running as a meditation
Anyone that runs long distance knows about the discipline it both takes and builds. You cannot run a marathon without physical and mental fortitude lest you find yourself severely injured and ill equipped to ever run again. When people say they think about things when they run as a mechanistic way to cope with stressful days, there are two things that likely occur:
As they plug in their headphones and play a curated playlist or podcast, every thought under the sun encumbers their mind: all the emails they have to answer, what they will eat when they return home, and whether or not they will call their mom that night
They listen to their breath and body with utter focus
Meditation starts with breath work. First and foremost, controlling the breath fuels the brain and builds rhythm. Similarly, breathing is a key unit in running where your body will compensate for the oxygen depletion appropriately, spraying droplets on all passersby (wear masks). Control of the breath will sustain long runs, but requires practice. Much is the same as with meditation.
Running builds thought-power. It is not easy to stay focused in a distracted world obsessed with fast and shallow outputs of media. It takes practice to run and think about one specific problem and the potential solutions to that problem. One piece of advice I would give you is to not rework the easy parts of a problem again and again, as it fools you into thinking you are making progress. Running is a dedicated time with no distractions to think critically, one step forward. An example I will give you is that I came up with the idea to write a blog on one of my runs. In the beginning, I would think about all the topics I wanted to write about and every run after that, that’s all I did. I made no progress on the specifics of any one topic as I was flooded constantly by titillating ideas within a variety of subjects that interested me. I told myself I would write this article based on a set of runs that I made last week and each day I would come up with a new section of this piece. This has been a great improvement to what I was doing previously, which was effectively not much. Back to meditation, though. Meditation trains your mind to think about one thing and leave other thoughts in the dust. It builds strength unknowingly in your ability to focus and prioritize what is important to you when you are not meditating, which is just as significant. My dad used to say, you can meditate for 1 hour but the other 23 hours in the day will dictate how that 1 hour of meditation goes. Running sets the tone for my 23 hours, allowing my meditation to feel satisfying. A good meditation session empowers me to take care of my priorities, first being my health through the form of running. It’s all one big cycle you see!!
It takes time. Those who have the patience and the discipline can run long distances like half marathons, marathons, and even ultra marathons. It’s not about capability, it’s about persistence. The best things in life take time to cultivate but often produce the most meaning. I started meditation 10 years ago, and have VERY slowly raised my tolerance to sit down around 1 hr to 1.5 hrs at a time. I started running around 6 years ago and have slowly but surely improved my technique, stamina, and strength.
This is all to say that running is like meditation, but it is not the same. In fact, it would be a simulacrum to equate them. Meditation in itself does not require the level of present physical attentiveness that being a good runner needs. When you run, you have to be aware of what is happening around you, especially if you run alone at night or in remote areas. When you meditate, you only need to focus on your body and breath. It is highly spiritual as all your energy is diverted towards this mental exercise. Moreover, it is much harder to achieve a meditation practice that produces benefits. I will say though, the best things in life require deep effort, and if you start today, you will thank yourself in the future.
For anyone who loves to run or just wants some motivating literature on running, I have a wonderful recommendation for you: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running