Focussing On The Niggle
I decided I’d walk everyday up to The Bench on Beinn Ghuilean during the month of February. It’s just an attempt to up the ante a little bit. I’ve been taking a daily two mile walk first thing in the morning for quite a while, just along the sea front, to get into the habit of walking daily. Not that I didn’t walk before, but this has been more of a consistent routine.
It’s been great. But the February walk is five and a half miles, with a fair bit of uphill. And though I’ve been doing a lot of strengthening and stretching work on my legs, which does mean I’m feeling generally stronger and more flexible, today I was feeling an old niggle in my knee.
And when you’ve got a niggle, it’s very easy to start Focussing On The Niggle.
So many other things to focus on, appreciate, enjoy, think about, look at, during my walk. And yet the slight pain in my knee, which wasn’t stopping me walking, tended to dominate the show. Which is a shame.
Aware of my focus, I tried various tactics to avoid doing so. With mixed results. It’s clearly dominating my thinking even now.
I’m heading up the hill tomorrow again, and hoping that there isn’t a daily accumulative worsening of the pain. No reason to think there will be, as it’s fine in a rested state now.
Either way, I want to do the walk. And perhaps learn a little bit more about resting the mind in the midst of distractions.