Swimming as Meditation

Swimming is well known to be one of the the best exercises. It’s an all body workout with zero strain on your joints. I’ve always enjoyed swimming for this reason and it’s been an activity that I deeply enjoy.

I’m very relaxed when I am swimming. I often have an unusually clear head as well.

What I’ve realized recently is that for me at least this is driven by the fact that swimming is one of the few activities that by it’s very structure forces you to breath correctly, slowly and deeply from the stomach.

The deep and rhythmic breaths between strokes forces you into a type of moving meditation that I would struggle to obtain in any other activity.

It is a true reminder that meditation is not an act, but a state of mind and body. It’s not just for people who sit cross legged and say ‘OMMMM’.

I would recommend to anyone who is attempting to start a mindfulness practice to look first at activities that they already enjoy like walking or swimming and leverage them first to practice controlling your attention.

One, you will be more enthusiastic about working on this practice on a daily basis since you already enjoy the underlying activity. Too often is the strict traditional meditation practice too over whelming for people and it’ quickly abandoned. It’s not all or nothing!

Two, breath control is such a large part of any mindfulness practice that using a tool like swimming that forces you to take deliberate, deep,and spaced out breaths will accelerate your practice.

Stroke, Stroke, Stroke, Breath. Stroke, Stroke, Stroke, Breath. Stroke, Stroke, Stroke, Breath.

Drafted on my Neo AlphaSmart