{"id":774,"date":"2009-01-28T04:02:15","date_gmt":"2009-01-28T09:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=774"},"modified":"2009-12-13T10:23:28","modified_gmt":"2009-12-13T15:23:28","slug":"finding-your-running-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/finding-your-running-life-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Running Life Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the final chapter of Running – the Sacred Art<\/em> we come full circle to the concepts laid down at the onset of this book.\u00a0 I really like this George Sheehan<\/a> quote Warren Kay uses to open the chapter:<\/p>\n

Don’t be concerned if running or exercise will add years to your life, be concerned with adding life to your years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We need to find a balance and find a way to enjoy life.\u00a0 As runners running will be a large part of that enjoyment. I think running for all of us is fun and at some level we all want to improve and push ourselves to our physical limits.\u00a0 Most of us need help doing that.\u00a0 I thought I could train for a marathon by myself but at the last minute realized I’d be much better off taking the marathon training class offered by my running club.\u00a0 That was the right choice.\u00a0 Not only did I receive coaching, but I also met new people and had others to push me when I was tired and encourage me along the way.<\/p>\n

Kay says that it is important for all runners to have a “coach”, but especially spiritual runners.\u00a0 I put coach in quotes because your coach might be your running group.\u00a0 I don’t think you need a specific person to coach you but having someone or a group of people to push and challenge you is vital.\u00a0 I think he used the coach term because it translates better for most of us to the spiritual.\u00a0 We need someone or a group of people to challenge and push us spiritualy as well as in our running.\u00a0 This could be a pastor, imam, priest, or other spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

In both the running and spiritual realms Kay thinks coaches provide three valuable things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Proper guidance<\/li>\n
  2. Adequate support<\/li>\n
  3. The right attitude<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Just like it takes pain to become a better runner, it can take some pain and brokenness to become a more spiritual person.\u00a0 Kay compares it to running up a hill, most people don’t like to do it – requiring an attitude change, you have to adjust your stride – or adjust your life to find balance, and it can be slow going – it takes patience and fortitude.<\/p>\n

    I think he ties the whole point of his book together with this final quote:<\/p>\n

    Having made contact with that pat of myself, the spiritual quest – which is the endeavor to find who I am and be truly at home with myself, to establish a healthy relationship with others, and to have a healthy relationship with God – is a natural outcome.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    We runners are special and have a unique opportunity to find our way to God through our running.<\/p>\n

    The last section of the book is a list of suggested readings. I have created an Amazon collection<\/a> of the books I could find in their selection.<\/p>\n

    [tags] Warren Kay, Sacred Art, Balance, Spiritual [\/tags]<\/p>\n

    \"Reblog<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the final chapter of Running – the Sacred Art we come full circle to the concepts laid down at the onset of this book.\u00a0 I really like this George Sheehan quote Warren Kay uses to open the chapter: Don’t be concerned if running or exercise will add years to your life, be concerned with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,323],"tags":[396,254,62,339,340],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-spiritual","tag-coaching","tag-george-sheehan","tag-running","tag-sacred-art","tag-warren-kay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4iaAv-cu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/why-do-you-run\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":0},"title":"Why do you Run?","author":"crossn81","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sanctuary of Oropa from Flickr We all have different reasons for our running, but many of us run to get away from life for a short moment.\u00a0 Maybe it is the routines of our life that we are trying to get away from.\u00a0 When you run maybe you become a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":767,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/running-for-pilgrimage\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":1},"title":"Running for Pilgrimage","author":"crossn81","date":"January 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tibetans on Pilgrimage to Lhasa; they are kow-towing every few steps. Image via Wikipedia I think pretty much every major religion requires some type of sacrifice. We are familiar with some of them - giving our time in service or our money as alms or charity. But for most of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tibetans on a pilgrimage to Lhasa; they are ko...","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/5\/53\/Pilgrimage_to_Lhasa.jpg\/202px-Pilgrimage_to_Lhasa.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/contemplating-while-running\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":2},"title":"Contemplating While Running","author":"crossn81","date":"December 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So you are out for your daily run and \"bam\" God decides to run alongside you.\u00a0 What would you talk about? Or you are running along and you see God cross the trail in front of you?\u00a0 While I don't think that would happen in a literal sense, I do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/running\/images\/crashboats.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/spirituality-a-running-definition\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":3},"title":"Spirituality: A Running Definition","author":"crossn81","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I had hoped we were ready to move past the point of defining terms and such, but I guess we had forgotten the most important term.\u00a0 This term is actually in title, no it isn't running or art.\u00a0 Confused? Well it is actually in the series title - Spirituality.\u00a0 Keeping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A sadhu performing namaste in Madurai, India.","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/6b\/Indian_sadhu_performing_namaste.jpg\/202px-Indian_sadhu_performing_namaste.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":284,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/foundations-of-a-spiritual-runner\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":4},"title":"Foundations of a Spiritual Runner","author":"crossn81","date":"November 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For the next few weeks I'm going to take an in depth look at a book I stumbled upon while on a \"Barnes and Nobles date\" with my wife. Running - the Sacred Art written by Warren Kay looked like an intriguing book that would capture my Christian spirituality and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=crossinator-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":765,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/running-as-a-sacrament-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":5},"title":"Running as a Sacrament – What?","author":"crossn81","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Image via Wikipedia So far in this series on the spiritual side of running we've talked about a lot of issues that are pretty forthright.\u00a0 The next topic in Running the Sacred Art is a little harder to talk about because it has more theological underpinnings and isn't as widely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Last Supper in Milan (1498), by Leonardo d...","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/08\/Leonardo_da_Vinci_%281452-1519%29_-_The_Last_Supper_%281495-1498%29.jpg\/202px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_%281452-1519%29_-_The_Last_Supper_%281495-1498%29.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}