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Why Meditation Is Like The Gym: A Practical Mindset For Every Meditator To Immediately Strengthen Their Meditation Skills

Neuron #5: Train Your Meditation Muscles

Author

Connor Rankin
October 21, 2022

When is the last time you trained your brain at the Meditation Gym?

In yesterday’s Neuron (#4, The Meditation Cycle), we talked about training yourself to go deeper in meditation.

How is that possible?

Well, the brain—and your meditation muscles—functions similarly to muscles on your arms and legs.

If you train the muscle, it grows.

If you stop training the muscle, it disappears.

“When I think of meditation, I think of someone in the gym having a good sweaty workout. If you do a physical workout with regularity, you elevate the base level of body strength. If you do meditation with regularity, you elevate the base level of your focus strength.”

Mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant Shinzen Young in his excellent book Science of Enlightenment. 

So, if one push up equals one repetition in the gym, what is the equivalent in meditation?

Shinzen remarks, “Instead of working against gravity, we’re working against the force of distraction. Each return to the object of Focus is equivalent to a rep in weight lifting. It’s hard work, but it's one of the main ways that the concentration muscle is built.”

Neuroplasticity makes it possible to build your Focus muscle.

Each time you put in a rep, it strengthens neural connections in your brain. When neurons fire together, they wire together. (In later Neuron and newsletters, we'll explore how rapidly we can change and strengthen neural connections!)

Now, out of the four parts in the Meditation Cycle, we generally value Focus the most.

Why? Focus is where we achieve and sustain blissful states.

However, we need focus to do EVERYTHING else in life outside of meditation too.

This is why Shinzen calls meditation “the most fundamental study that any human being can undertake”.

So, how many Focus reps are you going to put in at the Meditation Gym today?

And how will you flex your Focus strength in your life afterwards?

Don’t let the force of distraction defeat you.

You can build your brain. You can train your Focus. You can change. Now, go get sweaty.

Love, Connor

P.S. I am creating a meditation course to teach others how I've effectively re-created myself with a custom meditation practice. It is based on all the wisdom, science, and hard-won experience I've gathered over the past 10 years. Meditation is the ground of self re-creation. If you are ready to make a big shift in your life, send me a DM on Twitter.

Related Neurons

4 Science-Backed Steps To Deepen Your Meditation & Overcome Distraction (For All Skill Levels) | The Trippy Report

Timeless wisdom to empower you to discover who you are, why you're here, & how to recreate yourself

https://crankin.beehiiv.com/p/neuron4-meditationcycle

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