The essence of mediation is to allow yourself to “drop into pure experience”, or to be present in the moment, and relax the mind. There are many variations of meditative practices. If this is something new to you, the best advice is to find what works for you. That’s not a copout! After researching different practices, you may find that there are few that you like and can incorporate into your routine. Remember, it is a practice to build on.
Not sure where to begin? To get you started, here is a very basic approach to tack onto the end of your workout.
- Find a quiet place at the gym or wait until you are home, and set a timer for 3 minutes. Come to a comfortable seated position and close your eyes.
- Breathe deeply; inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth. Generally, your inhales should take twice as long as your exhales, so count them in your head as you begin.
- Let go of any external thoughts and bring your focus internal. Easier said than done some days, but it will get easier as you progress (hence, the practice). There may also come a point where you want to abort the mission; DON'T!
- Take an inventory of your body and how it feels. Notice each body part. from head to toe, letting go of any tension you may be holding. Relax and continue to breath deeply.
To progress, you can increase your timer a few seconds each day or focus on certain practices that you choose during that time. Give it a try, and see how you feel! You may just form a habit that will contribute graciously to your post-workout recovery and change the way your brain responds to everyday stress.
If you had asked me a few years back about meditation, I would have not known a thing about it. Above, I told you not to abort the mission. That's because I wanted to when I first began. Your thoughts can get in the way or you will sit there thinking about other things you could be doing. The thing to meditation, or what I understand of it, is that it is okay if your mind wanders (and it will), just notice it, then reel yourself back in. A real practice of the mind. This is why we bring attention to our breath to start, an internal source and single point of focus to come back to. To continue, Leo Babauta of the Zen Habits blog (one of my favorites) has many suggestions about meditation for beginners that has proven useful to me (https://zenhabits.net/meditation-for-beginners/ ). Above I also say to do it post-workout, but if that timing does not work for you, thats okay. Your recovery can happen any time of day. Meditation has become a daily habit that I have formed for myself, and it all began with just a few minutes a day in the mornings. Hands down, its been a personal #gamechanger . When practiced consistently, meditation has a magical way of ridding the mind of useless clutter. My approach on every day crossings-in-the-road seem to be less cumbersome than ever before and I worry less. Yes! Anyone who knows me will tell you, and the words "no worries" have literally taken over my vocab! If you want to know all the scientific stuff, just look it up! Studies show that meditation can change the entire way your brain functions ( #headexplodes ) ! Far from an expert here, but positive results happen when you devote time to meditation and others who practice regularly will tell you the same. If you are new to it, I challenge you to give meditation a whirl for 1 week straight, just 3-5 minutes a day, after a workout or whenever you want. Freeeeee your miiiiind! Then, let me know all about it in the comments below! I look forward to hearing about your discovery! ;)
Be well -- Lee-Ann
