zen Archives - Word Smoothie

May 8-14 is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK, spearheaded by www.mentalhealth.org.uk

A lot has already been written about the health benefits of swimming – not only for our physical, but also our mental wellbeing.

Here we’ll help you to find new ways of getting the most – mentally – out of your time in the pool.

Today’s hectic lifestyles and pressures can make it hard to escape all the hustle and bustle, to find a place of calm and peace. Sometimes the world can feel like it’s rushing by at break-neck speed and we’re barely able to keep up. As minimally-evolved humans, we’re just not designed to keep up the crazy pace of modern life so relentlessly.

Evolution is not that fast-paced, and we are getting more and more stressed-out as a result.

It’s unlikely that the march of progress will take a backwards turn any time soon, unless you take yourself away to live in a cave somewhere. One thing is for sure though – we all need to find a way to deal with it.

Taking inspiration from the ancient art and teachings of yoga, here are some ways you can help calm your over-wrought mind the next time you’re in the pool:

Yoga is all about teaching 3 basic skills:

Pranayama – breath control
Pratyahara – withdrawing the senses from the outside world
Dharana – concentration.

Here’s how you can use each skill in turn to switch down the ‘noise’ of life and find a calm place:

1. Breath control

Kind of essential stuff when it comes to swimming! If you can learn to breathe properly in coordination with your movements, this will help you to relax and will also feel like much less of an effort. This is really the key to finding a sense of calm when you swim – you want to be gliding through the water as effortlessly, as possible, rather than fighting against it – not very relaxing at all! It’s worth taking some time and perhaps some lessons to get your technique up to par so that you can make the most of the meditative qualities of the swim breath. Once you have the breathing technique sorted, you will naturally find the space to become more mindful in your swim session.

2. Withdrawing the senses

This is quite easily done before you even get in the pool. Pull on a snugly-fitting swim hat, a pair of goggles and you’ve pretty much started the process of shutting down the outside world. It’s quite hard to hear what’s going on from under a silicone hat, and your goggles will provide a psychological barrier between you and the environment – especially if you pick mirror ones!Once you’re in the pool it’s really quite hard to hear what’s going on externally. Especially true if you swim freestyle where you spend most of your time with your face firmly pointed towards the black line on the bottom of the pool. The swoosh of your arms, the bubbles of your breath, the kicking of your legs – all of these sounds come together to create a strange world of underwater noises which block out anything else. Your vision will definitely be impaired, because no matter how great your goggles are, they will probably fog up after a period time and you will be pretty much in your own little world out there in the lanes.

3. Concentration

Here’s where you can use both meditative techniques and mindfulness to great effect. Swimming is like meditation in motion – as you swim along, try to find a focus – for example the black pool line – and follow it. Or you could dial into the rhythmic, repetitive action of your body as it tilts from side to side (in freestyle). Maybe count your strokes – just try to forget about everything else and be ‘in the moment’, concentrating on your focal point and letting your mind find a sense of calm.

Swimming is a fantastic ‘feel-good’ sport, bringing both mental and physical benefits – the endorphins alone will set you up for a more positive and relaxed day, and it has been proven that swimming 3-4 times a week for half an hour leads to a decreased incidence of depression and anxiety.

So why not use the above techniques next time you’re in the pool to help bring about sense of well-being and balance for your mind, as well as your body.

Originally posted 2017-05-06 21:11:02.

Last Friday I went into ‘Town’….London Town to be precise. Nothing really unusual in that, I’m there several times a week for work. Maybe it was the post-Doris relative calm (storm ‘Doris’, that is) which made that particular day feel a little different.

Only 24 hours prior to my trip had been a day of 80-90mph storm-force winds, travel chaos and crowd-control at any London railway station actually offering a train ‘service’ at the time. Traditionally a day to ‘work from home’, most Fridays are far more pleasant an experience on the Tube network anyway, but Friday February 24th February 2017 definitely felt a lot calmer than probably any other time I’ve ever visited our Capital in daylight hours.

Peace and Tranquility

This slightly odd, though not unwelcome feeling of peace and tranquility was palpable among my fellow commuters. Even the resident busker at the foot of the long Leicester Square escalator was playing a more serene tune. I’m definitely sure people were walking less frantically, as if taking a few extra seconds on their journey through the transport system to their end destination was actually a good thing for a change.

Not being a resident of the capital myself these days (thankfully!), just a frequent visitor, I am often reminded when I make the trip in, of when I used to live and work in London (mid 90’s). I swore blind I would never become one of those sad, frenetic human ants, swarming around at break-neck speed, as if saving 2 seconds on the escalator by running up, would make all the difference to the day’s outcome of events. A ‘Sliding Doors’ choice perhaps.

If you can’t beat ’em….

All that activity and rushing about as if your life depended on it really is quite infectious even if you’re sure you won’t get involved. If you don’t surrender to the rush (kind of hands up, sighing, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em), you end up being cut-up, wedged against a railing, or tripped up by a passing suitcase at warp- speed. Politely – mind – but without eye contact – this IS London after all.

This unwritten rule even applies to the escalators, of which there are a mind-boggling 423 on the Tube network (don’t you know); 23 at Waterloo station alone, and the longest at Angel (Islington), which boasts a whopping 60 meters of gleaming steel.

This brings me to my point – there is actually PLENTY of time to stop, take a moment, and let your mind wander. I say ‘plenty’ of time in the London space-time-continuum sense, where seconds and even milli-seconds, count, obviously.

This is exactly what I did last Friday – I stopped, took a deep breath and stared into space without direction or meaning, or even purpose except perhaps to gladly decompress. In that journey upwards from the depths of the tunnels, which must have taken around a minute, two max, I could feel a sense of calm gathering as I let my gaze drift. I felt the world shrink back, sounds muffled, other-worldly. I was in my own little bubble where nothing and no-one could reach me. Trance-like and happy.

Mini detox

This was a revelation – a mini detox for the mind. Mindfulness perhaps to coin a trendy phrase. More likely, in my case, vacant mindlessness as I was thinking about absolutely NOTHING for a change. Kind of in a zen state. Until, that is, I was snapped back to reality by the levelling out of the steps close to the top, ready to tip me off into the real world again, albeit slightly fresher than I was at the bottom of the escalator. Small things but a big and noticeable effect.

Perhaps next time I’ll try Angel tube for more of a deeper mind-cleanse. A kind of mini-break for the grey matter. 60 meters is a lot of mind-emptying distance. Better than stingy old Stratford where the exit to the street only offers the traveller a measly 4.1m of detoxification.

Perhaps each escalator could proudly display a health improvement opportunity statistic – ’54 seconds of mind-emptying freedom on this little flight for your delectation’, instead of a boring and predictable ‘Here’s how many accidents happened this month as a result of people running on the escalators’ – not that anyone takes any notice of such warnings.

‘Zen’ on the Tube, well there’s a gift for a TfL marketing guru looking for the next poster campaign – you can have that one on me. You’re welcome.

Originally posted 2017-02-26 22:07:07.

Mental Health Awareness Week: Swimming for Meditation and Mindfulness

Why you should absolutely NOT walk/run up a London escalator

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives