Post #3: Meditation

     Earlier in this year I sustained a bone contusion to my right knee while doing Jiu Jitsu and was unable to do a lot of the things I love during this time because they put too much pressure on the knee. At this time I was running about 7 miles at a time at least twice a week, and when I was unable to do this I felt sort of lost, mentally unfocused, and kind of depressed. I know you are a runner yourself so if you ever have had something similar happen I am sure you can relate, and I believe it was in your motivation class where we talked about how this depression is typical when someone who works out regularly stops doing so for any reason. During this time I was taking a psychology class taught by Marcello Spinella and he told us about a free meditation class he offers on Monday nights at Yoga Nine studio. I was always a little intrigued by the idea of meditation but at this point I was willing to try anything to help take my mind off the fact that I couldn't run and also because most of my hobbies are involve putting pressure on my knee (which I was obviously unable to do) so I was going nuts from boredom. Many people claim that meditation is something which can help with mental clarity and that was something which I felt like I needed the most because long runs not only helped me feel good, but were also a great way to clear my mind. I was definitely a little skeptical at first when I attended the class but regardless I went there with an open mind. My skepticism quickly faded because after my first class I immediately felt better. My mind was the clearest it had been since before the injury and during the meditation itself it reminded me of the feeling of a “runners high.” More importantly however, it helped clear my head in the same way that I felt a long run always did. Although I do not attend this class as often as I would like to, I do try to make it whenever I feel really stressed out or just need to clear my head. I have read many articles about all benefits of meditation, but I just found an article which tells of a study which proves that meditation can actually help with your visual perception as well. I would definitely recommend meditation to anyone and if you have never tried it I suggest that you do at least once because if you enjoy running I feel you will enjoy meditation as well. The link is at the bottom of this paragraph explaining how meditation helps your visual perception and I posted it for you because I think you will find it to be an interesting read.   

http://phys.org/news192904536.html