Swimming, music, and meditation

I am currently employed at a Catholic hospital, and the organization is extremely focused (as it should be) on the mission; we exist to help the sick and in-need. To help foster the broader mission (that is, helping the sick in line with the values of a Christian-based organization) all employees are exposed to regular presentations on how we can best exemplify our mission.

While there are several common themes on achieving mission-based leadership, the element I am focusing on with this blog is meditation. To meditate is to simply focus on a single idea and release all other thoughts. This can be a Bible verse, concentrating on a critical task for the day, or something ultra-simple with the purpose of clearing your thoughts. Meditation is something my brain is not naturally wired to accomplish; if you know me then you fully realize that my mind moves at light speed all the time.

One place I am really focusing on meditation is the pool. As I ramped up the laps in my couch to one mile exercise series, keeping track of what lap I was on became very difficult (I swim in a 20 yard pool, meaning that one mile equals 88 laps). A friend suggested that I repeat the lap number in my head that I am currently swimming. After the first night doing this (I was up to a 30 lap series) my head was completely relaxed. I have since extended this tri-weekly meditation to a morning routine of meditating to various songs for ~15 minutes. Both practices have allowed me to reset my brain on a daily basis, and it feels amazing!

As a quick update on the couch to one mile, tomorrow is the day for the one mile. I feel ready and conditioned, and at this point it is just a matter of doing it.