Many times when we think of meditation and prayer, we think of either the stereotypical martial artist or shaolin monk seeking one-ness with the universe or a person on their knees asking the Faceless Man for things and solution. While either scenario tends to happen at times or what have you, I have decided to take both to somewhat different purposes and scenarios.
Lately, between regular intervals of workout routines, I take a few minutes to meditate. In this process, I close my eyes and let my mind take me within to reflect on what's going on and everything within. I recall one time some asian guy, after I got up from post-workout meditation, telling me that my chi (life force in Chinese) is very black like a big black rock. Interesting how when I took time to meditate today, I saw what he saw. I saw a big black rock, towering over me like a giant -- except this time, the rock had cracks and through the cracks emanated blinding light, struggling to break through.
Oftentimes, when we pray, we do a hell of a lot of asking, begging, pleas and demanding. I do none of those in prayer. Sometimes, all we need to do is simply take that time to unbottle a bit, dwell and express our worries, without the asking, pleas and what have you. Just let it out gracefully. Truly, I do believe in a God that responds when we ask but many times, we do so much asking. I wonder sometimes if God is waiting for a day where we stop asking him for stuff and that we genuinely just talk to Him.
In the process of taking on prayer and meditation in this way, I find myself a bit quieter afterwards, let alone more relaxed. I definitely recommend this to anyone.
As far as my workout routine, I decided to take a time out from my Bane goal and mix it up a little. Aside form crunches and pushups, I'm also doing reverse pushups, sprawls, jump squats, shadow boxing and a touch of tae bo just to mix it up.