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Training for the Trek Begins

February 17, 2016 •

Woodland trail in Pioneer Park

Wood­land trail in Pio­neer Park — train­ing begins

Last month I wrote about plans to walk a 150-mile stretch of Le Chemin du Puy, a French pil­grim­age trail, later this year. It won’t be an ardu­ous jour­ney, but each day’s trek will entail 10–15 miles of walk­ing across some­what hilly ter­rain in south cen­tral France. It takes train­ing.

I’ve now begun train­ing for the trek, cau­tiously, after sev­eral weeks’ delay for med­ical con­sul­ta­tion about a lin­ger­ing knee injury. Thanks to pro­fes­sional treat­ment, heal­ing is now under­way, and a knee brace will be deliv­ered soon.

I’ve bought some Mer­rell hik­ing shoes that are well suited to our hik­ing con­di­tions, as long as it’s not rain­ing hard. My early impres­sions sug­gest they’ll be adept at han­dling a mix of walk­ing con­di­tions, includ­ing rough ter­rain along the ancient pil­grim­age trails in France. So far they’ve been very com­fort­able, with just the right amount of sup­port on steep trails. They grip well and keep me from falling on my face in the muddy sec­tions.

The woods are very muddy

The woods are very muddy

Sun breaks have enticed me out­side for the past 2 morn­ings, with just enough time to enjoy 3‑mile walks on nearby for­est trails. We’ve had twice as much rain as usual for the past 4 months, so the trails are very muddy.

One of the nearby parks includes a ravine; the trail sys­tem fea­tures a steep climb down the ravine to a fast-run­ning stream and then back up again. Hik­ing in this sec­tion of Pio­neer Park can be aer­o­bic, espe­cially if you go fast (which I’m not ready to do), or repeat some of the trails to increase the total num­ber of miles walked.

Oddly enough, I’ve tended to ignore this park, but am now find­ing it offers a lovely place to start the train­ing régime to get strong and fit for the trek in France. Best of all, it’s only a quar­ter mile from my front door.

Train­ing has begun, but fre­quent knee twinges are remind­ing me not to overdo these early walks; not to get attached too soon to achiev­ing spe­cific, quan­tifi­able dis­tance goals. Start­ing is the essen­tial thing.

Everything is green and lush

Every­thing is green and lush

Right now this is a prac­tice of mind­ful­ness, pay­ing atten­tion to how my knee is per­form­ing; remind­ing myself to slow down, lis­ten to the birds, smell the ver­dant wood­land, and enjoy the priv­i­lege of walk­ing dur­ing the late morn­ings in mid-Feb­ru­ary.

It’s time to heal, feast on the beauty, rel­ish out­door exer­cise, and begin a multi-month jour­ney of prepa­ra­tion.

Rewiring the Brain

October 15, 2015 •

stone tower

It’s now proven: the prac­tice of med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness can rewire your brain and reduce stress in just 8 weeks.

Researchers at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity and Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal have released the results of a sci­en­tific study, based on MRI imag­ing, that exam­ined the impact of med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness prac­tices on brain health and plas­tic­ity.

They report that research par­tic­i­pants who spent an aver­age of 27 min­utes daily on mind­ful­ness exer­cises reduced stress fac­tors and increased the gray-mat­ter den­sity of their brains in areas asso­ci­ated with “self-aware­ness, com­pas­sion and intro­spec­tion.” Par­tic­i­pants also improved brain func­tions asso­ci­ated with mem­ory and empa­thy.

These ben­e­fits took just 8 weeks of dis­ci­plined prac­tice to be real­ized.

This research built on and rein­forced the find­ings of ear­lier stud­ies that revealed the health­ful impacts of med­i­ta­tion; how­ever, those prior stud­ies  (unlike this one) did not con­clu­sively doc­u­ment the causal rela­tion­ship between med­i­ta­tion and brain plas­tic­ity.

As the study’s senior author, Sara Lazar of Mass Gen­eral, reports:

This study demon­strates that changes in brain struc­ture may under­lie some of these reported improve­ments [refer­ring to prior research], and that peo­ple are not just feel­ing bet­ter because they are spend­ing time relax­ing.

Britta Hölzel, a research fel­low at MGH and Giessen Uni­ver­sity (Ger­many) and co-author, notes:

It is fas­ci­nat­ing to see the brain’s plas­tic­ity and that, by prac­tic­ing med­i­ta­tion, we can play an active role in chang­ing the brain and can increase our well-being and qual­ity of life.

Par­tic­i­pants in the study took part in the 8‑week Mind­ful­ness-Based Stress Reduc­tion Pro­gram at the Uni­ver­sity of Mass­a­chu­setts Cen­ter for Mind­ful­ness.

If mov­ing to cen­tral Mass­a­chu­setts to take part in a 2‑month pro­gram is not a viable option for you, there are home-based alter­na­tives.

I’m work­ing my way through sev­eral books on MBSR and mind­ful­ness writ­ten by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I’ve invested in a med­i­ta­tion cush­ion, and leave my yoga mat per­ma­nently unfurled, as a reminder to invest time every day in mind­ful­ness prac­tice. Between yoga and mind­ful­ness, I’m begin­ning to savor increased well-being — and hope these ben­e­fits will expand out­ward to friends, fam­ily, col­leagues and the larger com­mu­nity.

Change Is in the Wind

November 2, 2012 •

Over the years I’ve learned that pat­terns can emerge from unex­pected events, chal­lenges, adven­tures, or con­ver­sa­tions with friends or clients. Pas­sages in books leap out at me. Dif­fuse sparks, obser­va­tions and read­ings even­tu­ally resolve into a pat­tern that hints at changes to come.

Lack­ing a crys­tal ball, it’s only in look­ing back that I see the mile­stones or trig­gers that fore­shad­owed those changes.

I sense that such a pat­tern is emerg­ing now.

Learning to Embrace Change

What I’ve learned is to be open to future pos­si­bil­i­ties, to embrace the dis­com­fort of change — the unset­tling feel­ings of not know­ing what the spe­cific changes might be. My non­ra­tional, intu­itive mind has become bet­ter at fore­see­ing when some­thing new may be just around the cor­ner. What those changes might entail is unclear; when is also unknown and unknow­able… It seems enough for the moment to be open to the pos­si­bil­ity of some­thing dif­fer­ent.

zen-flowerThese days I find myself won­der­ing how my yoga prac­tice will seep into daily life “off the mat,” how the clar­ity and bal­ance found on the mat can infuse work life and nour­ish client inter­ac­tions. (The impact on friends and fam­ily is already clear.) Pro­fes­sion­ally speak­ing, the impli­ca­tions or con­se­quences are not yet clear, at least not to the ratio­nal mind. But intu­ition sug­gests that 5 years of yoga prac­tice will slowly but surely work through me in ways that enable clients find their own paths to greater clar­ity and bal­ance.

The sig­nals are start­ing to emerge…

Learning the Practice of Mindfulness

Last week I picked up a copy of Mind­ful­ness for Begin­ners while wan­der­ing aim­lessly but hap­pily around Pow­ell’s Book­store in Port­land. This book found me, rather than I it; I was cap­ti­vated by the back-cover blurb:

Any­thing and every­thing can become our teacher of the moment, remind­ing us of the pos­si­bil­ity of being fully present: the gen­tle caress of air on our skin, the play of light, the look on some­one’s face… a fleet­ing thought in the mind. Any­thing. Every­thing. If it is met in aware­ness.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn, in Mind­ful­ness for Begin­ners

I’ve begin to work through this book, savor­ing each page. It’s com­ing with me to this week­end’s yoga retreat at Sleep­ing Lady.

Signposts

Another sig­nal: this mon­th’s cover story of the Har­vard Busi­ness Review, urg­ing read­ers to “Change Faster.”

Yet another sig­nal, today’s blog post on HBR, “Mind­ful­ness Helps You Become a Bet­ter Leader.”

Sev­eral col­leagues have died unex­pect­edly this year. The one-year anniver­sary of my niece’s death from can­cer at age 21 is next week, another niece turned 13 today. Friends are talk­ing more openly about retir­ing in the next few years. These are all reminders that “life hap­pens,” whether you’re ready or not.

New clients are reach­ing out, seek­ing help with new direc­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties they are pur­su­ing.

I’ve resigned my pro bono role as an entre­pre­neur­ial coach for Ser­aph, which will free up time for other oppor­tu­ni­ties (as of year end). It was a tough deci­sion but there are new­com­ers who deserve the fun and thrill of help­ing starry-eyed founders tell their sto­ries more effec­tively.

Change is in the air. I just need to apply my begin­ner’s mind to the prac­tice of mind­ful­ness, and be open to embrac­ing new pos­si­bil­i­ties that might emerge.

Mindfulness and Learning in the Moment

October 26, 2012 •

Over the years I’ve learned that pat­terns can emerge from unex­pected events, chal­lenges, adven­tures, or con­ver­sa­tions with friends or clients. Pas­sages in books leap out at me. Dif­fuse sparks, obser­va­tions and read­ings even­tu­ally resolve into a pat­tern that hints at changes to come.

Lack­ing a crys­tal ball, it’s only in look­ing back that I see the mile­stones or trig­gers that fore­shad­owed those changes.

I sense that such a pat­tern is emerg­ing now.

Learning to Embrace Change

What I’ve learned is to be open to future pos­si­bil­i­ties, to embrace the dis­com­fort of change — the unset­tling feel­ings of not know­ing what the spe­cific changes might be. My non­ra­tional, intu­itive mind has become bet­ter at fore­see­ing when some­thing new may be just around the cor­ner. What those changes might entail is unclear; when is also unknown and unknow­able… It seems enough for the moment to be open to the pos­si­bil­ity of some­thing dif­fer­ent.

zen-flowerThese days I find myself won­der­ing how my yoga prac­tice will seep into daily life “off the mat,” how the clar­ity and bal­ance found on the mat can infuse work life and nour­ish client inter­ac­tions. (The impact on friends and fam­ily is already clear.) Pro­fes­sion­ally speak­ing, the impli­ca­tions or con­se­quences are not yet clear, at least not to the ratio­nal mind. But intu­ition sug­gests that 5 years of yoga prac­tice will slowly but surely work through me in ways that enable clients find their own paths to greater clar­ity and bal­ance.

The sig­nals are start­ing to emerge…

Learning the Practice of Mindfulness

Last week I picked up a copy of Mind­ful­ness for Begin­ners while wan­der­ing aim­lessly but hap­pily around Pow­ell’s Book­store in Port­land. This book found me, rather than I it; I was cap­ti­vated by the back-cover blurb:

Any­thing and every­thing can become our teacher of the moment, remind­ing us of the pos­si­bil­ity of being fully present: the gen­tle caress of air on our skin, the play of light, the look on some­one’s face… a fleet­ing thought in the mind. Any­thing. Every­thing. If it is met in aware­ness.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn, in Mind­ful­ness for Begin­ners

I’ve begin to work through this book, savor­ing each page. It’s com­ing with me to this week­end’s yoga retreat at Sleep­ing Lady.

Signposts

Another sig­nal: this mon­th’s cover story of the Har­vard Busi­ness Review, urg­ing read­ers to “Change Faster.”

Yet another sig­nal, today’s blog post on HBR, “Mind­ful­ness Helps You Become a Bet­ter Leader.”

Sev­eral col­leagues have died unex­pect­edly this year. The one-year anniver­sary of my niece’s death from can­cer at age 21 is next week, another niece turned 13 today. Friends are talk­ing more openly about retir­ing in the next few years. These are all reminders that “life hap­pens,” whether you’re ready or not.

New clients are reach­ing out, seek­ing help with new direc­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties they are pur­su­ing.

I’ve resigned my pro bono role as an entre­pre­neur­ial coach for Ser­aph, which will free up time for other oppor­tu­ni­ties (as of year end). It was a tough deci­sion but there are new­com­ers who deserve the fun and thrill of help­ing starry-eyed founders tell their sto­ries more effec­tively.

Change is in the air. I just need to apply my begin­ner’s mind to the prac­tice of mind­ful­ness, and be open to embrac­ing new pos­si­bil­i­ties that might emerge.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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