Mind over matter

This recent piece in the Times explores the concept of mental focus in a grueling physical challenge, such as running a marathon. People who endure things like marathons say they have little mental tricks to get them through the pain. (There's a fine line, though, between recognizing that your leg has fallen off and overcoming the immediate challenges.) What tends to work, as some point out in the article, is focusing on what's right in front of you (a good lesson in life, for that matter), such as concentrating on something simple like breathing, or the person's shoe right in front of you, rather than the collapsed bodies on the side of the road.