An alternative to starting meditation | Blog Post by Rob Crews

Although there is a ton of information out there on the benefits of meditation, you might find the method a little unfamiliar and difficult to get started with. One alternative way to go about things is to try doing something that they’re familiar with and do it mindfully — focusing deeply on the activity.

An example that I’ve come across in a Tim Ferriss podcast is to use a heart-rate monitor (many gyms have treadmills and bikes that have built-in heart-rate monitors) and to actively deepen your awareness of your heart-rate. You can practise oscillating your heart-rate within a range, using your rate of breathing to influence your heart-rate.

Through doing this, you can get used to focusing on your breath and then potentially move on to a typical meditation practice (or just stick with this method if you like it).

Also published on Medium.