Exactly a week ago, I posted my first meditation video on dtube&steemit. And about 5 days ago, I did my first #fiftyrunstillmay post.
I started doing them to give myself some social accountability to practice meditation daily and run as much as I can.
Not that I don't run a lot already; I run at least 5km on weekdays, and +15km on the weekends (although, bad airquality these days in Seoul is making running outdoor on the weekends almost impossible). I am doing #fiftyrunstillMay and posting my runs because I want to share my running with Steemit community and inspire other people to run. After all, running helps my mind and body to grow. I feel a lot more positive, healthy and strong after each run, everyday, and I wish many people to feel that benefit of running.
Meditation, on another hand, is something I have been running away from. I first learned how to do a Vipassana meditation in "Intro to Buddhism" class when I was a Sophomore at Dickinson College (2011). In the class was Dale, a very eccentric yet honest and charismatic human being, who also happened to be my soccer teammate. Every student had to present something related to Buddhism, and he talked about his 10-day meditation retreat in Chicago. It was through Vipassana Meditation organization, a donation and voluteer based non-profit organizations that provides retreats in more than 182 centers around the world for FREE. After his presentation, I was very intrigued.
I went to the 10-day retreat during that winter break. The center was located in a remote location. I had to get a cab to get to the center from the Chicago airport. I don't exactly remember how long it took to get to the center, but it was long enough and remote that, around the center, it was all farmland and trees. When I got there in the evening before the starting day, almost all people for the retreat were there and having a light dinner together. I got to talk with fellow meditators, who were coming from all different backgrounds - drug&game addict, truck driver, a professor from University of Illnois, a son and a dad, very beautiful Indian girl (she tried to look happy on the surface, but I could feel she was hiding some sadness inside). The soup was delicious, cooked with fresh vegetables and mild herbs. I instinctly knew next 10 days was going to be great, and they were.
During that 10-day, participants were to not talk or even make eye contact with each other. The time was to be spent entirely on observing oneself. No notes, books or pencils were permitted. The schedule was rather rigorous. It's been already more than 6 years so I am probably a bit off, but it was like this:
4:30 - up from bed
4:30 ~ 6:30 - morning meditation
6:30 ~ 7:30 - breakfast and waking around the center (farmland)
7:30 ~ 11:30 - meditation
11:30 ~ 13:00 - lunch and rest
13:00~17:30 - video lecture and meditatoin
17:30~19:00 - dinner
19:00~21:00 - meditation and Q&A with teachers
21:30 - time for bed
Of course, we had some breaks during meditation sessions. During these times, I would take a walk around the center all stare outdoor from the 'waiting room' which had a big window that gave you a panoramic view of the farmland around the center.I Men and women had different waiting rooms. The winter was very cold, so we often stayed inside during the breaks. I remember standing there with other men, all looking out, and felt we were all 'one.' We were all seeking some peace of mind, a very personal yet universal source of energy and truth. Each person was asking answers to questions of his own. We were all trying to see what we were made of, and searching for ture self. I was asking what is a meaningful life for me, and how I should live at the moment to do that.
I saw sunrise and sunset everyday during my walks after breakfasts and dinners. Watching the sky changing every day, I realized how miraculous it was to observe such scene. In those moments I realized that my questions cannot be answered in words. These questions had to be lived and experienced.
Back from the retreat, I continued my practice as recommended by the teachers. An hour of meditation upon rising up, and an hour of meditation before going to bed. I maintained my practice well during the first week. But when the Friday night came, being a college kid and having friends who loved to party, I got drunk and forgot to meditate. I then gave up meditating in the mornings, and continued evening meditations for a week, and slowly, meditation disappeared from my life.
That's when I was 21 and I was in college. Fast forward now, I am 27 and I am in 'the real world.' I work full time at a IT company. I commute to my work, spending about 2 hours on subway with thousands of strangers in the heart of Seoul. I get a paycheck, plan my finances, and try to save up as much as possible. I still ask what is a meaningful life is to me, and I try to answer by experimenting with doing different things.
When I learned about Steemit I dove right into it. It inspired me to start meditating again, and share my meditation and running with the community. Although it has been only 7 days since I started meditating again, I have been feeling a lot more centered and equanimous. I remember to breath and relax when I get stressed at work. Of course, I am far, far away from not getting distracted or not checking coinmarketcap every hour. But I am more aware of my emotions and feelings, and just that awareness itself centers me.
I didn't intend to write this long; I hope i didn't bore you!
Well, one reason I started writing about my meditation is because I wanted to change the format of my daily meditation posts and running posts.
Because I run and meditate almost every day, I will now post about both of them in one post, daily.
Writing about meditation in one post and running in another post each day made it quite distracting and time consuming for me. Also, adding date to the meditation video, encoding it thru iMovie, and upladoing on d.tube has been consuming more than 30 minutes every day. And I don't think ppl really watch me meditating. So I will just take a photo of me before meditation, post it with some writing post-meditation. And my running of the day wil be mixed with it.
So, let me begin my first Run&Meditate post.
Daily Meditation: Day 8
- Time: 15 minutes
- Thoughts: I read a lot about blockchain and cryptocurrency on commutes today. There was a big drop in the market, and I expect these dips to occur few times more before things take off. I tired to bring my focus back to breathing, but to be honest, thoughts of crypto stuff kept coming back to me. Maybe I should take a little break from watching the market, as I don't have much intention to sell any this year.
Fifty runs till May by a running turtle: Day 5
- Distance: 4 km
- Time: 18:50
- Speed range: 10~15.4km/h
- Incline: 1~2%
Strength&Flexibility
- Pull-ups: Pyramid day (1-2-3-4-5-6-4) with 10 sec rest for each rep
- Jefferson-curl: 45lbs bar and 2.5kgs on each side +asymmetric
I wanted to run more but I would get late for dinner, so I stopped at 4 km. But I was late for dinner anyway, cuz I took a long shower! :0
Tomorrow, I will go to gym earlier and do some speed intervals on the treadmil :)
Happy running!
Sung, a running turtle