Icing your self worth muscle

Through some more intensive running I've done recently leading up to and during the South Downs Relay a couple of weeks ago, I've reignited an old problem with my left knee. The result is that my knee is currently sore and quite achy a lot of the time.

As I said I've been here before but I'm not renowned for being a fast learner when it comes to taking care of my wellbeing!

So after suffering for a week or so, I remembered that what I need to be doing is putting some ice on my sore knee on a regular basis and doing some exercise to support and strengthen the muscles around my knee, as long as those exercises don't antagonise the existing knee problem.

As is often the case, I started thinking what the parallel might be in life in general that I can take from my running, which always proves to be one of my best teachers.

I thought of the number one fear that most of us have, which apparently ranks higher than death, and that is the fear of public speaking.

So imagine that I have a fear of public speaking that has at some point been magnified by a bad experience I had, which just served to validate my original thoughts that I am incapable of speaking coherently in public.

I, in fact, have a public speaking and self worth injury.

It's often said that failing, and failing often, is the best way to succeed. But what if my feelings of self worth are very fragile?

The first thing I need to do is to build my self worth muscle, not stop taking any action until my self worth is good enough, but start doing strengthening exercises.

Like putting ice on an injury, these exercises need to be done at least once a day, preferably 2 or 3 times a day, to build up strength, and continue to act from the gradually strengthening feeling of self worth.

The strengthening exercises could be: remembering times when you were successful, especially recalling how you felt; talking to your greatest allies and supporters; listening to motivational CDs; reading inspirational books or articles; listening to uplifting music; meditating; exercising or whatever works best for you in strengthening your feelings of self worth.

Personally I'd be very surprised if a little running didn't help, but I would say that wouldn't I!

Have fun!