After a sustained period of Covid-19 ravaging human life and devastating homes I felt compelled to inject some positivity in people. If you’re still here and you’re reading this, I want you to know that God has a plan for you. I want to help you embark on your journey to create a life worth living.
Here’s how you can sustain a glass half-full perspective on life: Pray🙏🏾 for peace and know that ‘this too shall pass.’ You may not understand why certain things happen the way they do but it shall be well. Everything is working out for your good. Move 🏃🏿♂️. Exercise is free and one of the best things you can do for your physical & mental health. Break a sweat for 30 minutes daily and embrace breathing on your own. A ventilator is not your portion. Journal 📔 ✍🏾 . Set a 10 minute timer⏱ before bed and write down everything that you’re grateful for. Nothing but positive vibes. Steer clear of journaling negative stuff; it doesn’t help anything. Breathe🧘🏾♂️. Ma ganizo daily (overthinking) is what moulds a glass half-empty perspective. Meditate daily to fight this and empty your mind..be still and just breathe. Find your purpose. What do you repeatedly think about and desire? What recurrent dreams do you often have? God is showing you His plan. Combat procrastination by never going to bed not having done the things that get you closer to what you yearn for. Purpose in life will keep you going even when everything else around you is crumbling. Covid didn’t take you? There’s a reason. Find it. Cherish your loved ones. If you’ve lost someone I’m sorry for your loss. I’d like to encourage you to show love to those dear to you that you have left. Text them, call them, visit them and endeavor to buy them flowers while they’re still here with you. Finally, please consider getting vaccinated and encourage others to do the same. Covid-19 will accelerate your expiry date faster than any conspiracy theory you have chosen to believe. Life’s precious and if Covid has taught us anything it’s that we should live our best lives every waking moment. Supplementary reading: How to Create Your Own Happiness 🕺🏾 💃🏾 2020 Finish Line 🏁
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A huge part of optimal mental health is a happy and peaceful state of mind. I often find myself surrounded by people in different environments that are burdened by a spirit of complaining and discontent. I see parts of the old me in them, and for those that I enjoy candid relationships with, the following advice is what I share with them to help reinforce positive realignment in their lives.
The happiness recipe has the following ingredients: Liza ma nyimbo no vina kuseni (play music and dance in the morning!) Turn up the music for positive vibes first thing in the morning AND DANCE 🎶🔊🕺🏾💃🏾. Choose to lift your own spirits and dance even if it’s not aesthetically pleasing to others. You’re alone in your house so get busy and vina mwamene wa imvelela* (dance the way you feel). If you live with others wake them up, grab them by the hand and dance with them! Turn your insecurities into mantras🗣️ I’m not telling you to light a fire 🔥and start chanting around it, I just want you to acknowledge your insecurities and flip them. I personally do this by incorporating transcendental meditation for 20 minutes where I repeat a mantra and affirm a positive outcome. I’ll give you an example: I recently completed writing exams where in some instances it felt like they were written in a foreign language😓but when I meditate my mantra is “I have passed my exams.” It helps with positive realignment and anxiety alleviation. Find something that’s eating at you, meditate on it and positively turn it into a mantra. Visualize positive things🧞♂️ It doesn’t matter what the odds are or how dire a situation may be you must consciously choose to envision a positive outcome. There’s nothing as powerful as the power of positive thinking. Currently some of you reading this may have sick loved ones on oxygen due to Covid-19, you have to believe that they’ll get better. Forget about the ‘hoping for the best but expecting the worst’ quote. You must decide to expect nothing but your desired outcome in any situation with health, work, business etc. Visualize outcomes to bring them closer. The law of attraction will fight your case. Meditate 🧘🏽♂️🧘🏽♀️ Meditate for 20 minutes daily to calm your mind and heighten awareness of your thinking patterns. Basic meditation will slow things down and help you cope with the speed of life. Try it! Soften your heart❤️ Don’t wait for an apology before you decide to forgive people that have hurt you. Forgive people because you need inner peace not because they deserve it. You don’t have to be ‘best’ friends (again), just forgive them, keep them at arms length and live your life without any bitterness or resentment. Don’t worry about the unrepentant ones; life will always settle the score for you. Smile😊 Smile as often as possible. An easy reminder would be to do so in front of every mirror you find. A simple smile can place you in a better mental place particularly on days when you feel low. It won't make your problems disappear but it can offer some relief through the release of dopamine. The happy hormone. Try it! Exercise 🏃🏾🏃🏾♀️ Exercise daily for a hit of dopamine. Don’t have time? Consider HIIT training. Otherwise 🏃🏾🏃🏾♀️running (even walking), lifting weights (women too) all increase dopamine levels and influence things such as your motivation and cheerfulness. You might even want to consider merging fitness activities with your family members. Family fitness is an excellent social activity to undertake to increase the happiness levels in your household. Check yourself Men, get your manly health in check before it threatens your happiness & destroys your sense of self. Women, be alive to your hormonal shifts before it generates discontent in your life. Finally, ALL must stay informed on the status of their mental health before your residential address changes to somewhere you don't want to be. The Covid-19 pandemic has put a lot of things into perspective. If you’re still breathing you should be smiling at every turn and know that “you can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.” - Nypard. Translation: Happiness niwemwine!🥳 *An adapted translation is: dance the way you want to feel Everybody has some form of mental illness, some people are just more affected by it than others. Ultimately mental illness forms part of trying to figure out why you’re on this earth. We all have some parts of our lives that were in some way traumatic and changed the course of the way we think and behave and by and large the way we maneuver through life. Just like physical health, you can’t retain mental health without deliberate conscious effort.
What influences mental health? Your habits/lifestyle, environment and genetics 🧬 all play a role. Habits/lifestyle have to do with the activities you engage in and the substances you may ingest. Environment is mostly concerned with what you're exposed to such as suffering or abuse and how it increases your vulnerability to mental health challenges. Genetics, well, like much of everything else we inherit can impact your mental health. You have to make do with the cards you've been dealt. What are the most common mental health challenges? Bipolar disorder 😁🥺 This is a mental health disorder that results in dramatic mood swings from emotional highs to emotional lows and vice versa. Possible cause: stress, substance abuse, alcohol, genetics Depression😢 A lingering feeling of sadness and worthlessness. Possible cause: stress, abuse, other adverse emotional occurrences in life, alcohol, genetics Anxiety A state of constantly being nervous and worrying. Possible cause: stress and adverse life experiences, genetics Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) A common outcome for anyone that's experienced a traumatic event that continues to 'haunt' you. As a result your behavior and attitude towards certain situations changes. Possible cause: stress and any past event that was physically (abuse, assault) or emotionally traumatic for you Schizophrenia A sustained state of psychosis where you're out of touch with reality. This condition comes with delusional thinking and hallucinations coupled with uncommon and often unpredictable behavior. Possible cause: your environment, substance abuse, genetics How to avoid getting too far gone Meditate 🧘🏽♂️🧘🏽♀️ for 20 minutes daily to silence the voices in your head. If you can’t keep them quiet at least you can become aware of them and retain control of your own mind. Get help 📞 when the voices get overwhelming. Contact Mutale Kabumbu (+260973090988), a qualified psychotherapist with practical experience if you need someone to talk to. Alternatively, Kim Boon from mental chatter is an international option for those that may have this preference. Avoid substances💊💉. Those prone to loud, dominating voices should steer clear of any illicit substances (weed, injectables, powder or pills you don’t fully understand) that alter your brain’s normal functioning and thought pattern generation. This includes all recreational drugs & alcohol🥃🍻. I vividly recall a horrible experience of being tricked into ingesting the popular ‘weed cookies & muffins’ 🍪🥧at a social event. Hmmm. Mwebantu nina funta (I lost my sanity) for a FULL 24 hours. Can you imagine being alive to the fact that you’ve gone mad for hours on end? Anyway, I eventually got my mind back but some people can’t say the same. Get ‘lit’ on the wrong things uza funtilatu (you’ll stay mad/high perpetually) and you'll live the rest of your YOLO life in a straitjacket. Don’t play those games. With regards to alcohol many of you can testify to bearing witness to complete personality shifts in your friends after a few drinks. These are often negative with some people becoming championship level fighters and others complete maniacs. Don’t think this can’t be you, mind your liquor. Avoid people whose energy irritates your spirit. Some people give the devil real estate 🏡in your mind and spirit. Your mental well-being should not be up for auction in the name of tolerance. Avoid them. Pray for peace🙏🏾. Many of our mental health challenges stem from past traumatic events and the result is ma ganizo daily (excessive negative thinking). Talk to Him about it and unshackle yourself. You’ll feel better and think clearer. Watch what you listen to 🎶and watch 📺. Guard your mind as what you allow in via consumption starts to dominate your thinking and thus affect your mental health. Gangster rap has the ability to turn boys raised in a church into narcissistic thugs. Sad songs will turn you into a miserable heap and consolidate your bitterness and sorrow. Movies and series🎥created to entertain can make you start directing your own movie in real life by thinking you’re El Chapo if you’re not careful. Don’t be negligent about mental health. Sometimes you see people acting out and assume they’re just difficult when really their mental health is simply failing them. That difficult human being might be you. Sometimes it's hormones at play. For those that can identify mental health shortcomings in others be mature enough to accommodate them and not be dismissive. They're tortured people that need your patience, empathy and support. As I tackle the belly must go challenge I set for myself I’ve been getting exposed to a bunch of lies and misleading information. Sponsored ads in the form of ‘shortcut to a 6 pack’ or ‘5 minute abs’ plaster my social media feeds constantly. Listen, if you see ANYONE with amazing abs, arms, chest and virtually any other admirable/developed body part, they didn’t get it on 5 minutes of training a day😐. Other ads even feature some unscrupulous characters that go as far as recommending a whole cocktail of dubious belly fat burners in addition to bogus training advice 👉🏾Swallow the pills today after 5 minutes of push ups and wake up a Spartan warrior tomorrow! These people that peddle this nonsense are professional conmen. Don’t believe the marketing and don’t get caught up in the hype.
Unless you prefer to chase your tail all day, I strongly encourage you to stick to the basic fundamentals of optimized training, nutrition & lifestyle outlined below:
5 minute abs? 😂hmmm. There's no such thing. Be ready to work and stay patient. With consistency the results will come. You can't jump the fence with these things, palibe ma shortcut. "Nick? Why do you talk about running so much? It's so boring!" This statement cracked me up😂 Truthfully, I'm not immune to running boredom and that's why I tend to mix it up a little to keep it interesting and fun. For many newbies and even those with veteran status, running can very easily become a boring activity if you let it.
Here are some things that you can consider to help alleviate boredom on a run: Switch it up The same run, on the route at the same speed is an assured path to boredom. Mix up your runs by varying routes (explore your city), running speeds (easy/moderate/hard) and distances (short/medium/long). You should always seek out a different experience on your runs. Music 🎶🎼🎵 Though I don't encourage it on public roads, music is an excellent tool to help combat boredom. The right music such as up-tempo, high energy music (enter DMX/David Guetta/Major Lazer or whatever else you prefer) can give you a tremendous boost on a run and make it all a more fun experience. Music motivates so get your headphones🎧 on and channel your inner gangster😎! Happy supplements💊💊 First off, I'm not a doctor. I just want to share what I personally do so don't start abusing substances and claim I advised you to do so. I use a homemade nootropics stack to help keep me dialed in and focused on what I'm doing. My protocol is: 100-200mg of caffeine and 1-3 grams of L-Tyrosine. This is my 'happy and focused stack' typically consumed 15-30 minutes before a run. I purchase them separately and consume them together. I feel very sharp, alert, motivated and most importantly HAPPY on a run. When the run ends isn't as interesting to me as how good I feel during the run. The effects are long lasting and tend to stay present throughout my day. Pack running Drop the lone wolf act🐺 and grab a body or two (or more) to keep you company on your runs. Good, casual conversation can really help you stave off boredom. For many, gossip is the ultimate boredom killer. On a run you can freely gossip in the open air without the fear of being recorded. Just make sure that you've left electronic devices at home. ` Don't let the excuse of boredom be the reason you don't find yourself on the next level in life. Outrun your boredom and derive all the benefits on offer! Another weekend gone and another long run ticked off my to-do list. This weekend's long run was a lot harder than usual to complete and I really struggled through it because, it happened... I heard it. You want the truth? Every runner has too...every runner has been seduced by it...I'm talking about kaja ka voice that starts to sweetly whisper when the run gets challenging. The voice comes from the little person in your head that talks to you and says things like "Ah, nalema! I think we should stop now." Remember him? He’s very convincing and you know what? You can’t help but flirt with the idea of quitting when he gets going. I'm here to tell you that if you learn how to defeat that person on your runs then you will learn how NOT to quit when things get hard in your life. You will be conditioned to endure difficulty and overcome adversity in any situation.
The fact is, kaja ka voice is present in every physical activity and your ability resist it will determine how far you can go not only in your fitness adventures but in life as well. Here are some battle tips for success during the mental warfare when it comes: Listen, and then laugh it off and talk back You're going to hear it; it's inevitable. Instead of pretending you can't hear it or that you'll simply ignore it, choose to listen and find the humor in it and accept the challenge presented. It's time to prove something to that little person and yourself. Learn to talk to yourself positively when things get hard. To encourage and support yourself and become your own cheerleader. Do what you said At this point in time many of us have made new year resolutions that we may or may not be on track with. Remember the promise to lose weight? To run 10/21/42 kms (or more) this year? To get a 6 pack maybe? To get that degree? Remember what you said to yourself about the year 2021? Keep running until you get to the finish line that you set for yourself no matter how hard things get. Don't let that little person turn you into a liar because you're not keeping your word of doing the things you said you would do. Smile Smile when things get hard. This simple act will change the dynamics of any situation. Your legs are burning? Smile. Life is hard? Smile. Learn to be positive and embrace difficult situations. There's no situation in your life that you can't handle, no run and distance that you can't complete. Smile through the pain and eventually you'll realize that you don't feel anything anymore. Smiling can numb the pain, both actual and perceived pain. Show off those pearly whites and watch yourself triumph over any situation. I've always considered kaja ka voice as a gauge of your capacity to endure and how bad you really want something. Every run is an opportunity to develop this capacity through constant duels with that little person in your head. Start running and bear witness to the extreme development in your mental toughness and resilience. Fitness is merely a side effect so run & grow! It’s that time of the year again! A time of making promises to ‘change’, to ‘evolve’, to experience a ‘breakthrough’ and committing them to a notepad📝. But this often doesn’t go according to plan. For most people, all you have to do is refer to your previous years’ new year resolutions for an example of this. I hope to change that with my prescription for success this year: dream😴 --> pray🙏🏾 —> work👊🏾.
Dreams are God’s way of communicating and revealing His plans. In the book of Jeremiah (29:11) God makes it clear that He plans for and intends for us to thrive so once you dream it, believe it. Be ready for times when excitement pushes you to share your dreams with other people and they end up killing your vibe by telling you to “be realistic”. ‘Being realistic is the most commonly trodden path to mediocrity.’ God said you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13). Remember this verse and use it as fuel when you wake up. Do not be defeated and do not accept other people’s limiting beliefs... that dream came to you for a reason. Prayer🙏🏾 is your chance to openly express your heart’s desires. An opportunity for you to ask for that which you wish to receive. Oftentimes the missing component of realizing a dream is prayer. If you’re not where you want to be then understand that the only thing wrong with your dream is that you’re trying to go at it alone. Get on your knees and pray... Understand that prayer is part of the hustle. Work is all about output. Life gives you what you deserve. Not all the time, but often enough to appreciate the value of actively working towards something. You’ve wished enough. A dreamer is an individual that doesn’t put in the required work to realize their dream. Wake up and get to work because the bigger the dream the harder you’ll have to work. You must work and persist until you get what you want. Mpaka vi chitike. Here are the dosage directions for the successful completion of your New Years resolutions in the year 2021:
Big plans require the consistent application of the little things to order to see them through. Always remember that as you take on 2021. 2020 has been a difficult year with the Covid-19 global pandemic and the standard sucker punches life routinely throws at you. However, if you’re reading this I want you to know something... you’re a survivor. There’s a reason why you’re still here; you have a purpose to fulfill. As you cross the 2020 finish line I want you to think about your life’s mission. What drives you? What wakes you up in the morning? Are you staying loyal to your dreams?
Personally, 2020 is the year Roadrunner Zambia came to life and I’m proud of it. I had doubts, fears and insecurities but I overcame them with the spirit of courage. I want to help you find that within yourself because I truly believe that ‘the highest human act is to inspire’. You may not be passionate about fitness or blogging🤷🏾♂️but you’re passionate about something -- let the world know. You have value, your ideas💡are worth something and you can make a difference. On the face of things, some of you may think I’m just a madman obsessed with fitness, I’m not. My mission at it’s core is to help you help yourself, whether you run or not. Perhaps I can guide you on how to eat better for superior health or maybe I’ll just inspire you to put yourself out there, start doing your own thing on various platforms and complete your own designated marathon. The truth is I’m a recovering introvert looking to assist other ‘turtles’ come out of their shell. My message to you is 'be bold and dare to dream'. Less impressive people have done big things simply because they had the courage to start. Start where you are with what you have. Don’t wait. On your next lap in 2021 I want you to do more than survive, I want you to thrive! Here’s how to transition from surviving to thriving in 2021:
Don’t tell me that you don’t have time to implement these things because people far busier than you get it done and it shows. Don't get left behind. As a man when you excel in anything it's important to acknowledge the people who give you the stage to perform. I'm a married man and I want to use my platform to acknowledge my wife; a woman that has literally been a cheat code in life for me.
This is my truth: My wife, you're the reason I wake up in the morning and go harder than last time. I want you to know that I'm grateful for your acts of service (cooking, cleaning, ironing - the list is endless!) as it fuels the beast and allows me to flourish in my fitness endeavors. I'm thankful for the words of affirmation that you provide when I need them most as it allows me to keep persisting when I start to feel discouraged. I cherish our quality time because it recalibrates me and calms my spirit. Your physical touch melts away my stress and reinvigorates me. Your supernatural capacity to be able to gift me things I didn't know I needed still puzzles me to this day but provides tangible examples of your thoughtfulness. Mpaka You taught me the 'mpaka concept' - which is to keep persisting until you get the outcome that you want. Mpaka vi chitike. I went from struggling to overcoming, from an unknown to a brand, from a street runner to the Roadrunner Zambia. You are the reason why my spirit is so strong and defiant, my body is armored and my mentality is bulletproof. I am who I am and what I am because of you, for you and with you. I've been enhanced by you and you've done more than make me better, you've evolved me. Thank you for supporting the hustle and developing the ability to speak every love language❤️🗣️. My greatest privilege has and will always be running life's marathon with you. Here's my advice on how to appreciate others;
Mrs. Given Minziwe Majula💍, I love and appreciate you. Mpaka ku manda! The team woke up at 3 am and promptly began to get ready (shower, eat etc.) for our races scheduled to start between 5:00 and 6:30 am. We were on the road 45 minutes later and on our way to the FNB Stadium where the race would start but we didn’t anticipate what we would find on the road…TRAFFIC! It was so bad my dad & I had to abandon the vehicle with my wife & mother in it to start running towards the start of the race. It was 2+ kilometers but we made it on time. This served as a forced warm-up!
The race begins: I started off feeling good, feeling strong and decided to pay attention to my environment because I mean, WE WERE RUNNING THROUGH SOWETO! It was so exciting to be running the ‘people’s race’! Barely 5kms into the race we had our first encounter with the people – they were holding out beer and ciders and offering it to runners! They were bizarrely marketing them as energy drinks! LOL! Some runners grabbed the alcoholic beverages and consumed them, while others laughed and ran past but all in all it was an entertaining introduction to the race. These offerings were a constant feature throughout the race. 10+ kilometers into the race and the unforgiving sun started to dish out some serious punishment on all runners. We endured the heat with the help of residents who were outside with hose pipes ready to help you cool down from the brutal temperatures. Others had potato chips and plain old salt to help you hydrate and replenish sodium, while the rest offered various fruit and foods from their personal homes. It all culminated into amazing support that was freely provided out of the goodness of people’s hearts. 20+ kilometers into the race they had speakers blasting South African music with people merrily dancing along at various checkpoints. It was fun to witness and the music (and dance off) gave runners a bit of a push; some boostele! It reminded me of times when I’d be on a training run with my favorite earphones plugged in and the activity started to feel challenging but enjoyable and bearable because of the music. Music keeps you in motion. 30+ kilometers into the race and things started to get real. All marathon runners had name tags pinned on the front of their jersey and when my struggles became apparent bystanders began to encourage me by name – “C’mon Nicholas! You can do it. The finish line is just around the corner.” The part about the finish line being close was mostly a lie but it gave me hope of eventually making it there if I just kept moving forward. I really appreciated the support and the well-meaning lies. I can’t really explain how grateful I felt towards the people and now I know what it feels like to be cheered on and encouraged by strangers when you need it the most. 42.2 kilometers later I was at the finish line exhausted and proud. The Roadrunner Zambia concept was conceived at that very moment and now we’re here. This is what I learnt from this experience:
Beautiful people of Soweto, I hope to see you again soon. |
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