Mindfulness and Exercise:
My friend and the fantastic personal trainer Kweku Holmes of Akoma Fitness in the Washington DC metro area sent me this fabulous article on mindfulness and exercise: written by Gretchen Reynolds, To Jump-Start Your Exercise Routine, Be Mindful, Well Blogs, New York Times, February 18, 2015. This article is about a study conducted at the Utrecht University about how mindfulness can make a person stick to an exercise routine. One of the findings of the study was that ”mindfulness may amplify satisfaction because one is satisfied when positive experiences with physical activity become prominent” – and that ”for those experiences to be noticed – one must become AWARE of them – and that this can be achieved by being mindful”! Because a person would become aware of the positive aspects of the exercise regimen, and maybe not only focus on the negative experiences and/or dismiss the positive factors, this would make a person more willing to continue to exercise and keep to having an exercise routine. As Kalliopi-Eleni Tsafou a Marie Curie Research Fellow being part of this study said: ”Being present – and observing all aspects that comprise the experience – may render the workout more satisfying” even as it might be a tough workout and we might struggle and experience while working out some aches and pains – because in addition mindfulness ”facilitates the acceptance of things as they occur” and helps a person to ”accept negative experiences and view them as less threatening”!
So emerge yourself fully in the experiences of exercise and when you feel aches and pain while exercising embrace those experiences as well because that is your body speaking to you – your muscles for instance – maybe they are happy to be heard again!! And remember that when you breathe heavily when exercising that is an opportunity to consciously do breathing exercises which also will help you with becoming aware and thus you are doing a mindfulness exercise right then and there! Sometimes when I do weight training exercises I also consciously do breathing exercises, it works!! And the weight training becomes less tedious and hard that way!!! Now I understand having read this article that I have been indeed doing mindful exercises that way. Now I feel extra motivated to continue to exercise and I’m going to continue teaching and reminding myself to become much more aware of my experiences when doing so!
Source: Gretchen Reynolds, To Jump-Start Your Exercise Routine, Be Mindful, Well Blogs, New York Times, February 18, 2015, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/how-mindfulness-can-jumpstart-our-exercise-routines/?_r=0
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