I had such a wonderful time yesterday at the Libertyville Twilight Shuffle. Aiden, my 9 year old son, and I ran the 3.2 mile race. This was his first road race ever. He did a magnificent job. I went in with the intentions that we would walk a good part of the race. Aiden has never run more than a mile at a time. I was sure we were going to walk several times, being that it was warm and very humid, and quite a distance for the kid who is half my size. What happened was none of that in the least. He ran almost the entire race at a steady 10 minute mile pace. Occasionally, we stopped and walked but even the walking only lasted ten seconds and then he was ready to charge on! I admire his strength and diligence to keep on going even though he was becoming red in the face, very sweaty, and looking a little worn out near the end.
So why did my son who had never run more than a mile in his life do so well? He was caught up in the energy of the crowd and wanted to do his best. One cannot help but be energetically fed full of positive vibes in an atmosphere such as a road race. They are filled with excitement and lots of heightened energy. It is an intensely invigorating experience. If you can imagine, every person there is excited and ready to begin the challenge. There are some that are nervous, some that are insecure about what they are doing, some that have been doing this for a long time, and some that are just happy to be participating. The overall energy of races is positive, uplifting, encouraging. This is only the energy before the race begins. Then the race starts and you have the hundreds of people on the sidelines cheering you on throughout the race. They are spread out all over the route, at every turn and every corner you can hear people yelling, “You Can Do It!”, “Good Job!”, “You’re Doing Great!”, “Keep Going!”. They are clapping and whistling and clanging cow bells or blowing fog horns. They have signs of encouragement that they wave in the air. They give out candy, spray you with water guns, and tell you that you are AWESOME! One can’t help but gain a positive experience from all the encouragement that is being thrown in your direction. You would have to be living in a cocoon not to feel even the slightest bit of excitement.
We were also very lucky to have some wonderful friends and family meet us on various points of the route to cheer us on. They had signs that read, “Go Burkharts!”, they gave us high fives, and smiled and cheered in uninhibited excitement! It was fabulous to see them along our route and I believe it is one of the main reasons that Aiden did as well as he did. He kept looking for them and wondering when the next time he was going to see our entourage of encouragement. With all this excitement, hip hop and hype going on…it made me begin to wonder…what if we could all have our own cheering section in life???…I wonder what that would be like???...I wonder if we all had cheerleaders on our shoulder that followed us around daily to cheer us on and make us feel good about ourselves???…I wonder what that would do to our outlooks on life???
Could you imagine??? Sure… there might be days where it may seem a little annoying to have some super excited little people on your shoulders telling you to be positive and that, “You Can Do It!”, but come on…wouldn’t it be nice? What would he/she look like?, sound?, say? I’m sure it would be better than the current ‘nuts’ that live in our heads and tell us to doubt ourselves and that we should be worried about what other people are thinking and that we are not good enough. My little cheerleader would be about 4 inches tall, (or I might have a bunch of them) have dirty blond hair, blue eyes, dressed in a red dress, and say things to me like…“Come On, Don’t get Discouraged!”, “You’ve Got It In You!”, “You’re Amazing!”, “Turn That Frown Upside Down!”, “Keep Going, Keep Going, You Think You Can, You Know You Can, You Can Do It!” Like the ‘little engine that could’, these little helpers could possibly change your entire life around. They can tap you on the shoulder when times are seemingly bad or when life has gotten you down and they will look at you with a smile and say, “You Are Marvelous Darling…Simply Marvelous!” Wouldn’t that be different? Oh, how things would change…suddenly whenever ego would turn his crinkly ugly raisin nutty head I would have an Angel at my side saying “Don’t listen to him…he does not know what he is talking about…you are awesome… you can do this!” Then I would remember who I truly am, ‘An Incredible Divine Light’, because ‘I Am’ and it would snap me back into being positive and fearless again. Come to think of it…isn’t that what parenting is all about? Whether you had parents that were encouraging or you didn’t or whether you are a parent to your children or you are not a parent…it’s all the same. We must give to ourselves what we need and especially if we did not get it when we were young. We must then parent this in ourselves. We can bring up our inner child that still remains in our essence and we can tell her/him that she/he is AWESOME! That little girl is the one who is still recovering and the one who needs the encouragement. It is the little voice inside of us that we can encourage. With our beautiful imaginations we can decide that we have a higher guide a higher self within us and give her/him a name. My higher self is “Serena”. Yes, that’s it….Serena. Serena is my cheerleader, my guide, my angel at my side. Instead of dwelling in my fears and being consumed by negative thoughts, I use my imagination… I ask Serena to help me out. I set her 4 inch body up on my shoulder and we go about my day with her positive outlook on life. This is what Serena would say to me, “Jennifer, you are a beautiful and precious woman who is so in love and in touch with life and living. I encourage you to get out there and spread your light to others and let them know that life is worth living and being and being joyful and fun in every moment. We are not meant to suffer…and you know this best. So spread your light sister! Bring joy into your heart my friend…you have nothing to lose! Just Do It!!!!” Serena encourages me every time I have doubts or fears. I just turn to her and ask, “Serena…what would you do? And my fearless leader would reply, “You can do anything!”
I encourage you to name your guide, name your fearless self that you want by your side and allow her/him to guide you and keep you positive in life. Like the crowd on the sidelines of a road race the excitement and positive vibes we get from our human friends can be just as strong and enlightening as our imaginations. As we allow ourselves to be encouraged on a day to day basis, as we allow ourselves to bring more light into our bodies, as we allow ourselves to be uplifted, we change our entire world. So now I must wonder… I wonder what would happen if you tried this….I wonder if it would work….I wonder if your life would change…I wonder?????
Let me know…I would love to hear more about how it is going.
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