Welcome to a project I’ve been working on for the past few years.  It’s what I believe to be the first significant approach to developing the positive psychology of running, which I call WholeRunner: Your Inside Track to Happiness.

WholeRunner is intended to harness the power, discipline, and joy of our running to help us in other aspects of our lives.

WholeRunner strives to make running an intentional vehicle that opens us to being a little bit happier. It’s not the running itself, but the awareness we bring to what we are doing and how we are doing it.

WholeRunner is actually not so much about running—it’s about living the life you want and being just a little bit happier doing something you are already doing.

Our approach with WholeRunner is to look at our running mindfully, from unique points of view, including:

• What we think about when we run
• How the discipline of our running routine can help forge positive rituals in our ‘civilian’ life
• How mindful experiences of running can vividly and kinesthetically bring to life the lessons of positive psychology
• How we can align our running goals and our life goals—and how they can reinforce each other.

Along the way, we will spend much of our time understanding some key exercises and tools of the positive psychology movement and adapt those tools to be used through the lens of our running.

As a Road Runners of America certified running coach and a graduate of both the Certificate in Positive Psychology and Positive Psychology Coaching programs with Wholebeing Institute, I will offer you this early look at WholeRunner methods with a series of posts. Posts will first appear on WholebeingInstitute.com, and will be archived here as well.

What I want most is for you to begin to see your running in the context of your whole life, your whole being. I welcome your feedback and experiences to share with others.