Cycling Meditation

I've been reading about meditation recently and comparing it to cycling. Meditation means a lot of things to different people. I hope my comparisons do not offend anyone's sense of what meditation means to them -- or what cycling means to them. I'm just offering my thoughts about the two.

Meditation is often said to be practicing your mental focus skills. Cycling is good at focusing on your immediate surroundings including your location, your mental and physical state, as well as road conditions. Certainly the better rides are the ones that let you focus on pleasant surroundings, but much of the pleasure of cycling for me is the abandonment of concerns that are outside the present moment -- outside the immediate experience of cycling.

Meditation is considered by many to be stress reduction. By calming the mind, watching and holding the thoughts that come and go, meditation dissipates tensions. Cycling, like most aerobic exercise, calms the mind and reduces stress. The rhythmic and repetitive motion, the elevated blood flow, and just being outdoors all diminish whatever was troubling you back in the other world.

Meditation is also about improving our insides so we can be better on our outside. By practicing our ability to react responsibly and sensibly, our relationships with others improve. Cycling is a self-improvement practice that improves our immediate environment at the same time. By becoming more fit, we are less of a burden on the health-care system. By avoiding the burning of fossil fuels, we improve air quality and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. By getting out of our cars and spending more time with our neighbors face-to-face, we knit a tighter social support network.

Meditation is to some extent self-absorption and the same can be said of cycling, but ultimately, we are improving our world by exerting gentle and positive control over that part of our world we have the most leverage: ourselves.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.3
Number of Cyclists seen: 30
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Warm and Humid; even riding fairly easy I'm dripping within 10 minutes.