Author / Drea Osborne
Meditation is important for our well being. How? For starters, it’s a good stress reliever, allows you to feel more deep-seated feelings (unmasking your true feelings about an event or situation), and most importantly it can be an eye-opener.
Now, most of us assume that you have to be sitting still to meditate. But what if I told you that you can do it while running?! Of course, you can meditate beforehand to get your mind right, but while running, it will challenge your body with the added bonus of clearing your mind. Meditating while running may seem different and, honestly, a bit more difficult, so here are some tips on how you can try adding this unexpected benefit to your running practice:
Choose A Mantra
Adopt a phrase that can keep you focused like, “Keep running”, “ I am strong,”, or, as simple as, “Right left, right left”.
Breathe
Having a consistent breathing pattern can help keep you moving through your run.
The breathing pattern that I have found helps me is an alternating pattern which is “Slow breath in through the nose, slow breath out through the mouth, slow breath in through the mouth, slow breath out through the nose” and repeat.
Be Aware
Truly take in your surroundings. The scenery, sounds, feeling of the breeze, etc. Make a mental list of everything you see and feel.
Get A Guide
Meditation can be difficult in general and adding it to a run can seem daunting to most. Try to lookup apps that can help you with this level of focus. Here are some of the best meditation apps to use.
Now that you have a better idea about how to meditate while you run, you may be thinking that’s all well and good, but why would I want to? What’s the benefit of dealing with extra work when I can just run? Some benefits include:
- Decreases stress while running
- Find more enjoyment in your runs
- More energy throughout
- Improves your speed and endurance
For those that have never meditated before and want to try meditation on their own, check out this post for meditation for beginners.
So now that you have a better idea of how to meditate while running, we would love to hear your thoughts. Comment below about how it goes for you!
