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Reflections on life lived by a coast

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Training for the Trek Begins

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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

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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

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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

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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.