Mindfulness and exercise/sports

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Sekha
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by Sekha »

David N. Snyder wrote:
Dukkhanirodha wrote: So finally I practice 10 asanas every day, always the same very basic ones, and this is enough to feel comfortable in the body. For the rest, I practice more meditation now : )
Don't forget walking meditation. That is an exercise too, as well as a meditation.
well whenever I walk I try to maintain mindfulness and sampajañña

I see danger and this 'walking meditation' because some people (even monks) don't practice anything beyond that. Sitting meditation, for the average practitioner is fundamental.
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli

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kayy
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by kayy »

Ben wrote:Well done Kate!
I'm still swimming laps in the pool but not as often as I like. I find if I don't have to share a lane with anyone (which is rare), my mindfulness increases as I just use the black line at the bottom of the pool to anchor my mind and my stroke.
kind regards

Ben

Lately I've been trying to put into practice my cultivation of compassion for the people in the pool who employ a somewhat irritating swimming style, i.e. butterfly stroke up and down the middle of the lanes, splashing and hitting everyone in their way!!

:broke: (this looks a bit like someone doing butterfly stroke)
meindzai
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by meindzai »

bodom wrote:
David N. Snyder wrote:
Dukkhanirodha wrote: So finally I practice 10 asanas every day, always the same very basic ones, and this is enough to feel comfortable in the body. For the rest, I practice more meditation now : )
Don't forget walking meditation. That is an exercise too, as well as a meditation.
Five Benefits of Walking Meditation

1. One is able to bear long journeys (on foot).
2. One can endure making an effort.
3. One will be more resistant to illness or disease (having good health).
4. Food can be easily digested.
5. The concentration developed while walking lasts a long time.

- Numerical (Anguttara) Collection, Book of Five
Very cool quote. Gil Fronsdal once remarked that if the Buddha knew about the kinds of lives we'd be leading today he would have added "Right Exercise" to the eight(nine)fold path.

As for my answer to the question, I run. Two books that really made me think about running in a different way were "Chi Running" (which is a style of running modeled after Tai Chi) And more recently "Born to Run." A book about a tribe of indigenous people in Mexico (The Tarahumara) who run hundred or more mile races with minimal or no footwear. The problem with the way people run today is that our shoes block off all the sensory input to our feet, and we have learned to run in a mindless and distracted way. (Always with headphones of course, with distracting music to block out the pain of running, which is actually caused by the expensive shoes).

So I am switching to running barefoot (on the treadmill) and when spring comes around (or I move to Florida!) I will be out in my Haurache sandals - just a little bit of material between me and the ground - and no headphones.

-M
meindzai
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by meindzai »

kayy wrote:
Lately I've been trying to put into practice my cultivation of compassion for the people in the pool who employ a somewhat irritating swimming style, i.e. butterfly stroke up and down the middle of the lanes, splashing and hitting everyone in their way!!

"It was like a flabby armed spanking machine!!" - Kramer (from Seinfeld) Recalling a similar adventure with geriatrics at the local pool gym

Sorry, first thing I thought of when I saw your post.

-M
seanpdx
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by seanpdx »

I'm a rock climber. Mindfulness is a good quality to have, for some very obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. It's referred to by some as a form of "physical chess".
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Ben
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by Ben »

Hi Katy
kayy wrote:Lately I've been trying to put into practice my cultivation of compassion for the people in the pool who employ a somewhat irritating swimming style, i.e. butterfly stroke up and down the middle of the lanes, splashing and hitting everyone in their way!!

:broke: (this looks a bit like someone doing butterfly stroke)
I couldn't agree more. I tend to be careful which lane I select to ensure, as much as possible, to be somewhere where I won't be slowed down by someone else. Even if it means I'm in a lane where I'm swimming much faster than I usually do.
kind regards

Ben
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in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
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Kim OHara
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by Kim OHara »

meindzai wrote: Two books that really made me think about running in a different way were "Chi Running" (which is a style of running modeled after Tai Chi) And more recently "Born to Run." A book about a tribe of indigenous people in Mexico (The Tarahumara) who run hundred or more mile races with minimal or no footwear. The problem with the way people run today is that our shoes block off all the sensory input to our feet, and we have learned to run in a mindless and distracted way. (Always with headphones of course, with distracting music to block out the pain of running, which is actually caused by the expensive shoes).

So I am switching to running barefoot (on the treadmill) and when spring comes around (or I move to Florida!) I will be out in my Haurache sandals - just a little bit of material between me and the ground - and no headphones.
-M
There has been a bit of a story lately (Time magazine? New Scientist?) about an important but previously unnoticed difference between the African long-distance runners and the Westerners. It seems that the Africans have always landed on their toes while Westerners land on their heels. Landing on your toe, you have a shock absorber; landing on your bare heel, you send a jolt all the way up your pine every step; landing on your heel wearing running shoes, their heels have have do the job of absorbing the shock and they don't do it very well.
That's the gist, anyway, as far as I remember it. You might like to look into it.

Kim
meindzai
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by meindzai »

Kim O'Hara wrote:
meindzai wrote: Two books that really made me think about running in a different way were "Chi Running" (which is a style of running modeled after Tai Chi) And more recently "Born to Run." A book about a tribe of indigenous people in Mexico (The Tarahumara) who run hundred or more mile races with minimal or no footwear. The problem with the way people run today is that our shoes block off all the sensory input to our feet, and we have learned to run in a mindless and distracted way. (Always with headphones of course, with distracting music to block out the pain of running, which is actually caused by the expensive shoes).

So I am switching to running barefoot (on the treadmill) and when spring comes around (or I move to Florida!) I will be out in my Haurache sandals - just a little bit of material between me and the ground - and no headphones.
-M
There has been a bit of a story lately (Time magazine? New Scientist?) about an important but previously unnoticed difference between the African long-distance runners and the Westerners. It seems that the Africans have always landed on their toes while Westerners land on their heels. Landing on your toe, you have a shock absorber; landing on your bare heel, you send a jolt all the way up your pine every step; landing on your heel wearing running shoes, their heels have have do the job of absorbing the shock and they don't do it very well.
That's the gist, anyway, as far as I remember it. You might like to look into it.

Kim
Yup, same principal. It's the shoes that are actually causing the landing on the heels. A lot of those other places with a strong running culture have been doing it shoe-less most or all of the time. As soon as you get rid of the shoes you pretty much start running correctly, though you have to be careful because we've spent our lives in shoes and have deformed our feet in the process. Also we use the foot like it's one big muscle rather than the dozens (hundreds?) of muscles that are in there, becuase we're not getting the feedback from the ground beneath us... So it's become a very mindless thing and this is why everybody hates running.

-M
KentStillness
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by KentStillness »

I used to do a lot of cycling and also raced competitively.

Often I would find that in the first few miles of a training ride thoughts would come and go and as you pedalled through them they would dissipate as the ride went on.

Likewise in a race situation you would get into the Zone. Not like a trance but a state of mind of hyperawareness and concentration.

Its not since embarking on meditation and mindfullness that I noticed the theraputic nature of sport.

I have a theory that those undertaking manual work probably slip into mindfull states of mind much more than say an office worker. Most carpenters, gardeners and decorators I have met seem pretty chilled!
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ground
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by ground »

Exercise/sports may be an addictive habit that actually undermines mindfulness because it generates agreeable feelings in the context of the body which may cause inclinations to repeat again and again without any mindfulness about what is going on.

Kind regards
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SDC
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Re: Mindfulness and exercise/sports

Post by SDC »

ground wrote:Exercise/sports may be an addictive habit that actually undermines mindfulness because it generates agreeable feelings in the context of the body which may cause inclinations to repeat again and again without any mindfulness about what is going on.

Kind regards
Agreed. While I'm skiing I am vaguely aware of the fact that I am completely absorbed and attached to the sensory overload and riding the adrenaline. If I were to start to practice satipatthana I would have to become fully aware of this fact and then it would no longer be fun. I am not ready to do that yet so I purposely don't try to practice while I ski.

However when it is just plain lame exercise I practice with no problem.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
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