Absolutely!
Since I love talking about slow-motion strength training in general and Alive! Fitness Studio in particular, let’s talk about how 20 minutes of slow motion exercise can also be 20 minutes of meditation.
Meditation is simply fully attending to what you have chosen to focus on. Your breathing, the movement of your body, the activity you are engaged in.
When you focus (attend), you allow the thoughts that are bubbling up in your mind to flow through and out rather than cycle around. The normal reaction to thoughts is to analyze them or react to them. It is in the analysis or reaction that we cause ourselves problems.
When we are open to our thoughts and feelings, noticing how we allow them to dictate the experience of our lives, we can step back from them and create a space for choice. A chance to think about a “knee-jerk” response or a habit. Does it serve my greater good? Is this the way I want to continue to behave?
At Alive! our clients are trained to “breathe freely and openly” as they execute their exercises. When you add to the breathing, focusing on exactly how the muscles are feeling and working as they perform the exercise, you have a powerful meditative experience where you can practice “fully attending”.
You can practice returning your focus to the exercise and your breathing as those errant thoughts about the traffic, your boss, your children, your car, your spouse keep popping up to distract you. In this practice of fully attending during your exercise you are practicing for fully attending in all of your life. And you are getting even more out of your exercise time.
It is easy to pay attention when we feel good and things are going well. It is much more difficult to pay attention when are insides are churning and our amygdala thinks our life is at risk. The practice of fully attending is for those very times.
During your next exercise session practice fully attending to the exercise you are currently doing and the breathing that should go with it.
