I woke up one morning and felt a tremendous surge of anxiety take a tight grip for an hour, leaving me feeling shook up for the rest of the day. It followed a very enjoyable night out with friends, so I would have expected to wake up feeling happy, not in a state of utter panic. I’m not sure what caused it, but suspect a combination of alcohol the night before, relationship breakdowns and frustration at the recent lack of progress with OCD all played a part.
This was the wake up call I had been needing though. I decided to make a change to my life and joined a running club.
In the first week alone, I noticed I started to feel more motivated to do things and went for three runs. In the second week I began to make new friends in the club and my outlook on life became more positive. By week three, my OCD was improving as a result of being forced to tackle it when out running.
I know I’ve made it sound easy, but in truth I had wanted to take up running 6 months earlier and did absolutely nothing about it. The act of joining a club was key to my sudden success. The regular fixed date in the calendar and being surrounded by like-minded people helped my motivation.
If you want to join a club, group or society, there are lots of sports or interests to choose from. Here are some ideas:
- Art
- Badminton
- Book (reading)
- Chess
- Choir
- Climbing
- Cricket
- Cycling
- Film
- Flower arranging
- Football
- Golf
- History
- Knitting
- Music
- Photography (camera)
- Rugby
- Running (athletics)
- Sewing
- Squash
- Swimming
- Tennis
- Walking (rambling)
- Wildlife (naturalist)
- Yoga