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| Me time trialling - perhaps mindfulness could have helped me?! |
Hello friends and welcome to ‘my cloud’! I hope you find this to be a good read, and
would love it if you could leave comments and share with others. I am writing in a post-workout
endorphin-enhanced state, which I have just realised is probably my favourite
state to write in! And my realising
this, I think, is down to my newfound mindful way of living - having started
practicing mindfulness a few months ago, I’m so much more aware of my thoughts
and feelings in everyday situations - see my previous post for a bit more on the
general benefits of mindfulness.
So, to get to the point of this post: I’ve just been for a
run (and by run, I mean short jog!). Of
course, the fact that I went running is not the whole point of this post, but
bear with me! In recent times I’ve been
making an effort to be more mindful during everyday activities, especially
exercise. This basically involves being
fully aware of what I’m doing while I’m doing it, and noticing with curiosity
how I feel physically and mentally whilst exercising.
We all know that exercise is good for our mental wellbeing,
and more and more of us are coming to realise that mindfulness is another
powerful tool for maintaining and enhancing our psychological health. Combine the two, and the result, I think, is
magic! It opens up a whole world of benefits,
which I see as coming into two main categories.
The first is that exercise sessions are wonderful
opportunities to practice mindfulness. This
in itself is a great thing, as the more we practice, the more benefits we
reap. Not only that, but it can make the
experience more enjoyable and meaningful that it otherwise would be. For instance, on my run today I noticed that
the upright posture I was adopting made me feel strong and powerful (see this
TED talk for more on body language and feelings of power). On a recent bike ride I found noticed how
soothing the easy feeling and sound of my slick tyres on a smooth road surface
was, and the soft vibrations coming through my padded handlebar tape on a
slightly rougher road surface. One also
notices a lot more of the natural beauty around you when you running, walking
or cycling mindfully, and this in itself is a wonderful mood-booster. Another way of bringing mindfulness to
exercise is to simply notice the feeling of the feet touching the ground or
turning the pedals, or of the wind in your face and hair.
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| Mindfulness can turn pain into power and enhance performance! |
The second key advantage of mindful exercise is performance
enhancement. I realise that if you’re a
serious athlete, the idea of leisurely taking in the scenery or enjoying a
smooth road surface may not be quite up your street! The good news is that I also think it has
enormous potential to enhance performance.
This is because mindfulness is very much about paying attention to how
we feel in a non-judgemental way. So, by
adopting a mindful approach during exercise, when pain kicks in you can get
through it by simply noticing and allowing the sensations, without attaching
negativity to it or wishing it felt different.
I toyed with the idea of using mindfulness to improve
performance a little on my run today, and genuinely think it helped me to go a
little faster. I’ve also tried it whilst
going uphill on my bike and doing weights.
I think it’s something that’ll take some practice to get big performance
enhancements from, but can really see the potential. Another idea I have is to build it up slowly
(after all, mindfulness is like the gym but for your mind: the more you do it,
the easier it gets). For instance, on my
recent mindful bike ride I quite enjoyed the feeling of tension and power when going
up a short hill. With practice, I think
this technique of mindfully noticing the sensations in my legs could help me a
lot with harder climbs.
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| One to read for more on mindful cycling |
Of course, my experience so far is with a limited range of
activities, but I think it can be applied to anything. I’m especially interested to apply
mindfulness next time I go climbing and see where it gets me!
So, there it is: a whistle-stop tour of my thoughts on the
magic of mindful exercise! I’d welcome
comments from anyone who uses mindfulness when exercising, and hope to write
more on this later when I’ve tried the technique out a bit more and looked into
what research is out there on the topic.
In the meantime, I hope I might have inspired you to give mindful
exercise a go and that you can reap the benefits from it. Run, walk, climb, lift, cycle, row – or whatever
your chosen activity – for your life!
