Breath and a New Rhythm

This week I wrote down two small things. One about recognition, one about waking up early.

Recognition as breath

On October 20 I went on a first date. I felt whole, because both of us made a safe space to share, including the things in life that aren’t so pleasant.

We also talked about work, and one keyword came up: “recognition”. She told me there is little recognition where she works. There is one manager above her, and that’s it. Her colleagues don’t have that culture yet.

Afterwards I thought about my own organization. Here recognition happens very often, and it is what keeps people connected to each other. These days I’d call recognition the breath of the organization. It matters a lot and doesn’t take much effort. But try not breathing, and you’ll find out fast :)

Trying to wake up early

I hadn’t run in the morning for a long time, because I kept thinking a run after waking up would take too much time. Meanwhile the woman I like wakes up early, cooks, and then goes for a run. Insanely diligent =))

So after a joke with anh Thắng, on the morning of October 23 I tried waking up at 5:45 too. Without overthinking it, I had a banana and ran a lap around Trúc Bạch lake. After the run I was wide awake, and my morning cortisol felt more balanced.

It had been ages since my last run, and I still held a 6 pace. Once you’re training, you feel so much stronger.

2.7 km at 6:09 pace.

When I measured it, the whole morning workout took only about 40 minutes. I still had time for breakfast and got to the office only about 5 minutes late. What I thought would eat up my time didn’t take that much after all.

The body recovering

What I noticed more was my body. Lately it has been recovering better. Nutrition and sleep are more on track. Waking up after a day of training or work, I no longer feel sore.

Only while writing this did I realize there is one more reason. It’s the mobility routine I recently added to improve how I move and to stretch my muscles. Before, there were mornings when my body felt so stiff I just didn’t want to get up. Now there are fewer.

I’ll try to keep this early rhythm for a while, and see how far my body can stretch after this change, or whether this was just one early morning that passed by.