Liverpool

//Week Two – Using the breath to anchor your mind in the body

Welcome to week two of the Mindful May Challenge. If you missed week one you can always go back and read the introduction here and catch up with the invited practice too if you want to.

In week one we began to explore our experience and senses while running, noticing the sensations in our bodies and noticing what our senses are experiencing in our environments.

In week two the invitation is to practice training your mind to become anchored in the body.

Meditation: This ten minute Breathing Anchor with Vidyamala Burch, founder of Breathworks contains a lovely introduction to the practice and a guided breathing anchor meditation. Aim to do this once a day.

It’s also a great idea to continue with the 10 minute body scan from last week too if this works for you. The advice would be to do two (10 minute) meditations a day, one of each. But if you only do one then for this week make it the Breathing Anchor.

Running Challenge: Learning to pay attention to your body during running (or any form of exercise/movement) is critical to improving performance, maintaining health and to the long term sustainability of your activity. Listening to, and learning how your body moves, having a felt sense of the impact of the movement and working with your body not in spite of it will all help to prevent injury and increase your enjoyment!

But the mind has a tendency to take over, to criticize and judge, to worry and stress, and to wander off completely as if separated from your body. And while the mind gets lost in past and future the breath becomes an amazing ally in keeping your awareness in the present, because whatever the mind is doing the breath is always in the here and now.

So we use the breath by really noticing it, paying attention to observing how we breath and how that breath feels in the body. You will find that you will be able focus on the breath for short moments and your mind will then hijack your attention again and again. This is okay, it’s really normal. Your job is to notice that your mind has wandered off and gently, without judgement, bring your attention back to feeling the sensations of your breath in your body, and you’ll be doing this over and over, this is the training!

Think of it in the same way as how you might build muscle in your arms. You don’t lift weights in the air and hold them there for the full length of your training session! No, you create repetitions, and it’s the movement of these repetitions that builds the muscle. Training the mind works in a similar way, it’s the mental movement of noticing your thoughts have taken over and gently bringing your focus back that creates the mental muscle. So be aware of falling into the trap of judging yourself, or judging the process because your mind keeps distracting you, just keep practicing bringing your attention back to noticing the breath.

*Notice how the breath changes with each step, changes over the length of a run.

*Notice if/when the breath feels strained or flows easily.

*How does your breath change when your speed or running rhythm changes, or your cadence?

*Where in your body can you feel your breath? Are you breathing into your belly or in your chest, notice how this feels in your run.

*And notice how your breath returns to your normal day to day breathing as you cool down and stretch at the end of your run. Get really really curious about your breath and see what other details and sensations you can notice.

Further Resources:

Read: Mindful Running, Mackenzi L. Havey

Read: Mindfulness Workbook, by Gary Hennessey

Read: A brief article on breathing techniques for mindful running

Read/Watch: An article and accompanying video on breathing exercises for runners from the Natural Running Centre

Read: The Anatomy of Breathing (an article I will email to you once you sign up for this week)

Watch: a simple 2 minute animation explaining the basics of breath meditations

There are also some great mindfulness apps available to explore such as Insite Timer and Headspace, both of which have fee and paying options for multiple guided meditations. Or Youtube is full of mindfulness videos, interviews, guided meditations etc so go explore!

//Don't forget, I'm here if you have any questions or want to chat anything through, Ema xx

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