Day 54 - Smile, would you?

Today was a lovely and relaxing day at home.

I slept in, spent time playing with and cuddling my kitties (who I've missed so much!), had a Greek lesson with Olga (who clarified the problem I'm having with adjective-noun agreement!), and met Eve for a hot chocolate at the Coffeeco near Market Square.

After such a lovely day, it wasn't hard to motivate myself to head to the gym for a long slow distance run on the treadmill. I usually prefer to run outside, but it has just been too cold recently to even entertain the idea, with the past few days dipping down into the minus teens and minus twenties Celcius. My airways seem to still be a bit unhappy about the cold I had a few weeks ago, and I find myself coughing annoyingly in cold air.

While I was contentedly running in the warmth of the gym, I watched this video from TEDMED. The emotion in this video is pretty powerful, and I found myself smiling at the speaker's quips, and eventually at the happy end to his unusual story. When I had finished with the video, I switched over to listening to two of my favourite playlists on the 8tracks app*.

Not running. This would be an awful stride and not smile-worthy.

I only felt self-conscious about the ridiculous grin I was wearing when I noticed the girl on the treadmill next to me looking at me in the mirror in front of us. We awkwardly locked eyes for a moment, and I looked away.

When I did, I noticed that no one else on the treadmills was smiling.

I looked in the mirror at the girl on the stationary bike in front of me. Her mouth was set in a grim line.

In the mirror, I could also see the elliptical users behind me, and each of them looked as serious as death.

When I watch videos or listen to music while I run (which I don't always do...), I don't do it to distract or motivate myself. Instead, I find that listening to music or watching videos can be a nice way to enhance my enjoyment of working out. When I worked out with Randi on Day 51, I noticed a tall, muscular guy on a nearby treadmill running along and chuckling at his phone - I think he knows what I'm talking about.

There's something about smiling that makes even a difficult workout more enjoyable, and I don't think it's distraction.

During the course of a particularly excellent undergrad class, I remember learning about the James-Lange theory of emotion. This theory suggests that emotion is actually the mind's interpretation of physiological reactions - muscle tension, heart rate, perspiration - and not the other way around. In other words, you don't get a pounding heart because you see the bear in your path and you feel afraid. Instead, you feel afraid because there is a big, nasty bear in  your way and your heart is beating fast.

This cat is having a great time! Because he's smiling!

The natural extension of this theory is that if you can create a bodily sensation, you can create an emotion.

I think that's why working out while smiling is so much fun. I'm still aware of the time on the clock and the kilometres left to go, but when I smile I convince myself that I'm having a great time.

In fact, I enjoyed my run so much today that I ended up running 11k instead of the 8k that my training plan recommended for this week. 

And I don't regret it.

*Consecutively, not concomitantly.