Integrating Meditation Into Physical Challenges

Maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the cushion lately. Or, maybe I’ve been working too hard on integrating meditation into my family life and into the process of writing and publishing my book. Whatever the reasons, I recently experienced an entirely new level of challenge in working with my mind while training for the Colorado Triple Bypass (a bike ride, not a surgery!).

The Triple Bypass is a popular, “lung busting” 120-mile bicycle ride over three mountain passes, climbing a total of 10,000 feet of elevation, in a day’s ride.

How I got it into my head to ride the Triple Bypass while working on finishing up my book project and starting my own business, as well as being a husband, dad and blogger, is beyond me. But, so be it.

To prepare for this event, one must learn to ride long distances and hills, BIG hills!

But wait, what does meditation have to do with mountains and biking? Everything!

While meditation, and practicing mindfulness and meditative awareness are necessary tools for the art of nursing or for the art of living, they are also amazingly profound tools to use when confronting serious challenges in our lives related to the body and mind.

While recently doing a particularly steep climb, I found my mind saying, “What am I doing?” “I could be working on my business!” “Why don’t I meditate more?”……. Basically, I found my mind distracted by the suffering of the moment, off-task from what I was supposed to be doing, forgetting that at 11,000 feet of elevation, riding a bike up a mountain, my breathing is supposed to be labored and it’s not necessarily supposed to be easy!

What I was experiencing was that my mind was not in sync with what was going on. I had an idea…or many of them, that what I was experiencing  should not be happening.

Meditation is, at its essence, a state of non-distraction, gradually coming to know our mind. What I had to practice at this moment was to remain non-distracted even in the face of significant physical suffering, and to know that my mind could be at ease even in this difficult moment.

Why was this moment different from any other moment? It wasn’t! I had attempted to put the training into its own “special” category, thinking that the process of pushing myself up a mountain on a bike wasn’t about remaining non-distracted. I’d also fallen into the trap of thinking that I could let my mind run wild just because I was suffering, rather than realize that my mind could be in a state of relative ease despite the fact that I was suffering.

Meditation is a state of non-distraction.

Meditation is a process of gradually coming to know our mind.

Meditation can be done anywhere, under any circumstance.

Practicing meditation shouldn’t be isolated to sitting on a cushion, saying a mantra, or done only when we’re comfortable.

The next time that you find yourself in a challenging situation, whether through your own doing or due to external circumstances beyond your control, ask yourself whether this is the time to practice your meditation. If it isn’t, why not?

Share your comments. Let me and others know what situations you find yourself in when to “just meditate” doesn’t feel like a solution to the challenge. And, as always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other discussions on this site.

For more information on how to meditate, exercises in working with the breath, and other nifty stuff, please see the Related Posts below. Also, don’t forget to download the free ebook, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World?, for help with getting started in you meditation practice.