Monthly Mindfulness Miles
This March I began a practice of awareness of the six senses while running. This idea stemmed from a class I attended at East Bay Meditation Center, "Four Foundations for Resilience and Well-being." The four foundations—mindfulness of the Body, mindfulness of the Feelings, mindfulness of the Mind, and mindfulness of the Dhammas—are a central teaching in Buddhist practice. Something I appreciate about EBMC is that their teachings are offered to foster liberation, personal and interpersonal healing, social action, and inclusive community building. Additionally, you don’t have to be a practicing Buddhist to attend these classes and benefit from the teachings (though that is my intention). One of the multicultural agreements in attending class is to “try it on.” Be willing to try new ideas or ways of doing things, and if it isn’t for you that is okay, if it is uncomfortable that is okay, and maybe you will find something that resonates with you, that you decide to keep. For me, running has always been more than just running so there was an instant connection between these four foundations and my run practice. As my teacher Mushim from EBMC says, I can go to the deep end of the pool here (and I would love to), but for the purposes of sharing this budding idea I have let’s keep it simple. The first question our teacher asked us as we began our class on mindfulness of the Body was, “How often do we stop and ask what our body needs?”
During class our teacher guided us through a movement meditation so we could practice cultivating awareness of our bodies. He guided us on being kind and giving thanks to our bodies and internal organs for all that they do for us each day, he implored us to consider how our bodies are ecosystems within ecosystems—which made me think about how we care for ourselves is how we care for the places we run. Our class ended that evening with a home play prompt (because fuck homework) to practice awareness and kindness that is guided by an intention to reduce harm to ourselves and to others, and to practice awareness of the six senses during our day. The six senses being: see, hear, smell, taste, body, and mind. I think most people could guess where I am going with this—mindfulness can reduce harm to ourselves by way of how we train and how we recover. But if we want to go to the deeper end of the pool, we can use our mindfulness practice to begin to understand how to reduce harm to others—people and nature—through our running practices.
I look forward to my mindfulness runs. Each stride turns into a conversation with my body and mind. I notice my heartbeat in my chest, the rhythm of my breath, and the tone of my thoughts. On the trails I can smell the wildflowers drift through the air, I can feel the crisp morning breeze fill my lungs, as well as the earth beneath my feet. My runs become meditative, reminding me of the interconnectedness of mind, body, and the natural world.
Running transcends the physical act; it can serve as a time for connection and reflection. With my running practice I have looked for communities of like-minded people drawn to running not merely for the PRs and consumption of all things running, but for its deeper significance (and I am SO thankful for those of you I have found). I believe we are more aware of the systems we live in and the damage these systems are doing to us and the environment, and we want to do something more meaningful than just consume. This awareness invites us to engage with running as an opportunity for mindfulness. Could approaching running in this way encourage us to reconnect more with ourselves, each other and the environment? Could running, when viewed through this lens, become an act of responsibility—each step reminding us of our connection to the natural world and our responsibility to care for her? In a world of convenience, that moves at a speed not conducive to intentional connection and care, I worry that the idea of responsibility isn’t sexy enough to capture running culture’s attention. But I’m still down to try because in choosing to run mindfully, we can create a running practice that aligns with our values and acknowledges the intricate web of life we inhabit—like the ways I am noticing friends share their runs on Strava by describing the sunrise, or what animals they came across on the trails, or which flowers are in bloom. Turning Strava into a platform of noticing and appreciating where we run, not just collecting kudos, Local Legend status, or segment PRs.
Beginning in May we will start to offer a Monthly Mindfulness Miles run. During these runs we are going to focus on awareness of our six senses as we hit the trails or run the streets of the East Bay—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and thinking—together with the purpose of cultivating and protecting what our attention goes to. As adrienne maree brown says, what we pay attention to grows. Consider what you want to grow in a world that is changing by the day, and can be shaped by our choices.
Runs will be posted on the events page & Strava.
