TheBanyanTree: Meditations

[Margaret R. Kramer]

We’re supposed to exercise every day.  We’re supposed to eat right every
day.  Eating right means cooking our own food, going out to eat isn’t
allowed.  We’re supposed to exercise our animals every day.  We go to work.
We take care of our families.  We take classes.  We do volunteer work.  We
have hobbies.  Gosh, the list doesn’t end, does it?

Lately, there have been articles and segments on TV about meditating.  They’
ve found that meditating calms the nerves and can help prevent illness and
help us live longer.  OK, that’s fine, but when am I supposed to find time
to meditate?  Even 10 minutes seems like a big time commitment when my day
is packed full of “should do” activities.

I started thinking (or meditating) about meditating.  It sounds like a good
idea, but then I realized I already do meditate.  I meditate when I work
out.  I haven’t kept up with my yoga, but I think what happens to me when I’
m working out is kind of like what happens when we do yoga or Tai chi.  The
repetitive physical motions encourage subconscious or dreamlike thinking
without any control or direction.

When I first started working out, I was a tub of lard and incredibly out of
shape.  I could barely get through 15 minutes of aerobic activity without
dying of exhaustion.  I consciously thought about my work out every second.
I had to, because my body was very aware it was using muscles and energy
that hadn’t been used in decades.

Now I change my work outs occasionally, but basically I’m on autopilot.  I
warm up for five minutes, stretch, and then hit the weights.  I work from my
largest muscles to my smallest muscles alternating between free weights and
the machines.  I push myself, but my brain begins to wander to somewhere
else besides the gym, and after I’m done with weights, my muscles have a
tingly, used sensation, and I’m relatively relaxed.

After weight work, I do cardio for 45 minutes.  At first, I watch TV while
listening to classical music on my pocket radio, and as I warm up, I stop
watching the news and my focus goes from what’s outside of me to my body.  I
think about my breathing, my heart rate, how much I’m sweating, how hard I’m
working, and then I think about what’s going on in my life, different
scenarios, different fantasies, and different ways to resolve problems.
Sometimes my mind is a blank and other times I’m thinking really hard about
things.  Time as a dimension is not important and those 45 minutes are not
measured in any way.

For me, swimming is the best meditative exercise.  It’s my body adapting to
water.  I stroke, I glide through the water, and there is no machine to
regulate my work out.  I go back and forth in the pool with little visual
stimulation and virtually no sound.  Back and forth, stroke for stroke, and
my thoughts escape me like little butterflies and fly above me as I do my
laps.  The hour I swim is nonexistent.  It seems when I finished, I have
just entered the water.

My cardio time always ends gently, a slight push back into reality, and I
head to the mat to do ab work and to stretch out.

My body feels great and my mind is at peace, too.  To me, exercise is the
backbone for everything.  It’s good for my body and very good for my mind.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
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Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on
a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."

* Maya Angelou