Daily Meditation: Day 18

• Total Time: 15 minutes
  After reading first few sentences of 'The Simple Path by Ajahn Chah', I realized I was forcing my meditation. I tried to sit up right, and have my neck in a certain way, even when that hurted from +8 hours of sitting in the office. During my meditations, I would have urge to relax my neck, lift my head and hang it backwards. But I would repress it and try hold my neck in a stiffened position. Because looking upwards while meditating, well, that's not how monks would meditate. But today, I got some courage from reading Ajahn Chah's writing. He wrote some truth. The point of meditation is not to meditate in the right way as taught by teachers or Buddha; the point is to let that clinging to 'the right way' go, and letting it be. The point not resisting anything, and observing yourself being, what it shall be in each moment.

Daily Running: Day 17

Running

Running details

• Distance: 1.1km
• Where: Indoor (company gym)
• Time: 7 min
• Speed Range: ~10km/h
• Run type: easy and relaxing
• Incline: 2%
  
  
  I didn't feel like running today, but wanted to do more of strength workout. So I took it easy and ran just a bit to warm up before strength workout. I learned the hard way that, forcing to run when I don't feel like, backfire with injuries and heartbreak with running. So I think I made a good decision today :)
  
  
  
  
  

Strength&Flexibility

• Pull-ups: 9 sets of 4 reps of wide grip. Focus on using back and core primarily. Total 36.
• Bench-press: 4 sets of 5 reps. 15kg x 5, 17kg x 5. I wanted to do some at 20kg, but ran out of time. There is always tomorrow!
• Jefferson-curl: Took my time to do this right. Very slow and concentrated. 45lbs bar + 2.5kg each. Asymmetric, then + 5kg on each side. Felt super great afterwards. I love this exercise.
  
  

I got home around 8:30PM, and my mom prepared some dinner for me. What will I do when I move out?

I thought about quitting daily posts because I felt it was taking up a lot of my time. But today I realized this is a lot of fun for me, and that I like being consistent with it. Let's see where it takes me. And I will make sure I will bring some more in-depth quality posts in the near future.

Happy running and meditating!

Sung, a running turtle

Little background on why I run and meditate

Why running?
I got hooked to running in 2013. Running barefoot on grass, slowly, I learned how to be one with the movement. I loved running so much that I wanted to see how world's best runners live and train. So I went to Iten, Kenya in the summer of 2015. I read a sort of ebook with a Korean content start-up called 'PUBLY' about my 5 weeks in Iten (link). I want to share my experience with people who speak English as well, so I have started translating the prologue chapter. I hope to share my story with you soon. Until then, please check out some of the videos I took in Kenya. You will especially love this video of 10km race in Iten, which I filmed myself on the back of a motorbike. In my channel, there are many exercise and stretching videos that you will find beneficial as well. Follow me for more updates :)

Why meditating?
I did a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat in 2011. There, I experienced a center of peace within myself. However, college, grad school, and real world slowly took me away from the practice. I am giving myself some social accountability by committing myself to meditate 15min before going to bed and upload a post about it on Steemit, along with my running post. I chose to do 15 minutes because it does not feel too long nor insignificant. It feels very manageable, but at the same time long enough to induce me some equanimity and mindfulness.

Please leave comments for what you think and if you have any questions on running or meditation. Thanks!

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