How Om Namah Shivaya Got Me Through A 6:33 Mile Run

I hadn’t run a mile timed, as fast as possible, since high school. That was a while ago.

Sure, back then I ran track for a year, and I include some running in my quiver of fitness activities, but I wouldn’t call myself a ‘runner’ per se.

In the New Orleans boot camp I took, running a timed mile was part of how we could measure our progress. At the beginning of the camp I ran it in 7 minutes, 23 seconds. Not bad, but I knew I could’ve started sprinting earlier and cut a fair bit of time down.

When I did the mile again, I surprised myself considerably by coming in at 6 minutes, 33 seconds.

Both days my energy had been low, and the mile was run after working out for a good 40 minutes or so. It wasn’t like I was bursting out of the starting point all engines go.

But I had two things going for me on the second run. 1.) There was a woman in front of me who set a great pace and I was determined to follow her, and 2.) I prayed.

The whole run I was chanting to myself “Om Namah Shivaya”. I tapped into the limitless power within and asked it to get me through. This was motivated by the fact that I was having a really hard time already that morning with low energy. “Om Namah Shivaya”. I bowed to the source of goodness and asked “can I get some help here?”

It was tough, but I kept going and found I had the strength to keep pace just behind the woman at the start. Toward the end I fell back a bit and one other girl passed me. I spoke a word of encouragement to her as she did.

At the stop sign where we turned for the last stretch, I powered up and gave everything I had. I was a sprinter in track, so I tapped into those reserves and raced ahead to the finish.

“6:33” said the man with the timer.

“Holy sh*t,” said I.

I didn’t think I’d done it that fast! I walked away, marveling at the joint effort of individual and universal, supporting myself with hands on knees and breathing hard. Once again I was shown that my capacity is so much greater than I realize when I tap into the boundless source of nature.

Moral of the story: When it gets hard, look to those who blaze the path for you, and connect to a bigger energy for support.

If you live in Kamloops and want to dance on the edge of expansion, playing in the ever growing capacity of You, join my upcoming Yoga Fitness Kamloops Boot Camp and delight in how strong you really are!