During my competitive wrestling days, it wasn’t uncommon for me to weigh ten or twelve pounds more than my official wrestling weight a day or two before a tournament (this was normal for many high school and college wrestlers). To lose that weight, I’d stop eating and drinking, and go on long runs in layered sweatpants and sweatshirts.
In the first few years, these runs were awful experiences. My body sweat less than the average wrestler (perhaps two pounds of water per hour while running in extreme heat… compared to, say, six pounds of water), so I’d exercise – without food or water – for impossibly long periods of time to lose the weight.
I eventually learned that the only way to endure these runs was to disassociate my mind from my body – to put my mind somewhere else while my body ran.
Over time, I got very good at doing this. I got so good that I actually looked forward to the runs. Because they were my meditations. Because during those meditations, the world slowed down. And I enjoyed that.
I don’t wrestle anymore. But I still run almost everyday. And even on the hottest days, I run with sweats. My friends think it’s weird. I’ve try to explain to them why I do it, but usually they can’t relate… and so they don’t understand.
*****
Yesterday, I went running on the beach in Venice. It was late, and most of the beach goers had gone home. I’d already run a few miles when a women shouted, “Hey”. I didn’t hear her. It was only when she shouted again, “Hey mister!” that I looked at her, puzzled, and stopped running.
“Perhaps you don’t realize this, but it’s hot as hell, and you’re wearing sweats,” she said. “Don’t you think that’s kind of weird?”
I looked at the woman. She was middle aged, wore a tie-dyed skirt and a pink bikini top, had tattoos on each arm, and a shaved head. She was also smoking a joint.
My first inclination was to keep running. But something kept me there. I told her about my meditations. She puffed her joint. “I’m doing the same thing right now… only different,” she said. “Do you dig that?”
I laughed because she was right. “I dig that,” I said. She smiled. We said goodbye. And I started running again.
*****
Some of us run. Others smoke joints. Other go to church. And others do yoga… or drink alcohol… or eat ice cream… or sniff glue. When we try to understand people by relating to what they do, we usually can’t. Because it’s easier to see the differences. But when we look just a little deeper, when we try understand people by listening to why they do what they do, they don’t seem nearly as weird.
very thoughtful.
There is such a gray area when it comes to meditation, escapism, & addiction that they all certainly overlap.
Very nice, and made a good point.
Indeed. focus not on the differences but on the things that bind us together as the human race. profound but so many miss it.
by the wat, I always run and then smoke a joint
I tried it the other way but that leads to too many sprained ankles…
Gorgeous.
nice, I enjoyed it.
it’s all objective, of course, BUT
I would give a lot more weight to some activities than others
there’s addictions, then there’s good habits
there’s higher forms, such as meditation
lower forms, such as watching TV
what makes you feel good now AND later
that’s probably the true test of a good practice
for me, the best activities are sex, exercise, good music, dancing, playing with my kids, time in nature
anything that helps me to unplug and live in the moment, for me, that is true religion
thanks again for the thought-provoking post
Agreed. But one notable difference is that some things people do are healthy for them (such as running or in good circumstances, going to church) and some do things that aren’t as healthy…like smoking joints or drinking. So the next step, I suppose, would be to ask if what one does is helping with maximum positive effect. That’s certainly not the ONLY or the ULTIMATE question, but it seems to be the next step to me. Great post!
I used to run at least five miles then go home and have a beer and smoke a joint. great for the head.
When I was in high school, the wrestlers used to skip lunch and spit in a cup to loose that last pound or 2. I played baseball and I watched the wrestlers practice when it rained. We would practice inside then too. The wrestlers would run around the gym, carrying each other on their backs. I was always glad I was a pitcher.
The Sultan on Sports
http://www.tsos20.wordpress.com
Makes a lot of sense.
If we can learn to look pass the surface on everything… we would all be in a better state of mind!!! I love meditation… I haven’t been doing nearly as much of it as I should be - great reminder!
All of these extreme provocations are done to exhaust and knock out the ramblings of the conscious ego. Meditation requires the ego (what we think of as “self”} to be quiet and let go, and allow the subconscious to come to the forefront with its vague images and meaning filled feelings. To knock out the ego doesn’t require exhaustion or smoke, but just allowing the “letting go”. All of the numbing things people do lead to the same place, but it might have been quite relaxing to have gone home with the lady smoking the joint, saying, yeah, show me your meditation, and the body of your thoughts — could have been an arousal of an alternate reality or an appertizer to bliss.
You’re so right!
Hi, allow me to introduce myself. I just came across your blog, and I want to tell you it made me smile. And I bookmarked you, if you don’t mind
aprhodite
It’s very rare to look so out of place at Venice that someone stops you to say what you’re doing is “weird”. Congratulations.
Pro-pot, anti-pot, whatever - it took a stoner to dig it. Other athletes with a history of weigh-ins (wrestling, boxing) may have understood what you were doing, but not necessarily why.
Great!
How do you get ou mind in a state of meditation? Do you feel the heat while your running? Can you give more of an inside on this state?
Good point. Mine is cooking/experimenting. Everyone has their own way of keeping sane, and you’re right, we need to realize that we’re really just taking different paths to reach the same goal!
Same here. Although you need to change quite a few parameters. Like the fact that I’m 14, like the fact that I’m not a former wrestler, but a slightly overweight school kid trying to get the extra pounds off. But it’s still the same. I get up at 5 in the morning to go jogging with my iPod. Call it meditation of a different kind. Luckily (or unluckily), I sweat a lot, at least more than my friends, and I live in India where its typically 30-35 degrees Celcius.
meditation
noitatidem
No matter how one puts it,
it’s all the same…
death
htaeh…
html?