Running as Meditation
Posted on August 15, 2008
Filed Under Chief Blogging Officer
Our CHO (Chief Health Officer) says that he does his best thinking while running, and he routinely puts in double digit mileage in the summer heat of Las Vegas, so a whole lot of thinking gets done. I agree that running is a time for reflection, and my experience of running distances has been a lot like the practice of meditation.
If you are going to run for distance, you can’t be concerned about “getting it over with.” People who view running that way probably aren’t going to stick with it for any length of time. To enjoy running, you have to just stay in the moment and go one stride at a time. When you regulate your pace based on your heartbeat and breath, start sweating, and find your groove, it’s all on autopilot, fueled by your favorite music pouring out of your iPod and into your ears. You empty your mind and invite the ideas to come to you, and invariably, they do.
What I describe as “finding your groove” is akin to the spirit of meditation. You get in touch with your body, calmly evaluating your stride, the angle at which you are holding your arms, and the way that your feet are hitting the ground. In meditation you concentrate on your breath, and regulating your breathing is a key element to distance running. Whether you consciously realize it or not, the act of running is an attempt to balance the mind, body, and spirit, not unlike the practice of meditation.
I recently read an article entitled “The Zen of Running, and 10 Ways to Make it Work for You,” and the author says that he uses a mixture of concentration and contemplation when he is running. You focus on the mechanics of what you are doing, staying present and in the moment, and then you allow yourself to drift off mentally and get into the realm of contemplation, which is the breeding ground of ideas and solutions to challenges. And then back to the concentration, maybe a burst of speed or an uphill incline that requires more of your attention.
Sakyong Mipham Rimpoche is one of the most recognizable teachers of meditation in the Buddhist community, and he has hosted an annual retreat in Colorado called “Running With The Mind of Meditation.” Participants ranged from serious competitive runners to those with a casual interest in running, but just about everyone seemed to benefit from it a great deal.
Jon Pratt was one of the organizers of the event, and he had this to say:
“What surprises some people is that meditation is very much a body-oriented discipline. It is not about leaving your body and entering some celestial realm. It is about relating to the here and now which we experience through our five senses. So in meditation we learn to let go of our thoughts and come back to our body. Running and meditation are perhaps the most energizing and ultimately, joyful, activities in my life. Bringing them together is about as good as it gets…The practice of meditation has brought freshness into my running because when I have a meditative mind I am fully in the moment and fully in my body. I am more relaxed and more joyful. When I have this attitude every run is a new and exciting experience.”
We all know that running is good for our physical health. In fact, a Stanford study recently concluded that middle-aged runners were half as likely to die over a two decade span than non-runners. But running is also very good for your head, so lace them up, stay in the moment, put one foot in front of the other, and let the ideas fly.
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