Dear All,

I recently was talking to a friend on how I would spend time on the elliptical- sometimes, more than an hour- without getting bored. When I said, “I would contemplate and focus on various energy points in the body” he looked at me perplexed. Can we exercise thoughtfully?  Can we mediate, exercise, or even eat mindfully? What about contemplative prayer? Questions loom; however, the benefits of these techniques are emerging.

Several buzz words, phrases and mind/ body exercise modalities caught my attention recently: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Imagery Guided Relaxation, and Contemplative Mediation. According to an article published in time magazine (February 02, 2014), “if distraction is a pre-eminent condition of our age, then mindfulness, in the eyes of the enthusiasts, is the most logical response” In a study published in Journal of Behavioral Medicine (75, 721-28, 2013),  MBSR participants experienced reduction in blood pressure. This data is relevant as sixty million American adults suffer from borderline hypertension.

Why are we not able to focus on one thing? Why are we distracted (so easily)? We may not able to answer all these questions, but, one thing is clear- if we are able to relax more, if we are able to focus on things, if we are able to calm our body and mind, the result would, definitely, be different. We may not get “disastrously “ distracted in a movie theatre or one may not get that “annoyed” if a  teenager increases the volume of music in the car.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a group of senior high school students on contemplative meditation and prayer. I was surprised to see 20% of the students could not even close their eyes for 30 seconds? What amazed me more was the gender difference: they were all boys. In one of my yoga classes, when the participants (after an intense mind-body yoga workout) were taken to an imagery guided relaxation, they responded 100% to the cues: contemplation, rest and relaxation. There may be differences in the models here: the demography, age, time of the day and pre-contemplation activities. One thing is clear: mind-body exercises could calm and relax your mind. Any exercise when done with focus could engage and calm your mind (yoga, for example)

Work hard with focus to calm and relax your body and mind.

Healthy regards,

Jay