20,000 steps towards happiness

Next week I'm running a half marathon, with foot dystonia. I'd be stoked if you made a small donation to Youthline here.

But that's not why I want you to donate to Youthline (here). You see, the state of Mental Health in New Zealand is bad.

The world we live in is beautiful, troubled, inspiring, devastating and complex all at the same time. Our brains weren't designed to make us happy. Our brains helped us survive the ice age by alerting us to danger.

One day our youth will inherit the earth, but right now they're drinking from a firehose of bad news stories on their phones. When combined with poverty, addiction, neurodiversity, trauma and a feeling of isolation it's little wonder our mental health indicators are heading in the wrong direction.

When my toes started twisting and cramping last year, there was an Omicron wave happening. The health system was overwhelmed and my toes were nobody's priority but mine. For 6 months I waited for a neurologist appointment, while the muscles of my toes flexed and strengthened, making me limp. After I met the Neurologist, I got some pills which helped a little but made me drowsy all of the time. I was in pain, drowsy and my future seemed bleak. I was certain my running days were over.

Dystonia is a movement disorder which basically gets worse with the more dopamine flowing through your system. So exercise was out.

It wasn't until 11 months later I finally got my first botox injection in my foot. It was the most painful injection I've ever had, but as it started to work I felt my muscles release and blood start flowing again.

It was brilliantly effective. I got my whole life back with that jab.

I'm telling you this because there's a psychological shift that happens when you realise that your problems are solvable.

You go from "I'm screwed" to "my foot hurts".

You go from "I can barely walk" to "Now I can walk, maybe I can run".

Then someone asked me if I was going to do the half marathon.

I had no idea if I could, but now I'm doing it.

I'll tell you the other thing.

When you're running, you get a break from all of those problems.

You get the mind space to let them percolate and come up with creative solutions.

My thoughts on a normal day jump from the work task I'm meant to be focussing on, to the drama that my kids are going through, to the impossible geopolitical chess match playing out overseas and then back to work with an unhealthy pinch of self contempt along the way.

When I'm running, this chatter continues for the first K or so, then I get a brief period when I get the most enjoyable, coherent thoughts.

My brain comes up with solutions to world peace, economic development and anything it wants to.

At about 5ks I get a song stuck in my head.

Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior, has been finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war. Me say war.

Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regards to race, me say war.

The wisdom of departed legends Haile Selassie, Bob Marley and Sinead O'Connor come to me in rhythm with my steps.

Then at about 10ks everything falls away and it's just me against my body.

You should stop. You've done enough. Have a rest.

Keep your pace, don't push it, keep going.

And then the chatter is gone.

What the youth don't yet know, and those dead legends do, is that everything they're struggling with today, someone has struggled with before.

The battles we study in history serve to remind us that the battles we fight today will soon be behind us.

Their problems too, can be tackled, but they need mind-space. They need strategies. They need our help. They need your donation (here).

For you though, I would thoroughly recommend lacing up your running shoes and getting back on the track.

My mental health is correlating closely with my VO2 Max. It started deep in the 'fair' zone, and now 'good' is in sight. Who knows, maybe one day my mental health will be 'great' or even 'superior'.

Let's see. The brilliant thing about being a human is that whatever your circumstances, little by little you can make progress. I hope you find the mind space and creative resources to tackle all of your problems.

So donate to Youthline (here) and go for a run.