Running, as Murakami tells
us, creates a VOID, which I really like. That empty, blissful feeling that is
just contentment. "What did you think about on that 10-mile run?"
Well, nothing and everything. The thought process is fluid and ephemeral. I
write the ending to novels in my head and then they slip away. That's why you
want to get back out there the next day, to find the void again.
Pilates, on the other hand,
requires (at least for me) acute concentration. I can't bliss out because I
have to count and coordinate and think about my body. The thoughts, the beauty,
come in sharp little phrases. It’s like hammering out a vision. Small poems.
Each line pulled from a tiny muscle I’d never even heard of. Pilates tires me out mentally in
a way that running just doesn't, but it also calms me down. Makes me think
about the beauty of bones and tendons as opposed to the EPICness of the sea, or
the highway, or human strength, or family sagas, which are the kinds of things
I think about when I run.
Running lets me out of my body, Pilates forces me in.
Does each type of exercise
hold a different mental space for you? Allow for a different kind of reflection?
