Including mindfulness in your workout routine boosts consistency, study shows. But what does it mean to be mindful? Mindfulness, put simply, is being present. Whether exercising, walking, or working, mindful actions requires focus and complete attention. When it comes to working out, this means feeling the workout. Mindfulness and exercise have always been associated with yoga. But mindfulness can be applied to any kind of movement, fast or slow.
I like to think of mindfulness when working out as a conversation with myself. I’m assessing how I’m feeling. I’m listening. With yoga poses, I try to see which body part I can engage, how I can distribute weight and find more balance in a pose. This awareness and focus quiet the mind. And that’s when we drown out the noise and start feeling good. That’s my meditation. And it seems that this conversation with the self during workout leads to more joy when exercising. As a result, we have consistency.
Meditation and Mindfulness
In my 20s, I became friends with a monk, Lama Tenzin Yignyen. I met him when he was part of a group of monks making a mandala at the Asia Society in New York. I asked him about meditation and he explained how making a mandala with sand is a form of meditation, because he had to focus and control his breath. He also told me how in the mornings, he starts his day by reciting his prayers as a form of mediation. Having a mantra and repeating it hundreds of times is a form of meditation.
I never quite understood it, but I believe that meditation and mindfulness go hand in hand. With repetition (morning prayer) and respect for the task at hand (making a mandala), we are less likely to let the mind stray. Technically, in this case, we can live life, meditating.
In Real Life
Whether I’m cooking, writing, watching TV with my husband, I try to minimize distractions. This means being absorbed in what I chose to do and be present. I make it a point to make my environment as distraction-free as possible the best I can, such as keeping the phone away from me. Consciously avoiding distractions makes me more aware of my attention. If I find it hard to concentrate on a task, I reassess if I need to do something else. For example, if it takes longer than usual to write, I ask myself If I should be doing something else.
The accumulation of small mindfulness, whether through exercise, leisure time, or work, clears the mind. It’s being whole. And these moments of clarity, add up to bring peace to our day, our week, our months, and our life.
The link between mindfulness and consistency reminds me of a quote I recently read from Naval Ravikant.
Your mind is stressed when you have two conflicting desires at once.
Naval Ravikant
When we’re working out and thinking about something else, we are in a state of conflict. I believe this is why people who mindfully workout are more consistent. Because in the end, it’s not just the body that feels good, we feel whole. And this wholeness, will keep us coming back.
