The Dangers of Meditating Too Much
As much as I love meditation and the results it creates, I have to warn you about meditating too much. It just isn’t healthy. And the problem I’m referring to affects more people than you might expect.
In fact, everyone who has ever said, “I’m too old for this” has already been affected.
You see, one of the fundamental principles of life is that living things adapt to their environments.
Have you ever noticed how little kids are always running around everywhere? Adults, on the other hand, try to “save” their energy for more important things. They’re not.
Body builders, those guys and gals who spend hours in the gym day after day, base everything they do on the principle of adaptation. They lift heavy weights, and their bodies respond by growing stronger.
Runners also build their muscles, but in a different way. They don’t need strength as much as they need endurance.
The same thing happens in reverse.
When you spend a lot of time sitting, such as in meditation or when working at a desk, your body adapts by allowing your muscles to atrophy and waste away.
Eventually, this process would cause a person to need help just to walk.
Putting off exercise because you “don’t feel energetic enough” is equivalent to the old joke of waiting for the fire to get bigger and hotter before adding wood.
If you want more energy, you’re going to have to get moving.
There’s something else too. Our bodies depend on physical movement to expel waste through the lymphatic system. If you’re not moving, cellular waste collects and starts to interfere with normal functions. The body starts to break down if too much waste collects.
The lesson in this is simple. Get moving on a regular basis.
You don’t have to lift weights or go running. Not unless you want to grow in your ability to handle these types of activity. Simple movements are enough to help clear out the lymphatic system of waste.
A minute or two of high activity per hour is a good start. That’s about 30 minutes per day.
If you exercise vigorously enough to keep your heart rate up for 20 minutes or more, you also stimulate your metabolism, which can help you lose weight even when you’re sitting or sleeping.
I can also tell you that when you get your blood pumping, your brain functions improve as well. There are a number of scientific studies that back this up.
The more you exercise, the more you’re able to get things done, both physically and mentally.
Again, the lesson in this is simple. Get moving on a regular basis.
For those of us who have put off exercise with the excuse of having “too much to do”, it’s important to note that 30 minutes of high-activity exercise actually helps you get more work done in the remaining time.
Invest 30 minutes to exercise, and you’ll get more done in the same 8-hour workday.
Hope this helps.
Oh, one other thing. As I’ve mentioned before, you can reprogram your subconscious mind to make exercise more enjoyable.
I’ve already given you several ideas on how to do this. It basically comes down to eliciting a feeling of enjoyment and then linking that to the idea of exercising. It’s easy to do with the Symbolic Solutions process I’ve been talking about.