughts I wanted running with me as I went out each time. So, on that very first Mon. and Wed. as I tried to begin training, I also tapped. "Even though there is NO WAY I can do this…….even though I am over 40 and it is far too early in the morning…" And that is how I addressed every negative thought that came up.

If my knee began hurting and it often did, tap, tap, tap. "Even though my left knee is aching while I run and I should give up…" If my hip or heel hurt, tap, tap, tap.

And then there was the battle between my head and my heart. My brain quit yelling at me when I woke up and moved to strategy two. Yell at her while she's running. So, I would get about half way into my distance for the day, and my mind and heart would go at it. Heart: "you can do this? right? keep going, just a little farther." Head: "Shut up and get back in the closet. You can't do it. It's too hard!"

Each time, no matter what physical challenge or negative thought or limiting belief came up, I let my fingers fly while my legs attempted to. And an amazing thing began to happen. My thoughts began to transform. I began looking forward to running each day and my head and heart became synchronized. I thought of people I love who are doing hard things and what an inspiration they are to me. And pretty soon, as they heard what I was doing, they told me how I was an inspiration to them.

I began liking running. Can I define running? Running as far as I could, then walking lots and lots. Then running some more and walking lots more. And so forth. Saturdays from about 6 weeks into my training, were downright frightening. Not only had I not run regularly since I was in college, dare I say almost 25 years ago, but I had not ever run distances of 8, 10, 11, 12 miles. But I kept tapping and running and walking and persevering. And my son, who is doing a hard job away from home for a couple of years, encouraged me regularly through email. And he asked me to keep running after the race was over so that when he comes home he could run with me.

That's a pretty cool thought. Yep. Now I HAVE to keep running. So, Saturday I ran the half marathon. It was HARD!!! Miles 4-8 were uphill. It wore me out. But I kept going. 13.1 miles and I finished strong, if slow. But "slow and steady win the race." I did not come in first place. In fact, I came within only a few of coming in last place, but that was not the point. I wanted to finish and I did. And in the process I eliminated the beliefs that would have kept me from success. I overcame what I thought about myself physically. I'm so grateful EFT can do that.

You know something else? Around the time I started running, I began having regular heel pain. Almost debilitating. Hobble around the room kind of pain. Never when I ran. When I woke up or after I ran thankfully. When the race was over, my heel began throbbing like never before. A little tapping helped. The next morning when I woke up it was just as bad. This time, I did EFT emphatically and have now enjoyed 3 days in a row with no heel pain. Wonder what limiting beliefs were behind that?

Do you have limiting beliefs? How'd YOU like to let them go? With EFT you can!