Why do I feel anxious or unmotivated to run even though I know it's good for me?

Because you've made running about obligation instead of discovery. This is the paradox Hodja loved: the more you force something good, the more it resists. Stop asking 'Should I run today?' and ask instead 'What does my body need to move today?' Sometimes it's a slow walk. Sometimes it's a sprint. Sometimes it's stillness. Anxiety about running usually means you've buried running under expectations—speed, distance, consistency, the testimony of others. Peel that away. Run so slow you feel slightly foolish. Run somewhere beautiful just to be there, not to achieve anything. The unmotivated feeling often signals that running has become performance rather than practice. Return to the beginning: movement in nature is free. It asks nothing of you except presence. When your legs carry you outside, you've already won. The anxiety might linger—that's okay. Hodja said wisdom often arrives as a joke you don't understand until much later. Keep moving. The understanding follows the footsteps, not the other way around.