Meditation

Thoughts on meditation

Having completed two weeks of summer semester chemistry (16 weeks of material crammed into six), I can look back and reflect that my schedule went to shit.

My training volumes significantly dropped the past week. Yet, I’m OK with that.

Really.

It’s all about priorities. Medical school is very competitive and I need to rack up every A I can get. Looking back at my one season of endurance racing, it’s not like I can get much farther back in the pack, right? For the moment then, nearly all of my available time is being poured into all things related to chemistry.

The one thing that is keeping me sane, however, is my family, my dogs and my meditation practice.

Yes, Hak meditates.

There are no religious connections to this practice…and that’s what it is: practice. The ability to sustain focused concentration.

It’s damn difficult.

Think about it. A good portion of triathlon is mental. The ability to silence the voices that want you to slow down or quit. The voices that say the pain is too much.

Coping with those voices comes from practice in the field.

Silencing those voices comes from practice on the Zafu (meditation cushion).

I originally poo-poo’d meditation years ago. I had no interest in becoming a flower child, hemp-lovin’ cupcake. Then, I read Steve Ilg’s classic work The Outdoor Athlete: Total Training for Outdoor Performance. Here was a guy who had been, and continues to be, on several athletic podiums and was advocating meditation as mental conditioning and a critical component of athletic performance.

Just try to sit still for five minutes. I dare you.

Focus only on your breathing and not slouching.

Five minutes can seem like forever.

See how many thoughts from your day come rushing in. Most of my “monkey mind” comes from parts of my future life. “Dude…yeah…gotta remember to clean the bike chain later…trim the tomato plants back…oh yeah, get that third raised bed garden in…shit…lots of chemistry homework to do…should handle chapter 4 homework first, then read the relevant section in Idiot’s Guide to Chemistry next…etc.”

It’s damn difficult to go five seconds, let alone five minutes without this mental baggage…which means absolutely nothing to me at this moment in time. In the here and now of my life.

The ability to just sit and to be in the moment is priceless. It’s a great recharge for the brain and the body. I also believe it’s a great training aid for race day.

After all, who wouldn’t like to have the power to just focus during a difficult part of the race and hit that moment where everything just flows. That’s the groove.

The moment in time where there is no future.

There is no past.

There is just now.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

hak