Running and self-esteem

Just a bit of a rant. Indulge me…

It is, after all, World Naked Bike Ride day today.

I came a cross this post on a cycling blog a while back and it’s stuck in my mind. Although based on cycling, it could just as easily relate to running. It’s a great post and makes the point far better than I.

I like riding and running - for identical reasons. It makes me feel extremely good about myself. And as a father of two, one of whom is a girl approaching her teens, I think the message in the post is incredibly important:

Our consumer-driven society forces us to question ourselves in many ways - mostly physical - so we will go out and buy more crap, most of which isn’t good for us. Which simply serves to make us more dependent on the messages pushed at us by the media.

When we use our bodies, we discover how fantastic they are, we want to do more for them. We no longer depend on validation from the media, or our mirrors. We just feel good about ourselves.

I’ve found that when I’m exercising well, I want to eat better - it’s not an effort. Diets don’t work because we are doing them for some external reason - not because we want to eat differently. No one ever did anything very well when they did it for someone else.

Running has got to be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to exercise, feel good about our bodies, and feel good about ourselves. Cycling is another. And, given the expectations put upon us to earn our money so we can spend it on cars, cosmetics and other rubbish, it has to be the ultimate form of rebellion.

Anyone for World Naked Jogging Day?

Maybe not.