Oh boy, it’s so true… do you feel this statement?
Cycling on regular basis gives us the same level of ecstasy as years of meditative practice. To be honest, controlling your mind while sitting in one place is quite difficult. I have personally felt it. But keeping your mind focused on one direction is possible with cycling. I believe that we can direct the mind activity of our choice rather than controlling it completely. That is also similar to being in a meditative state.
The main similarity between cycling and meditation is the calmness in chaos on the road. The calm response to all challenges onroad is quite an achievement when you are struggling with various earthly forces. I think there is a dire need to understand the brain of a passionate cyclist and compare that to a highly focused meditative monk of Himalaya.
The difference between the meditative state and cycling is only the urge. cycling inspires us to do more of it often which is kind of opposite to what meditation can do.
To understand it further, I wanted to enquire about meditation. As per Wikipedia, ‘Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.’
Do you find these keywords similar to the cycling world?
Practice- Daily ride, training and enjoying
Techniques- Of course the speed, endurance and stamina are achieved through it
Mindfulness- Staying in the present moment.
Focus- Leading you to the destination.
Attention & Awareness- Knowing your surroundings and conditions
Emotional Calm- Yet there is excitement but mentally you are calm with respect to what you are doing
Stability- Balance in all conditions of your ride.
You may agree or disagree with me on these but as a cyclist, you won’t disagree with being joyful after the ride. This joy is the beginning of that everyday exact moment of life.
I wish you every day a great moment of joy with your ride.
Do let me know how do you feel about this topic?
