Tai Chi of Running Part 2
Ok, so you’ve been running with your mind in your Dan Tien for about a week now.
How is that going?
Do you feel more grounded?
More energy?
The above are things I experience when I run with my mind in my Dan Tien.
This next week we will add two things to the running strategy, a warm up and a new layer on top of last week’s focus.
I need to remind you that you are the captain of your own ship and to decide for yourself if these running instructions are good for you.
Warming up
Lot’s of runners stretch before they run. This is good. Running can create tension. Why layer tension on tension if you can help it?
Before running I like to do some yoga stretches. One of them is the Triangle Pose. I find this loosens my hips which can get tight from running. I’d like to suggest Sensation as the focus during these stretches. Paying attention to the sensation in your body is a way to get inside pain. I hold a posture and focus on the discomfort, feel the sensation of that discomfort and stay focused until the sensation changes into something else, and believe me it will change. That is the nature of reality.
This sensation focus will be brought into the actual running strategy soon.
The Beating Heart
Go ahead and start your run with the mind in Dan Tien, breathing in and out and throughly working this focus throughout your body.
Once you feel settled at that level, bring your attention up to your chest. Feel your heart beating. You may find this illusive at first. Breathing is a more obvious cycle happening in the body and can mask your heart beat. Just focus past the breathing to this rhythmic cycle that is deeper.
Once you get a sense of your heart beating mix this focus with the breath in the Dan Tien. We are now running with a sense of both our body and emotions. Allow yourself to experience this multidimensionality in your being.
Do this for a week. Let me know what you experience with the heart focus and then mixing that with the Dan Tien.
Check back in a week. I’ll have a new layer to add to your developing metaphysical approach to running.
Christopher lives Boulder, Co., attended Naropa Institute and has been meditating for 50 years.
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