Mindful Running: Benefits and strategies

Additionally, mindful running may have a positive effect on certain psychological disorders. Running reduced depression and increased cognitive control processes as well as cud-chewing thinking patterns.

Below, we’ll take a look at what mindfulness running means, its benefits, and how to exercise.

Table of Contents

Mindful Running

Mindful running is an exercise that every runner can benefit from. Indeed, mindfulness has several positive psychological effects, including improved subjective well-being, reduced psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, and improved behavioral control.

Mindfulness is awareness of the moment. When you practice mindfulness, you try to observe your thoughts, sensations, feelings, and situations you are in. The key is to judge your own thoughts or accept them immediately without criticism or resistance. It means not wasting energy trying to impose unnecessary resistance, but opening yourself up to internal and external events with kindness, affection, and a little curiosity.

Similarly, mindful running, one of mindfulness practices, runs while being conscious of the moment, the environment, and the body. You connect to both the present and the activity itself, focusing on bodily sensations, breathing, the impact of your feet on the ground, and arm movements. In other words, it becomes one with the movement.

Mindful running can help you connect with the world while staying focused. Focus on the present without worrying about the future or being swayed by some of the memories, while setting aside your worries and stress.

Benefits of Mindful Running

Mindful running has the same benefits as other practices of mindfulness. When combined with physical exercise, it may have more positive effects than mindfulness itself, but this has not been proven. What is certain is that mindfulness promotes health.

Improving Emotional Regulation

Mindfulness helps you identify and manage your emotions. This type of exercise can improve your ability to regulate your emotions. Neuroimaging research suggests that mindfulness training alters brain regions that respond to stimuli that elicit emotions.

Promote cognitive flexibility

Mindfulness meditation develops cognitive flexibility. Those who practice mindfulness meditation develop self-observation abilities that allow for neurological deactivation in automatic pathways, allowing present-moment information to be integrated in new ways (Davis & Hayes, 2012).

Boosts Attention

Attention performance and cognitive flexibility were positively associated with levels of meditation and mindfulness. One study found that meditators performed better on attention tests than non-meditators.

Reduce Stress

There is evidence that mindfulness meditation increases positive effects and reduces negative effects and stress. In addition, physical exercise protects individuals from the negative emotional consequences of stress and has beneficial effects on healthy people.

Improve your memory

Mindfulness improves memory. In one study, memory tests were conducted on people who had been trained in mindfulness or had taken a creative writing course. Participants who received mindfulness training showed the greatest reduction in active intervention, resulting in improvement of short-term memory.

Strengthen your relationship

There is also evidence that mindfulness can have a positive effect on interpersonal relationships. Conscientious people are more likely to accept their partner’s flaws and imperfections, a study has found, leading to more satisfying relationships.

Mindful running can have tremendous benefits for your mental and physical health. Developing and strengthening cognitive functions, including memory, attention, and mental flexibility, helps them cope with adversity and process information received from the environment.

Strategies for mindful running

Incorporating mindfulness into your life is easy. Here are eight tips.
Run outdoors, not on a treadmill.
Leave your headphones at home and run with all your senses active.
Do mindful breathing before running.
Don’t rush, start slowly.
Pay attention to your thoughts.
Observe your senses and emotions.
Feel your feet touching the ground.
Enjoy the scenery.
Acknowledge and accept any inconvenience that may arise.
Don’t judge yourself negatively even if you have trouble concentrating.
Whenever your attention is distracted, focus on the present instead of judging yourself with kindness and compassion.

Conclusion

Mindfulness running is a discipline that bears fruit with consistent practice. You don’t have to worry about reaching your goals. Let’s run the here and now, the present, and stay connected with life.

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