{"id":1031,"date":"2012-08-23T09:14:39","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T13:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2012-08-23T09:14:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T13:14:39","slug":"my-other-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/2012\/08\/my-other-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"My other brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1032\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ID-10034494.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1032\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1032 \" title=\"ID-10034494\" src=\"http:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ID-10034494.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ID-10034494.jpg 334w, https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ID-10034494-250x300.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of smokedsalmon \/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I think I have two brains. \u00a0No, not just the usual right brain\/left brain distinction that we&#8217;re all born with. \u00a0Instead, it is an entirely other brain that resides within my cranium that occasionally takes over my thoughts and actions. And this I have dubbed my &#8220;runner&#8217;s brain&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Now, lest you think that I am suffering from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dissociative_identity_disorder\" target=\"_blank\">dissociative identity disorder<\/a> (or multiple personalities) &#8211; I am a professional. \u00a0I am well aware of the symptoms and I&#8217;m quite sure that I&#8217;m normal &#8211; well as normal as you can be when you are a psychologist, a runner, a mommy of two elementary aged children, and you are allergic to saying no to volunteer opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>But this &#8220;other brain&#8221; or the &#8220;runner brain&#8221; tends to do and say things that my normal brain would never consider to be acceptable. This is the brain that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>believes I have the body of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kara_Goucher\" target=\"_blank\">Kara Goucher<\/a> and the enthusiasm for running of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mo_Farrah\" target=\"_blank\">Mo Farah<\/a><\/li>\n<li>takes over my feet whenever I am shopping so that I wind up in the workout clothes section even though I have a gazillion running outfits already.<\/li>\n<li>is hooked on endorphin rushes.<\/li>\n<li>likes shiny medals. A lot.<\/li>\n<li>is convinced I will be ready for the 1\/2 marathon in November.<\/li>\n<li>sometimes dreams about running a whole marathon. \u00a026 point freaking 2 miles.<\/li>\n<li>made me wake up on two consecutive Sundays at 6 am to watch the two Olympic marathons.\u00a0<em>My normal brain is the one that kept my head on the pillow and kept closing my eyes.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>takes over my mouth and likes to tell people I&#8217;m a runner even while I&#8217;m stuffing food in my mouth and pulling my t-shirt down over my belly rolls.<\/li>\n<li>likes shiny medals.<\/li>\n<li>gets a little jolt when friends mention that they feel like they should be running too because I post about running on Facebook.\u00a0<em>My normal brain says, &#8220;Are you people crazy??&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li>set my alarm clock for 4:50 am today and then gleefully forced my body out of bed at that hour against my normal brain&#8217;s will. \u00a0<em>In defense of my normal brain &#8211; it was still sleeping and was caught totally off guard.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>insisted that I keep running all 3.5 miles this morning. \u00a0My normal brain was the one that snuck a few walk breaks in there.<\/li>\n<li>keeps skipping around in my head saying &#8220;See &#8211; you can run that 1\/2 just fine. \u00a0You just need to keep getting up at 4:50 am. That was fun! \u00a0Wheee!&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>My normal brain is going to punch out that other brain &#8211; after it wakes up from a nap.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think I have two brains. \u00a0No, not just the usual right brain\/left brain distinction that we&#8217;re all born with. \u00a0Instead, it is an entirely other brain that resides within my cranium that occasionally takes over my thoughts and actions. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/2012\/08\/my-other-brain\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenn.theblessingfamily.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}