Peace can be practiced while chopping vegetables, cooking, washing dishes, watering the vegetable garden, and also while driving or working. Practice releasing tension in body and mind and being completely with your task. The time when you work in the kitchen is also the time for meditation.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
As I take baby steps into trying out mindfulness and meditation, one small realisation is that it is not about the few minutes spent meditating but about the rest of the day.
One of my students remarked to me that I should do what the quote says i.e. be meditative while I do the dishes. I would try to zone out and listen to a podcast as I found it a chore. I never did manage it but what I realised is that baby steps work. Start with something. Anything.
When possible, I've now taken a step to not have a distraction - a podcast, a book, or my phone - while doing menial tasks. On a walk, I am still listening to a podcast to cut out the outside noise but in the house, it is something I am able to try.
First, the mind races randomly, as always. But maybe things will happen. Only one way to find out.
One should seek good balance in motion and not in stillness.
– Bruce Lee
While he's discussing this in a Jeet Kune Do context, it seemed to make a bigger impact on me in light of the previous quote. Meditation is not about sitting cross-legged and doing whatever for 10 minutes (in stillness) but in motion (the rest of the day).
And of course, from a movement perspective, his words add great value.
Just because your back started hurting immediately following a given activity, you should not automatically blame the activity. Things are not always as they appear to be; most likely it was your slouch.
– Pavel in EKB
Most training injuries are caused not during the actual set but when folks are putting the weight down or when they slouch in exhaustion immediately after.
What I like about this learning is the discipline it instils into training - it is not about following the rules/technique while doing the lift but while parking the weight as well. The discipline we bring to the entire training hour compounds - not only does it reduce the chances of injury but it compounds the amount of work and output you are capable of. Your mind is more switched on.
I used to be one of those people who would give it all I had and then lie down in exhaustion. I've learned to always have 1 rep in my tank, just in case, and to have the mental and physical discipline to avoid what Pavel talks about.
Hope you had fun reading. As always, do share a quote that caught your eye recently.