About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

Reacting to change

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Bo

An announcement to my team was made last week which really shook us. In a nutshell, it was one of those ‘glass half empty/glass half full’ kinda announcements. As I looked around the table at my colleagues it was interesting to see how each of them processed the news, each one in such a unique and different way.

The devastated one: Hurt. Gutted. Emotional. Deciding to rather keep quiet or else fear bursting into tears.
The confused one: What do you mean? I’m still not sure what this means? WTH? Wait…I don’t get it.
The delighted one: Yesss! Change is good! I cannot wait to sink my teeth into new projects!
The surprised one: Never saw it coming. Didn’t really care either way. Such is life people.
The fence-sitter: Keeps saying ‘I have my own opinions’ but won’t share.
The summariser: So what you’re saying is that… *echo, echo*
The quiet one: internalizing, listening, watching, waiting.

It was interesting for me to watch how each of them took the news and digested the information. I’ll be honest, I hate change. I really do. But what I’ve realised is that change is normal. In my working environment, it’s constant. You need to worry when things aren’t changing. But it’s the reaction to the changes that is always different and what makes or breaks the steps going forward.

A negative attitude slows down action. All you land up doing is re-hashing everything and going around in circles. A positive attitude is where people start talking about opportunities and the future. This was very apparent to me and the attitude I’ve decided to adopt.

I’m seeing this next phase as a chance for me to ‘re-invent’ myself (again) and I’m quite excited to see where 2013 takes me. If only I could bottle this feeling and pass it around the office.

Oh no! This can’t be happening already!

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Bo

I didn’t want to say anything but I feel this blog is all about my running ~~life~~ stress so I might as well share what happened. I had my first nightmare about next year’s Two Oceans Half Marathon last week. There, I said it. Insane, I know.

Entries opened and within the first two hours, KK had successfully entered me. My heart still froze when I received the email confirmation. I’m in. My name is entered. No going back now. The countdown has begun. The following day, I commented on a running ~~coach~~ buddy’s blog about the confusion around cut-off times. Was it still 3 hours? Or did they cut it down by 10 minutes? This niggled me for a while and stressed me out. I don’t have any spare minutes to waste… 8 minutes per km Bron! What to do?

So of course, with it being on my mind and stupid me stressing about it, I had such a bad dream on Thursday evening and woke up sweating. In my dream, I was running the race. It was raining. I was doing fine. I got to the top of Southern Cross but made a wrong turn. I got lost. I couldn’t find anyone. I eventually ran into some arb person’s house to ask for help. But by this time, the clock was ticking and I knew in my heart, I was never going to make it. That’s where my dream ended and I woke up feeling very stressed out and upset.

What is it about this race that stresses me out so much? I can’t explain it! I’ve run so many half marathons before, but this race just gets to me. The fear is just too great!

This is not the best start to my countdown to Oceans. If you’ve followed my blog, you’ve heard me say this over and over again: The race is in my head. It really is.

I need to get my thoughts under control and start telling myself that it will be okay. Because to suffer through another 5 months of this anxiety is not going to be fun.

Diagnosis: Plant a flower

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Bo

I’m feeling pretty exhausted at this time of year as I’m sure everyone is. So when my friend Melanie asked if I’d be interested in trying out a session with reiki master, Brent Feinberg, I thought, yeah… why not. I have no previous experience of reiki. In fact, my biggest concern was that my parents would not approve of it (it’s kinda esoteric) and my even bigger concern was what to wear.

For those not familiar with reiki, according to Reiki FAQ, it is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

So I lay back and Brent first started with BodyTalk and then the reiki. The tapping of my head and chest was followed by various hand gestures and hand hovering all over my body. I stopped peeping and slowly started to drift off to sleep. If I was not supposed to fall asleep, no one told me but I found it quite difficult to stay awake. An hour flew by so quickly and I was quite dizzy when it was all over.

My diagnosis: The good thing is that my energy levels are very high. Brent says he can pick up that I am happy and healthy. *really?*

He did suggest however, that I try to be a bit more grounded and recommended I do some gardening. Not large-scale, but his thinking is that I go away and plant a flower or two. I like this idea. A lot.

He added that I am a very kind person to others, but not kind enough to myself. He also picked up that I was pretty hard on myself. *True*

The session reminded me of a conversation that I had with my dietician recently. She said, “Eating well is not enough Bron. You need to feed your body in other ways too.”

Especially in today’s times where we are living such stressful lives. Everyone needs to find that something that recharges their minds and their bodies.

Coming home after a stressful day and heading out for a quick run or even going to gym allows me to de-stress and unwind. But what I realised after my reiki session is that I also need that something extra that relaxes / calms / balances both my body and my mind and allows me to just let go.

What’s your secret?

Memories of the other famous Madge

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Bo

November always reminds me of my Granny. Annie Magdalene Loots, otherwise known as Madge to her friends, Granny to me. Her birthday was on the 4th of November.

My Granny was a very knowledgable woman with strong opinions. She never made it to High School because she was forced to drop out and look after her family. In return, she was given the house she lived in until she passed away. Here’s her Std 5 class photo…

To this day, I am incredibly proud to tell people that both my Granny & Grandpa were captains in the Salvation Army. In fact, My Granny’s house was right next to the church in Bez-Valley. Here’s an old wedding photo of them, dressed in their Salvation Army uniforms…(yip, they wore black)

There are many days when I wish she was still alive and I could be sitting with her, drinking tea, munching on home-baked vanilla sponge cake around the big kitchen table.

I remember…

The 10am and 3pm tea times
The huge pink gown she used to wear after her baths
New Year’s eve when we stayed up late to watch ‘The Sound of Music’ together.
The trips to the Jo’burg Gen.
The weekly shopping at the butchery (I can still hear the meat being cut).
The spagbol on Saturday nights.
My Granny’s roast potatoes.
Rhubarb growing in the garden.
Lemon pudding with custard.
The Vespa.
The 3-Quarter bed my grandparents slept on.
Granny cutting up liver with scissors to feed the cats.
Cheese Naks hidden in the sideboard cupboard.
Never missing the News on TV.
Listening to stories of her sisters and Betsy Anne.
She only ate meat on Sundays (ahead of her time with meat-free Mondays).
She wore an apron every single day of her life.

My Granny was 84 when she died 11 years ago. Having been diagnosed with Mycenae Gravis when she was 12 years old, she never let it get her down. She was a woman with very strong values and would always speak her mind. I’d give anything to sit and listen to her stories, just one last time… I miss you Granny!