Why does the mind say, “Don’t run.”?

Running comes naturally to us. Humans have been running since we climbed down the trees and ventured into hunting, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that our evolution to become upright animals bears a connection with our desire to stretch the legs. But when it comes to implementing a running routine, the reality is far more complicated.

I began running out of the love for outdoors and, undeniably, the sense of freedom that comes with it. But even after a year and a half, I still find it difficult to kick myself out of the coziness of the bed and hit the road. Most mornings, I found myself giving me a hundred reasons to not leave the bed. In a half-awake state, I argue, “It’s too cold” or “I didn’t sleep enough” or, my personal favorite, “Sleep till the second alarm.” And sometimes when I seriously rationalize my laziness, I make valid points like I shouldn’t be disturbing the dogs early morning lest the seldom biting dogs might bark. It’s frustrating because sometimes, these rationalizations get the better of me.

Why is that we become half minds about important stuff in our lives, even for the ones that come naturally to us? According to M. Scott Peck, a brilliant twentieth-century psychotherapist, life is a constant effort against entropy, or the tendency of the universe to simplify or homogenize. Our laziness is nothing but an implementation of entropy in our heads. Whenever we try to do something against our old, well-defined life flow, we need a tremendous mental effort to overcome this entropy. Simplification is the nature of the universe, but if it is not for the gravity that pulls energy/matter into the stars and un-homogenize the universe, we wouldn’t have been here. Stagnation and effort are the real bads-and-goods of our reality.

We can go deeper into the discussions about what influence our decisions, but that is for a future article perhaps. In the nutshell, our natural response to anything new, running in my case, is invariably to stop, to ease ourselves out of the pain of it. But to accept that rationalization is not why we exist. We exist because we aim towards betterment, a result of our strong efforts.

So next time when you encounter a feeling to stop and get back to the old life, remember that it is only natural to do so, but it is human to pull yourself forward. At least, that is what I tell myself every morning.

(Published originally on Medium)

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