| Do you hate exercise? How about meditation? Even | | | | and help you meditate. If instead of sitting in the lotus |
| with solid evidence that both exercise and meditation | | | | position to meditate, we engaged in a repetitive |
| have been shown over and over to improve health | | | | exercise such as walking on a treadmill or pedaling a |
| and wellness, most of us fail to find ways to fit them | | | | stationary bicycle, we would give the mind something |
| into our lives and schedules. How do you overcome | | | | to keep it occupied on a basic level. With the mind |
| this? | | | | busy keeping you moving or on the treadmill, it has less |
| Psychology tells us that one way to short circuit our | | | | time to throw random thought at you making it hard to |
| resistance to something is to combine it with something | | | | meditate. |
| else. The added activity can be something we do | | | | There are also benefits from this combination for the |
| enjoy or something we neglect but somehow the | | | | exercise component. Athletes label this sort of |
| combination of activities breaks down our resistance | | | | dissociative mental experience as "being in the zone". |
| to both. Our brains seem to enjoy multi-tasking and in | | | | With much of your mind being focused on the |
| some fashion this combining of activities breaks down | | | | meditation, it has less time to notice and process each |
| our procrastination and the barriers we throw up to | | | | little physical twinge and sensation that comes with |
| doing what is good for us. One great example of this | | | | hard physical work. The addition and meditation also |
| principle is the combination or mixture of exercise and | | | | takes our minds away from clock watching so the |
| meditation. | | | | exercise time passes quickly and with less monotony. |
| The purpose of mediation is to quiet your mind; to give | | | | Less boredom and subjective feelings of suffering |
| it a rest from daily worries and the continuous, often | | | | through the exercise may even lead to longer, harder |
| negative and harmful "noise" many of us have going | | | | exercise and better results. |
| on. One difficulty that people have with meditating | | | | Stationary forms of exercise work better for this |
| though, is that sitting down to meditate can cause the | | | | combination of deep meditation and exercise. It also |
| mind to see this as an opportunity to dig up all those | | | | does not matter what type of mediation or spiritual |
| negative thoughts that it has not had a chance to | | | | tradition you use to combine with the exercise. Just |
| process due to the demands of the day. | | | | pick options of each that work for you and enjoy the |
| Assigning the mind a focus can quiet that chattering | | | | benefits! |