Are You Sequestering Your Happiness?

Are you sequestering your happiness as an endurance runner or walker?

For years, the main way in which I heard the word “sequester” used had to do with people on a jury.

Starting a few months ago, and thanks to a bill whose idea was spawned by President Obama and then signed by him in 2011, I learned that the word “sequester” can refer to a U.S. Federal government term for a general cut in spending.

This daily use of the word in the news media for weeks on end made me wonder about its common definition. What, in my opinion, was hyperbole and scare-mongering by those against the triggering of the sequester bill made me wonder about happiness.

The common definition of the word is to remove, separate, or seclude (as in secluding a panel of jurors until they reach a decision in a court case).

Let’s see how each of those three verbs in the definition can give us guidance on my initial question.

Are you removing your happiness?

Are you telling yourself that you cannot be happy in any of these situations?

• Long line at packet pickup for a race (I went through this today.)
• Long queues for the portable toilets at a race
• Inclement weather during a race or training run or walk
• Paying a higher price to register for a race because you missed a deadline
• Being so ill that you could not train for days or weeks

Removing or withholding your happiness because a situation is imperfect can lead to nearly constant unhappiness, given the imperfections of life. But, if you reframe a “bad” situation, you can find the joy in it. For example, a reframe of a long line at packet pickup could be, “I’m glad that all these people signed up for this race. I love the energy that I get from being surrounded by lots of people on race day!”

Are you separating your happiness?

Are you setting apart, disconnecting, or dissociating your happiness from any part of your training or racing?

• You don’t smile during a race because your race chip-times are not a laughing matter.
• You don’t laugh when your group training program’s coach tells a corny joke at 5:30 on a Saturday morning before a long run.
• You look straight ahead and don’t try to engage anyone whenever you are picking up a packet at a race expo.

Did you notice what’s in common among these examples? Separation! — as in separation from others. If you want to stop separating your happiness, then see how you can break down the separation between you and other endurance runners and walkers.

Are you secluding your happiness?

Are you isolating, shutting off, or keeping apart your expressions of happiness such that you have rules about where you will allow yourself to express happiness?

• Only if you are in the finishing chute of a race
• Only if you are lined up within the first ten rows from the start line of a race
• Only if you are not at the back — or not at the front — during a training run

To stop secluding your happiness, pay attention to your “where” rules.

That’s how I see it. How do you?

To me, you are sequestering your happiness if you have any rules that limit your expressions of happiness.

How do you see it? Please leave a comment below, and click one of the social-media links on this page to share it with others. Thank you!