The Race

Sorry to my regular readers for my last post. It was posted in a particularly bad bout of pain related depression and as such is at odds with several of my other blogs. I have decided to leave it up as it shows a side of me that I do not normally blog about and as such might offer some comfort or even balance to readers who suffer from chronic pain. I guess the message to take away is we all have times when our emotions and our ailments get on top of us.

I made the mistake of overdoing things yesterday and as a result I ended up in a world of pain and didn't get to sleep, somewhere in the midst of that I allowed self-pity to dominate my feelings.

Today, having spent several hours using the mental skills I have mentioned in previous blogs (‘The Pebble' and ‘Truths’) I am back in control of my feelings. As a penance I am going to post a poem called ‘The Race’, which was written to remind me that I should not allow myself to become the victim.

When I wrote the poem I was thinking of two people who I admire a great deal, Oscar Pistorius the South African sprinter known as the Blade Runner and Chris Moon an old Army colleague who now speaks as a motivational speaker. Both of these gentlemen have excelled in their lives in spite of their disabilities. To me they are the epitome of strength of character and courage, both of them stressed the importance of getting on with life in spite of difficulties and avoiding becoming the victim.

The Race

“Take – Your – Marks”
The figures bend and kneel,
search out the line and all is still.

Fingers
“Set”
Knees rise, fingers and arms take the strain,
Power checked.

The gun rises,
Eyes fixed, ears pricked, all is still;
Save one finger….

Crack.
Legs drive into the blocks,
Bodies hurl forward heads still down.

With each step the pace increases,
Heads come up to see the goal.
And now focus….

Measured Strides…..
The race is on,
Feet and heart pound in time

The tape draws near
Concentrate ….. and….. dip
Arms flung back the chest broaches the line.

The long drawn breath,
The look to see who won,
and the joy to feel a race well run.

John Carré Buchanan
03 May 2010

Truths

One of the techniques I have learnt for dealing with negative thoughts is described in the poem below;

The idea is that you hold a picture of a stream in your mind and allow leaves to fall on to the water and drift downstream. As each leaf passes you imagine placing a troublesome thought on it and watch the leaf and the thought drift away. Sometimes the leaves stick for a while as if caught in a small eddy, but eventually they will slip onward along with the water and from your mind.

This technique has often helped me to reverse a slide into depression. I will not lie, it takes practice, but it does work.

It helps if you know that; Thoughts are not Facts. You are probably thinking; ‘what is this guy on?’ but think about it. You can worry about a negative, unhelpful or harmful thought and end up so stressed that physical changes occur in your body. Alternatively you could think rationally about how to deal with the problem and reduce the impact on your body. You might also be able to think about something different and avoid getting wound up completely. (This is not the best approach if something has to be done.)

Consider this example; “I think I have Cancer.” Now think that over and over again and you are going to end up worried. Now try “I don’t like the look of that lump, it’s probably nothing but I better go to the doctor and have it checked.” The third approach ‘Time for another Ice-Cream”, is not particularly helpful in this instance. By changing from the first thought to the second thought your stress levels are much more likely to be lower and you end up getting a diagnosis. Remember; Thoughts are NOT facts. Now for the poem;

Truths

Chrystal clear water glides past,
gentle eddies swirl,
light dances,
constant, beautiful.

A leaf falls,
laden with a thought,
it drifts, rocking,
twisting, bobbing,
carrying its load onwards.

Watching the stream
leaves slip past;
the mind returns to the water,
clear and calm.

Sometimes a leaf catches
its thought fused,
holding the mind,
stopping the flow,
obscuring the truth.

Let the leaf go,
note the difference
between a thought and having a thought,
and you’ll realise;
thoughts aren’t facts.

John Carré Buchanan
11 December 2010