The roller coaster

Have you ever felt like your life was looking like a roller coaster? Recently my husband commented on this in terms of his running. He realized that he goes in cycles. For a while he runs, and runs, and runs. Generally this means he has a goal or has picked a race he wants to run and he diligently trains for it. When he's training he naturally eats better, sleeps better and just has better habits over all. This can go on for weeks, months or a couple years.

But periodically something happens to derail the running. It isn't necessarily anything monumental; it can be as simple as a disruption to his routine. And suddenly he's heading down on the roller coaster.

What was interesting is that he was noticing this, and had been seeing it happen for a while now. He also mentioned that the peaks were getting shorter and the valleys weren't quite so deep. He said that he noticed he didn't feel as good when he didn't run. And he noticed something else; he saw that the sooner he picked up running again after a break, the easier it was to get back to feeling good.

We all experience the roller coaster rides in our life. We go after a goal, create a resolution or discover something new and we're right on top of it. After a while it wanes and we take the downhill ride. However, if this was something that added value to our world then, at some time, we'll realize we miss the good part of it and we'll start working at it again, heading back up.

The cycle is normal, but what I know is that the sooner we realize we're on the downhill and take action to turn things around the easier it is. So pay attention to how you feel and, when you notice something isn't as good, look around to find out what downhill you're riding. Then you can turn things around to go back up. Now you can enjoy the view, and the feelings, at the top.