It was a windy summer day in southeastern Tasmania and Heather Larsen, a professional slackliner, was standing on an inch-wide span of nylon suspended between two of the tallest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere. Nearly 1,000 feet below, seals were barking and waves lapping against the rocks.
Ms. Larsen was secured to the line with a harness and leash, but the gusts of wind and height terrified her as she crossed. So she concentrated on her breathing. Arms above her head, knees slightly bent to absorb the vibration of the line, she inhaled as she took one step and exhaled as she took the next.
Being here, she thought to herself as she lowered her foot. Now stay here.
Larsen, 35, uses this type of breathing and mantra as a form of meditation to stay focused as she balances on an elastic strap of spider web. “It helps me stay alone in that moment,” she said, and avoids distractions, such as unsteady previous steps or changes in tension in the row ahead.
While meditation has been shown to have many benefits, including increased focus, reduced stress and a mind clean of distractions, it can be hard to find time for it on a busy day. But some trainers, doctors, and athletes say it can be incorporated into your exercise routine, enriching your training in the process.
With a clear and focused mind, you’ll be able to make quick decisions in an impromptu basketball game or react to a game of beach volleyball. And experts say the meditation’s emphasis on breath and body shifts the focus from the outcome, whether it’s winning a race, increasing mile time or losing weight, to movement for movement’s sake, making it more enjoyable.
Most of the time, this meditation takes the form of awareness, which Sara Lazar, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, called “paying attention to the present moment in an open, curious, and nonjudgmental way.” Her research has shown that as little as eight weeks of mindfulness meditation, including movement-based forms like yoga, produced benefits structural changes in the brain, especially in brain regions associated with mind wandering and stress. She said incorporating mindfulness into her movements is easy and can lead to some unexpected rewards.
First, breathe.
Before a sports game or activity that requires focus, a few minutes of intentional breathing can mentally prepare you, said George Mumford, a performance expert and author of “The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance,” who led regular meditation sessions with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. And during activity, deep breathing can get you out of your head and quiet what he calls “the monkey brain,” a mind full of emotions and thoughts.
“You are frantic, you are scattered. You are everywhere, so you are nowhere,” he said.
Dr. Chiti Parikh, who directs the Integrative Health and Wellness Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, teaches her patients how to breathe deeply in a way that engages the diaphragm, the body’s largest respiratory muscle, which separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. Studies show that deep breathing can activate bodily functions associated with calm and relaxation, and calm responses to stress. Also, he told her, people tend to breathe shallowly during exercise instead of breathing from the diaphragm to fill the lungs.
To train yourself to breathe this way, Dr. Parikh said, lie on your back, relax your muscles, and place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Take long, slow breaths, inhaling and exhaling through your nose, and notice how your hands move. Inhale for four seconds and then exhale for six. Over time, lengthen your exhalations. Notice how, with shallow breaths, the chest moves, but with deep breaths, the belly moves too.
Once you can take a deep breath, you can incorporate it into any activity: swimming, snorkeling, or shoveling snow from your driveway.
Focus on the body.
Focusing on the sensations in your body as you move — for example, mentally scanning body parts and thinking about which muscle groups are engaged — can also bring peace to a wandering mind, said Kalpanatit Broderick, who runs a Seattle gym that combines strength and cardio training with mindful meditation.
“If I pay attention to my body while doing a push-up, I can feel my shoulders, my chest, my triceps, my quads,” said Mr. Broderick, once a nationally ranked distance runner. Or during a run, he said, think about how your arms swing, if your shoulders are relaxed, if you hit the ground with your heels or toes.
This forces you to participate in the movement instead of obsessing over the outcome, he said. “The current fitness paradigm is very results-based,” she said. Exercising with meditation, she added, slows down the mind, connects you with the body, “and then we can enjoy what’s around us.”
Dr. Lazar suggested using a meditation app, some of which have meditations designed specifically for walking or other types of movement. Many are free; others require monthly payments.
Set an intention.
Two years ago, Imani Cheers began a daily ritual of meditation, running, walking, yoga and cycling to combat the stress of working as a single mother during the pandemic. A key part of her meditation is setting an intention for each day that is said out loud as she works out. “Don’t repeat bad habits and expect a different result,” for example, or “finish this half marathon without getting injured.”
His routine has affected more than just his training, said Dr. Cheers, chancellor of undergraduate education at George Washington University. “At 41, I am healthier, happier and stronger than ever. And who says that after a pandemic?
The goal: find the flow.
Bringing meditation into movement can have another benefit: reaching a state of mindfulness. “flow.”
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first coined the term flow, defined it in his book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.” “.
Anyone who works out or plays sports, whether professional or amateur, has probably experienced some version of a flow state. On the basketball court, Mumford said, the basket gets bigger and time slows down.
Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of flow closely resembles the benefits gained from meditative movement: inner clarity, intense focus, and a sense of serenity. And while meditating before or during exercise can’t guarantee flow, it can. set the conditions to get it. “You’re not trying to make things happen, you’re allowing them to happen,” Mumford said.
Mrs. Larsen, the slackliner, agrees. She is best known for her tricks that drop the stomach, such as splits, handstands, and hanging upside down from your ankles, all executed incredibly high in the air. One of his favorite slacklines near his home in southern Utah stretches along a slotted canyon overlooking swirling sandstone and aspen trees.
There, Ms. Larsen can easily access the flow state because she has become better, through meditation, at letting go of distractions, ego, and focus on the outcome. And that is the goal with the meditative movement, she said: “The effort disappears and it just is. It feels good and it feels easy.”
Jenny Marder is a senior science writer for NASA and a freelance journalist. She was previously the digital managing editor for the PBS NewsHour.
