By Jeff Nunn
Calming Your Inner Bull
Think meditation isn’ t for you? Here’ s why you should reconsider.
W hat if I told you that you that you could do something that’ s almost nothing – using only things you are already doing – for 10 minutes a day and it would improve your health, life, relationships and could even extend your life. Would you do it?
If your answer is yes( and why wouldn’ t it be?), then meditation is something that you should consider making a daily part of your life.
Meditation is an ancient practice believed to originate as a Hindu tradition in India around 1500 BCE. It is the practice of turning one’ s attention to a sole point of reference by eliminating the distracting and stressful thoughts abundant in the external environment.
According to Dr. Peter Buecker of ThePeacefulBull. com,“ Meditation may be the single most important thing that you can do to support your ongoing health and well-being.”
Despite that fact, the thousands of years of history and all the scientific data that supports it, people are not partaking in this very simple practice that can lead you down the path to a very fulfilling life of health and happiness.
Buecker is a recently retired, board-certified orthopedic surgeon, who also has a specialty in oncology, and now teaches Mindfulness Meditation, Stress Reduction and the development of a proprietary five-point life transformation system.
When Buecker hit a“ rough patch” in his life and needed something to help him positively impact his everyday life, someone close to him introduced him to the practice of meditation. So, he travelled the path of life transformation because he needed it. After having seen and felt the impact it has made on his own life, he has decided to dedicate his life to teaching meditation and meditation practices that can help people lower stress, be more productive at work, have deeper relationships, be better parents, reduce anxiety, lessen inflammation and pain, overcome fears and phobias, enhance sports performance, discover deeper purpose in life and live in more abundance.
The World Health Organization( WHO) defines health as“ a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” If you go to your primary care physician to get a yearly check-up and he / she says you are completely healthy, that only means that you have the acceptable results of your basic physical health. While that is very important, it is also important to put your mind in a state of wellness.“ There are relatively very few things out there that I know of, in my personal or professional life, that can positively impact your physical, your mental and your social well-being as powerfully as the practice of meditation,” Buecker said.
If you do the necessary research, which is readily available, you will find, as this writer did, there are fourteen scientifically proven ways that meditation rewires your brain for happiness, peace and success.
Meditation has been proven to reduce stress, increase your sense of well-being, increase your sense of connectedness and empathy, improve your focus, improve relationships, improves memory, makes you more creative, helps people overcome addictions, improves cardiovascular health, reduces physical and emotional pain, takes you towards enlightenment and helps you find“ flow.”
If meditation is so easy to do and scientifically proven to help or improve so many aspects of your life, why aren’ t more people practicing meditation? There are many reasons why, but the stereotype is a big one. Be honest, when you first started reading this and saw the word“ meditation,” the first image that popped into your head was a guy sitting with his legs crossed, his hands resting on his knees with his palms facing upward while his thumbs were touching his two middle fingers. Of course, he was probably sitting under some massive tree on a grassy hillside, maybe with a candle in front of him, while wearing some sort of robe. That stereotype is unfair and simply not true.
The most common reason people say they cannot practice meditation, said Buecker, is because their head is full of too many thoughts and they won’ t be able to clear their mind or stop their thoughts.“ How do you know that you are thinking?” Buecker said.“ How do you know there are thoughts and who is defining that there are too many of them?”
There is value in the knowledge and awareness of your thoughts, added Buecker.“ There is nothing anywhere that states that to do meditation practice your mind has to be devoid of thoughts. In fact, it’ s very unrealistic to think that you are going to sit down, close your eyes, and suddenly have your brain devoid of thoughts.”
So, if you are concerned that you can’ t shut off your thoughts to practice meditation,“ Stop trying,” advised Buecker.“ It’ s unrealistic.”
30 EXTOL SPORTS / AUGUST 2017