Running: A Great Form Of Meditation
With the general current lifestyle, we absolutely have to take good care of our body and mind. Of all the forms of exercise, running is one of the most popular and also one of the healthiest.
That is, of course, if your physical condition allows it and you do it intelligently.
And then there’s meditation: meditation has become an accepted and beloved way to take care of our mental and emotional selves.
Running is so good for you. Running is good for the heart and also for the mind. It’s not uncommon for us to let our imaginations run wild, whether we’re thinking about running itself or something completely different.
You could say that you can only speak of a good training when body and mind synchronize with each other, even if they do different things. This state is where meditation plays a role, has meaning.
The Magic of Meditation
Practicing meditation consists of focusing your attention on clearing your mind and reducing your anxiety. It teaches you to disconnect from the worries that creep in the stream of your thoughts.
Therefore, running can be a great way to free the mind and release tension from your body. In fact, it turns tension into motion.
Meditation not only provides tranquility but also has other benefits for those who practice it. It has been shown to help reduce stress and boost the hormones that protect us from depression.
Meditation is also related to attention, and can help us deal with pain. It may even have a positive effect on our brain’s architecture, strengthening important synaptic connections.
There are many ways to develop a habit of meditation and mindfulness. For this we do not have to light candles, burn incense or sit on a special pillow in a certain position.
In fact, you simply need to be engrossed in an activity to assume a meditative posture. Running is one of these activities because when done right it makes for flowing thoughts.
Running is healing for the mind
Runners often talk about running as medicine, a way of navigating life’s problems. It is a way to escape from negativity and defeat your personal demons.
It goes beyond the need for exercise. One must also become emotionally fit. If I can get through this run, I can do anything.
Running is a rhythmic, natural movement that allows energy to flow through the body and turn into motion. Instead of using the energy for negative thoughts and emotions, it becomes the fuel for an activity that stimulates our nervous and endocrine systems.
So once we are liberated from negative emotions, it will be much easier to deal with them. We can learn from it and move on with our lives.
It turns out that when you stimulate meditation, both mind and body become stronger.
Furthermore, a 2016 study published in Translational Psychiatry found that focused meditation combined with an activity such as running or walking reduced symptoms of depression by 40% for participants diagnosed with depression before the study.
The key to all of this is that running helps us focus, especially when we’ve been walking for a while and our movements become more automated. It also helps if we don’t have to work so hard to run.
We go from ‘pulling’ our body to ‘guiding’ our body. This leads to a kind of active meditation that can be very comforting.
Walking slows your mind
Running slows down our mindset. It gives us a new perspective, a new mood.
If you’ve never run or only done a little run, here’s something you’ve definitely experienced: How many times have you sat down in the evening with a major problem that somehow seemed much less important the next morning? ?
Why is this happening? Because our way of thinking is very different at different times of the day.
Well, running produces the same effect. It produces a different way of thinking. Running allows us to look at a problem without feeling the fear as we do at night.
On the other hand, if our mind doesn’t want to work on the problem, we can let it go and free our mind to focus on the stimuli around us. This allows our mind to work quietly.
Even if we don’t want to, walking forces our minds to slow down. That violent storm of thoughts and worries gradually subsides.
Running brings you into the present
Much of the time we are not aware of the present. Our mind moves from the past to the future without stopping in the present, so we don’t process much of the information our senses bring in.
If we think we have limited resources, so if we decide that the past and the future are more important to think about, we won’t pay much attention to the present.
The main goal of any meditative practice is to help us pay attention to the present. To help us understand this, we must stop in the present to ensure continuity with the past and the future.
Mental concentration is a fundamental part of all meditative practices, with the aim of bringing us into a state of consciousness without losing perspective. Thus, with meditation we can see the trees without losing our place in the forest.
Running helps us do just this: become more aware of the present moment and deal with the problems that arise.
It also connects us to the present because it helps us communicate with our body, a near-perfect “machine” that we’ve come to ignore unless it screams in pain.
