I thought of that while riding my bike.
Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity
...was gonna go get coffee then bike downtown...stepped outside to check the weather...no rain drops falling but a sound of thunder in the distance...decided to have my coffee at home...
...between the endless cold/flu/whatever and the endless rain, I haven’t gotten to bike nearly as much as I’d like lately...and, when I have, have tended to overdo it a bit...what I like most is to take a fifteen to twenty mile ride along the Wissahickon Creek and Schuylkill River, stopping for a yoga class and at one of those Indian buffet places for lunch somewhere in the middle...that covers a lot of bases...
...overall, yoga is highly complementary to biking...though the opposite really isn’t true at all...at least not in a physical sense...
...there’s something about having the body occupied with the bike that seems to allow the mind to wander more freely than usual...maybe it’s because of that one part of the brain that’s closely monitoring...hopefully...where the bike is going...keeping it from going into walls or over concrete abutments...and, most of all, watching the devious, potentially deadly movements of cars...with all that on its plate it can’t possibly watch where the mind goes, too...
15 comments:
I'm exactly the same when out walking. The mind goes on auto pilot and great things get invented. Unlike Einstein, mine are pretty much discarded and forgot by the time I get home ... but hey, they were great for a time!
I'd categorize biking as meditative--in the sense that even if you're not watching your mind--you're stepping out yourself. And while all yoga is also meditative, not all meditation is yoga.
I don't bike, but I do walk around the remote mountainous area I live and absorb the energy of nature.
I unfortunately sometimes get that outer body experience when I am driving.Funny, you shoudl mention Einstien. I'm reading a book about the scientist's brain and the man who stole it and later drove the brain cross-country to return it.
Forwarding this to a biking buddy. It exquisitely frames exactly why we both ride I think.
Maybe having to use so much of the reptilian brain leaves little room for higher (noisier and more self-conscious) brain function.
I haven't biked in years and my walking usually involves a dog who keeps all parts of my mind pretty busy, but I swear that when I'm cleaning the bathroom is when my mind goes off on its own. I wouldn't choose it for meditation, but it just seems to work that way.
for me it's
hiking with Nietzsche:
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”
Friedrich Nietzsche
:)
plus all the exhaustion quitens your mind after some time...and thats when biking becomes more fun!
I love repetitive work, like biking, walking, blading, or gardening. Because those things do free the mind. You can enter this altered state, but it is a gentle one for the most part. Which is good too.
ok.
your talk of einstein and relativity reminds me of a poor joke about relativity and time travel.
It goes something like if you run around a tree with the speed of light, you end up F!@#$NG yourself!!
On a serious note, I agree that biking is meditative.
I find drivng home after work very relaxing and meditative experience.
Like Aggie I walk every morning to achieve the same state.
I love Einstein...he was a Pisces, like me..born March 14th just a few days after my "Birth-day". I do believe he also had something like dyslexia, which I have also..of course in those days they had no understanding or knowledge of what that was.
Please take care while biking and watch out for those crazy car drivers that get "tempermental" .
Hope your feeling better..often it takes a while to recover from these flu bugs.
Blessings,
Rhi
Einstein is one of my favorite people specifically because of quotes like that.
Biking can be very therapeutic.
Hi drjay,
Fell asleep in the middle of my comment last night and then lost it. It was that exciting!
Anyway, I love bike posts. They nudge me a little closer to dragging out my poor neglected wheels.
Cycling really does help my overall being, but when I'm on a ride where I don't have to pay such close attention to what's around, my freed mind still chews over my most recent irks. And I hope that's good 'cause that's how it is...
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