Get Some Headspace: 10 minutes can make all the difference (20 page)

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Authors: Andy Puddicombe

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In the same way that walking and eating have become very habitual for many people, so has running. This has its uses, as it means that it’s easy to slip into a semi-conscious state of running, where the physical movement is so familiar that little concentration is required. Because of this, the mind tends to drift off very easily. So it’s normal for the mind to wander when you’re running, regardless of whether the thoughts are related to the running itself, or something quite separate. But the only way to ensure that you’re performing to the very best of your ability, is to leave the thinking behind and allow the body and mind to work together with a combined physical and mental focus. You don’t need to ‘try not to think’, but rather bring your attention to the process, rhythm and sensation of running. When you realise the mind has wandered off, just gently bring it back to the object of focus again.
Exercise 9: running meditation
This exercise is also available as a guided meditation at
www.getsomeheadspace.com/headspace-book/get-some-headspace
Before you get ready to go out running, try to get a sense of how you’re feeling . What’s going on in the mind? Are you feeling anxious, confident, or perhaps completely indifferent? If you have the time and inclination, you can even take a couple of minutes to sit down and allow the mind to rest before you begin. If you do this each time you may start to notice a pattern that will help you to respond more skilfully.
As you get changed into your running clothes, begin to notice the physical sensations in the body. Perhaps the legs feel heavy from a previous run, or the shoulders tight from sitting at the computer. Or perhaps there’s a general feeling of lightness in the body. As with the sitting technique, this process isn’t done with any sense of judgment or analysis, you are simply building up an awareness of how you feel.
Before you leave, take a good few deep breaths. This will help you to focus and give you a greater sense of being grounded. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Once you’re running you can return to whatever pattern of breathing feels most natural for you. Try to do this at least four or five times before you head out.
As you begin to run, at the same time as keeping a strong awareness of everything that’s going on around you, bring your attention back to the body. How does it feel now that you’re moving? How are the muscles responding to the movement? Notice how the breath quickly changes as the body begins to warm up. As always, there is nothing to do except be aware of all these things.
Notice how the mind responds too. Is it with a feeling of pleasure, of having ‘got out’ of work or home, of stretching your legs and getting some fresh air? Or is it a feeling of mild anxiety about the hard work you’re expecting to experience later in the run? What about the thoughts? Is the mind very busy, churning up all the events of the day and looking ahead to the to-do list for tomorrow? Or does it feel very settled, perhaps even comforted by the physical movement?
As you settle into the run, begin to notice the rhythm you’ve established. Does it feel comfortable? How does the body feel? Does it feel balanced, with an equal amount of force being used in both legs? How do the arms feel? And the shoulders? Is there anywhere in the body that feels tight? If there is, you already know what to do with it – watch it, observe it, become aware of it. Resist the temptation to try and get rid of it somehow. You may well find that in the process of awareness, the tension naturally releases itself anyway.
If you’re running for fun or simply to keep fit, then it’s helpful to actively encourage an awareness of what’s going on around you. This might be other runners, cars, parks, fields, buildings or anything else you pass along the way. It’s amazing how often people run exactly the same route every day and yet how little they know about it, how little they actually see. And the only reason for this is the tendency to go inwards, to become lost in thought. So remember that idea of gentle curiosity, not frantically trying to notice everything around you, but being interested in the things that grab your attention.
Because you’re more present and more aware, it’s quite likely that the way you think when you run (your mental habits) will also become more apparent. Do you have a tendency to be hard or kind to yourself when you’re running? Where does the mind instinctively go? Is it inwards towards thinking, or outwards towards sensations in the body? Is there a strong feeling of confidence, or of self-consciousness? All of these things you can start to notice as you do this exercise. You can also notice when the body begins to respond to the running process, when it releases the endorphins, when you start to feel invincible, as though you could run for ever (assuming that happens at some stage on your run).
One of the so-called problems of being more aware is that you become aware of not only the pleasant sensations, but also the unpleasant ones. However, used in the right way even the unpleasant sensations can be put to good effect. Rather than try to ‘get away’ from physical discomfort, see what happens when you rest your attention with the feeling. Try doing it as if you and the pain are not really separate, so less of ‘me and my pain’ and more of the simple, direct experience of ‘pain’. The results might surprise you.
Whether it’s the shortness of breath, the tightness of the chest, the aching of the thighs or cramping of the calves, all of these can be used as effective supports or objects of focus for your running meditation. When you first notice the pain, the instinctive reaction will be to resist it, to get rid of it, which will usually involve either stopping or beginning a long mental battle to try to forcibly overcome it, ignore it, or suppress it in some way. Obviously you need to be aware of your own physical capabilities, to respect your body, and take appropriate action when necessary. However, if you feel you can continue without doing any lasting damage, then try moving even closer to the discomfort, as if you are sinking down into that feeling and experiencing it in a very direct way. This may feel counterintuitive at first, but there’s method to the madness. In moving closer to it, in fully experiencing it and even encouraging it, there’s a complete shift in the usual, habitual dynamic and very often the pain is released as a result.
If you’re running more seriously, perhaps even competitively, then you may prefer to focus purely on the process and mechanics of running. A useful and popular object of focus is the sensation of the foot striking the floor, similar to that of walking meditation. The sense of rhythm can be very relaxing and it’s an obvious and stable point of focus.
Whatever your object of focus, try to run with a ‘light touch’ and relaxed mental attitude to the exercise. Even if you are pushing really hard to better your time, see just how little effort is required to run. Strange as that may sound, very often the more effort you put into it, the more you tighten up, and so the more you slow down. You could even make this the entire focus of your run, simply monitoring the amount of effort being applied. Notice in turn how this then affects your running stride.
Whether you are running for fun or taking it more seriously, you’ll find this exercise far more manageable if you break it down into sections. Some people find that stride by stride is the best way to focus, whereas for others it is street by street, or even mile by mile. One popular method is to break down the run into every ten strides, or every twenty, or even every hundred. It’s a bit like counting the breath and will help stop the mind wandering off. Obviously, the longer the distance you intend to focus on, the more difficult it is to remember these principles, so make a point of building in regular checks to see if you’re present throughout the run.
Headspace for sleep
Have you ever wondered why it is that at the very moment your head hits the pillow at night, your thoughts seem to go into overdrive? I often hear this process being described as insomnia (because we like to give labels to things), but if it only happens every so often, then it’s perhaps more accurate to describe it as being human. The interesting thing about this experience is that it’s not always quite as it appears. Lying down in bed at night, free from all distractions, is not unlike the first few moments of meditation. Suddenly you’re alone with your thoughts. All day you’ve been so busy with other people or doing other things, that these thoughts have been nothing but background noise in your head. While you may have had a vague awareness of this background noise, of thoughts coming and going, it’s quite likely that many of them will have gone unacknowledged, unprocessed. Lying there undisturbed in the silence, it’s only natural that those thoughts would become more obvious. It’s a bit like the moment when you take off the blindfold in the road analogy I used earlier. So, is there anything you can do about this? The answer is most definitely yes, however it’s useful to have a good understanding of the dynamic at work before you learn the exercise itself.
Let’s say that you’ve had a busy day at work, come home, had a bite to eat and then watched a programme on television or been busy on the computer. While you might have felt fine watching television, engaged and distracted by what was on, having gone to bed you now suddenly feel very restless and agitated. Perhaps there’s something specific on your mind, or perhaps it’s simply the busy nature of the mind, the thoughts whizzing by, one after the next. Or maybe it’s reflective of your lifestyle choices, irregular sleeping hours, jet-lag, or intake of stimulants. Whatever the reason, when the mind has built up a lot of momentum like this, it can take a little while for the thoughts to settle down. Of course we generally want them to settle immediately and when they don’t, we inevitably end up feeling disappointed, frustrated, worried or upset. It’s as if the more you try to shut the thoughts out, the more they seem to appear.
This isn’t just your imagination working overtime, logic dictates that if you start thinking a lot about not being able to get to sleep, then you are by definition creating lots of additional thoughts. And by putting lots of effort into the process, you will at the same time be creating tension. In just the same way as meditation, the more you resist those thoughts and feelings, the more tension you create and this tension will be reflected and experienced in the body as well. It’s usually at this point that the internal dialogue kicks in. ‘I just can’t get comfortable tonight . . . maybe I’ll turn over and try on my other side . . . and I wonder why Harry said that today . . . did he mean something else? . . . maybe I should roll over . . . stop thinking, you need to get to sleep . . . oh no, my head’s really busy again . . . why am I thinking so much? Oh it’s so late . . . I’m never going to get to sleep . . . this feels just like last time when I couldn’t sleep . . . and I felt terrible the next day . . . and I’ve got that really important meeting tomorrow . . . it’s going to be a disaster . . . and I’m going to look terrible . . . why can’t I just switch off these thoughts? OK, just relax, don’t think about trying to go to sleep . . . but I can’t stop . . . maybe I should get up . . . maybe I should read a book . . . stop thinking . . . oh why is my mind so busy?’
This may sound funny during the cold light of day, but when it’s happening to us at night, the experience is anything but humorous. You may well feel angry at your inability to control the flow of thought, or scared that the thoughts will run away and lead to a sleepless night. You may feel depressed at the prospect of feeling tired the next day, or perhaps even worried that there’s something wrong with you. These reactions are all quite normal and you’re in no way alone in your experience. It stands to reason that the busier and more stressed you are during the day, the more likely this situation will occur at night, but it can sometimes become a habit quite separate from the affairs of day-to-day living. Whichever it is, the fact that it’s behavioural rather than physiological (and I’m assuming this is something you will have clarified with your GP if you have serious concerns) means that it can change. And it can change in one of two ways. Either the habit of resistance is ‘unlearned’, or a new, more positive way of relating to the thoughts and feelings is adopted. I’ve experienced both over the years, and there was one situation in particular when this technique proved invaluable.
The Russian policemen
Turning up at the airport in Moscow, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d heard a lot of things about the city, and about Russia in general, but I didn’t really know how much to believe. It was just at the time that residential apartment blocks in different parts of the city were being randomly targeted and blown up in the middle of the night. The Russian government accused the Chechens of terrorism, and the Chechen government accused the Russians of conspiring to create the grounds for invading their territory in the south of the country. Needless to say, there was a palpable sense of anxiety in the air. People had started to look at their neighbours in a different way, especially if they were foreign or from another part of Russia. It wasn’t so much that everyone was a suspect, but more that everyone felt a certain responsibility to look out for any strange activity. Back in the Soviet days, every apartment block had a ‘babushka’, an elderly woman who would sit at the front of the building and monitor all the activity within it. During the apartment block bombings, this tradition was fully resurrected in all buildings, with the babushkas keeping an eye out and reporting anything unusual to the police.
Having arrived late in the evening, the lady who’d met me at the airport dropped me off at the flat and arranged to meet me the next morning. I didn’t even notice the elderly woman peeking out of her front window as I walked up the stairs. I was too tired to do anything much when I got to the flat, but unpacked a few very simple items. It had become a bit of a ritual for me that wherever I travelled, the first thing I would do was set up a small area for meditation. I guess it just reflected the priority I gave to it at that time. So I wiped down the surface of a shelf, took out a few simple objects, a couple of pictures of my teachers, and placed my meditation cushion on the floor in front of it. Realising I would fall asleep if I sat to meditate then and there, I decided to go to bed and get up first thing in the morning and do it then instead. So, leaving the rest of my stuff in the suitcase, and not even taking the time to make my bed, I simply took off my clothes and fell asleep.

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