Thinking While Running

I love my long runs on Sunday! In the past, I never left home without an iPod and a motivating playlist. Later it was then an audiobook on the smartphone (often a thriller, sometimes a biography). And recently I run without distracting sound.

Thoughts are free
Nowadays, I am looking for routes away from civilization, where there is no traffic to watch out for. And where I am completely undisturbed myself. There I release my thoughts. Without being distracted by a ringing phone, incoming emails, or people in my immediate vicinity. Fantastic!

For the first few meters, I always have questions that are connected with my work. Understandable, if you know that I have already spent a few hours on the computer before running to do any things for the company …

Okay, at this point I hear many a cry:

Working on Sunday? That does not work!
Yes, yes, that is, if you start a startup, like me, it is unusual or impossible to work only from Monday to Friday. At least in the first years. A startup is like a baby of your own, to take care of around the clock. And most of the time it does not feel like work.

So I run and hang in my thoughts at work. But I get distracted: suddenly flashes of lightning flash through my head: What was that just for a strange crack in my right knee? Why do I have to pee again now? My thoughts fly wildly together!

After half an hour, the thunderstorm finally disappears. I am now at operating temperature. The pulse has calmed down by 25 bpm and has reached the green of 145 beats per minute. So I can go on for hours. I barely feel my body. It’s like someone turned on the autopilot. Is that this famous “flow”? I do not know…

Then, however, it happens on a regular basis that I deviate from the solution and go into thinking constructs that have nothing at all to do with the original questions. Like today. I thought that here:

The cloud thought archive
How cool would it be if all my thoughts are not just buzzing around in my head, but are also automatically uploaded to a cloud, where they are stored permanently until I delete them?

How fantastic would it be if, after taking a shower, I sit down fresh and rested at the computer, open an editor – and zack: all my thoughts are already there! Instead of being starred at by this huge, empty WordPress editor, there would be all the text modules I’ve come up with on the go.

Instead of spending another few hours typing everything I’ve thought of for hours before, I’d just have to sort and edit the text. And would I never forget something that came to my mind on the way? The cloud would have archived it for me.

Cool, right? Who knows: maybe we will even experience that something like this is invented. It would not surprise me. And I would certainly be one of the first customers to use such a service.

But until that happens, I just have to take notes after running, so as not to forget anything. And as for the answers to the questions above about my work, I guess I have to go again: the idea around the cloud thought archive this time has devoured the entire running-thinking time.

Conclusion:
If you let your brain work while running, you are doing something for the mind and the body at the same time. And I do not think it’s harmful if sometimes only crazy ideas arise. It was finally enough for this blog post. And I do not even think so stupid.

If you have been thinking for some time (or just being inspired) to do a yoga retreat: Do it! If not now then when? It does not always have to be the classic 7-day in a secluded place with only yoga and meditation. (Although such retreats are also incredibly exciting and rewarding!) There are so many different trips where there is something for everyone. I booked my trip through Yogatravel & Beyond , which offers a lot of different options in different countries and among other things on the 14th of July in Munich the Yogacircus with organize – that has already been determined as a revival of our group! Maybe for one or the other something for you.