DJ, Poet, and Running Pioneer Charlie Dark on... The Ways Wellbeing Can Change Your Life

The founder of urban running movements Run Dem Crew and Bridge The Gap discovered yoga and meditation as a way back from injury. Now the Londoner is taking mindfulness to those who need it most.

Interview MARK WILDING

Photography SIMON R PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Train smarter, not harder

When you’re flying high, you thinkyou don’t have any need for ‘wellbeing’. The optimism and newness of running for us meant we could do incredible things. There were people who’d gone from their sofa to the finish line of the London Marathon in a matter of weeks. I’ve seen people go out, run a marathon, spend all night partying, go to work, then do it all again. At some point, something will break. I had an injury to one of my hamstrings, and to my glutes. I saw my body was just broken. It was then I realised running wasn’t sustainable on its own.

2. Stay open-minded

I didn’t want to go to a retreat. Whywould I want to hang out with people I don’t know and do yoga and meditation? But my girlfriend forced me to go. I had this amazing epiphany. I don’t think you get yoga until you embrace everything else that comes with it. You can get yourself into the poses, but if you’re not breathing right you’re wasting your time. The spiritual side of it, the connection to meditation and how that can inform your own life was suddenly revealed to me. In that moment, a new chapter opened up.

3. Find new ways to cope

I work with a lot of young people.They wake up and are just immediately angry. They live in environments where they have to put on a mask to survive the day. They could really do with some yoga and meditation. A 15-year-old kid who’s living in a tower block, looking out of his window and seeing his area change, needs another way to cope with the day.

4. Discover mindfulness

When you start running, you tick offlandmarks. You can go from never having run to doing a marathon in 16 weeks, and then you plateau. I’d got to a point where running was all about racing and winning medals. It was getting boring because I’d ticked off the landmarks. Now I see it’s part of wellbeing; it’s a lifestyle that’s all connected. Running allows you time to think, to contemplate. Now it’s not just about the numbers on a watch any more.

5. Spread the word

I now run pay-what-you-can yogaclasses with my partner – money shouldn’t be a barrier to looking after yourself. I’m training as a yoga teacher, and we want to work with the community in ways yoga studios aren’t. We’ve got lots of ideas. Some of them will work and some won’t. But we’re going to try.