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Less pleasant is what comes next: a series of squats, a weighted bar balanced on my shoulder. We do one set with our eyes open, one set with them looking at the ground and another with our eyes closed. Oddly, there's no mirror in sight; we've got our backs turned to it. The focus is on us, our bodies and – most importantly – our "energy bodies". After the lifting, we go back to meditating. And after meditating, we do more lifting. The point is to get a workout – toning, stretching, improving our core strength – while relaxing. All too often, says Ainscow, we dash from busy job to busy gym, putting the body and brain under further strain. This is an altogether more holistic kind of fitness: a "mind-body" fitness.
It's called "Contempowerplation" and it's taught at the Third Space gym, just off Piccadilly Circus. The course is a collaboration with Psychologies magazine; it aims, says the magazine, to be "the ultimate mind- and body-boosting workout". If the combination sounds incongruous – well, you've obviously not been paying attention to the football lately. Because meditation and sport, increasingly, go hand in hand. Lionel Messi, for one, is said to be a fan. And who can blame him, with the shopping list of benefits it is said to impart? Reports have, variously, linked meditation with reduced risk of heart disease, lowered blood pressure, better skin and an improved mental state. No wonder Messi et al want in on the act. And if it works for him, why shouldn't it work for me, in need of some inner peace midway through a busy week? It's not just the sporting world that has embraced the calming influence of meditation. Schools, offices – even advertising campaigns – are attempting to harness the benefits. Meditation in the workplace has been a trend for some time, thanks in part to its ability to combat stress and offer focus. Schools have embraced it for similar reasons – first in the private sector and now increasingly in the mainstream. Andy Puddicombe, founder of Headspace and authority on all things meditative, is working with Yale and Brown universities to research a way of integrating the digital world with authentic meditation: "We're trialling it in a school in Thailand. The thing is, it's how kids relate to things. We're using animation, videos and so on to make meditation something they want to do."
Source: The Independent