This article was written by a Kooth mental health writer and contains the following themes: movement, mental health, running, and being active.

If two years ago you’d told me that not only would ‘future me’ be running multiple times a week, but I’d also be enjoying it, I’d never have believed it! Full disclosure, I’ve never been much of an athlete – I only really wore sports leggings for fashion purposes! But one day, something changed.

Wanting to feel better physically and mentally

I was feeling lethargic, unhealthy, and just generally run down, so I wanted to do something a bit more active. I knew that being active would be good for me physically as well as mentally, but finding that one thing I enjoyed was difficult and made me feel like a bit of a failure. I’d tried various classes such as spinning, yoga, boxercise, and even zumba (which was funny but I was pretty terrible at it!), and found myself quietly quitting them all after a few weeks. They just didn’t spark enough enjoyment. It wasn’t that I simply wanted to be active, but I wanted to enjoy it! I’d convinced myself that I was terrible at being active, but actually, I just hadn’t found my thing yet.

The beginning of the chatty run

One day, my friend casually suggested that we go on what she called a ‘chatty run’. The idea was that we’d run AND talk at the same time. I laughed at the thought of it, wondering whether it would even be physically possible for me to do both. In my mind, ‘talking pace’ was just walking. But eventually, her enthusiasm won me over, and I agreed to try it one evening after work. I went to meet her, secretly packing my headphones in case I got bored or couldn’t run and talk – which was highly possible.

She told me we’d start off really slow – slow enough that we could chat and just focus on our breathing. So that’s just what we did. And while she did most of the talking on that first run, I was surprised by how far we went, and just how much I enjoyed it. I don’t remember the distance we ran or the pace we ran at, I just remember the easy conversation.

It was the first and last time I brought my headphones.

Feeling physically and mentally fitter

As the weeks went on, we chatted more and more about everything and anything. We talked about relationships, our jobs, our social lives, our feelings, the news, the latest celeb scandal, and everything in between. We had serious chats, casual chats, and laugh-out-loud chats. I began really looking forward to our evening jogs, and I started to feel better both physically and mentally. And even though the running aspect got easier, I was always more focused on the enjoyment of our time together. We recruited other friends to join our ‘chatty runs’ and it quickly became more of a social thing than anything else.

What I noticed is that by taking the focus off the active element of our weekly runs, it became so much more enjoyable. I wasn’t concerned with distance, pace, or any of that stuff I thought I should be thinking about; I was simply there for the chat, and the scenery. I live in an area full of beautiful countryside and wildlife, and for the first time, I felt like I could really take it all in. I loved that my new activity kept me in the present, helped me get things off my chest, and helped me feel connected to people. Because we did it as a group, we quietly motivated each other. Sometimes we’d happily jog past more serious runners looking at their watches. While they looked more focused, I definitely preferred being in my slow-but-happy crew.

I get that sometimes we all have different goals when it comes to being active, but if you have a sole goal that’s about the physical side of things, it can all become a bit too pressured. For me, my goal was to have fun, connect with others, be outdoors, and be a bit more active. So for anyone out there who wants to do something active but you find it hard to stick to something, or it feels out of your reach, maybe don’t focus so much on the physical aspect, and focus on your personal enjoyment. You never know, it might make a difference to you, too.