Fitness and Meditation: The Challenge of Practice

By Paul Salmon, Ph.D.

At first glance, the culture of health and fitness may seem to have little connection with the world of meditation. For one thing, fitness conjures up a pathway marked by rigorous physical activity and effortful striving to "get in shape." Physical discomfort is a given, and the process of becoming healthy is viewed as long and arduous. This is especially true for those of us whose health has been compromised by illness or neglect. This seems far removed from the calm and peaceful images most people have of meditation practice.

On the other hand, if you have ever attended a meditation retreat, you may be aware of how such apparently diverse health practices actually share some common qualities. For one thing, health and meditation practices involve discipline, in the sense of a commitment to regular practice. In the same way that on any given day you may not necessarily feel like getting out and exercising, you may have a similar reaction to sitting meditation. You don't necessarily have to like what you are doing, simply do it!

For another, health and meditation practices both involve learning to work with a certain amount of distress and, at times, physical discomfort. Just as running and lifting weights can cause stiffness and soreness, especially for novices, sitting meditation has similar effects at the outset. Both entail atypical physiological and psychological states - one 'hypermetabolic,' the other 'hypometabolic' - that require a certain getting used to.

An important common denominator here is that positive health practices, including exercise and meditation, represent changing what we are doing, typically by modifying long-established behavior patterns associated with sub-optimal states of health. For most of us, this is a significant challenge, one that requires both patience and trust that the process of change will lead to states of psychological and physical well-being that we have either not yet experienced or of which we have only vague memories.

Much of what we do on a day-to-day basis tends to be habitual, done in a sort of mindless way, as if we are on a psychological autopilot. The prospect of change disrupts these patterns and tends to give rise to a sort of self-consciousness and at times even awkwardness that almost always accompanies learning something new. The comfort we associate with old habits, healthy or not, is replaced by a sense of awareness that new responses, rather than habitual reactions, are needed. This newfound awareness can by itself be disconcerting, like awakening from a dream.

The take home message here is that change is challenging, whether you are embarking on a program to get in shape physically or starting off in the direction of developing a meditation practice. Be prepared at the outset to experience a certain amount of uncertainty and discomfort with the process. It comes with the territory, and in all likelihood is not an indication that you are somehow doing something wrong. Meditation teachers like to use phrases like "waking up" or "beginner's mind" to characterize this phase of learning a new way that not only entails new skills but also unlearning old patterns and habits.

Think back to learning to ride a bike, or some other skill that you were very intent on mastering, and how you persevered through the early stages of feeling shaky and uncertain before things began to feel more natural. Keep in mind that behind every photograph of a skilled athlete in action or a Buddhist monk quietly meditating are years of patience, commitment and practice.

Paul Salmon, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at U of L and an ACSM-certified health fitness instructor. Paul is also a member of the Kentuckiana HealthFitness' Editorial Advisory Board.