Running & Being Present

I loved Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. I had two chapters left to listen when I started my weekday runs in the park. The book in essence says that our life's purpose is to achieve enlightenment. It goes about describing how you can do that. I like the book because it doesn't try to 'sell' me any concept or try to make me believe in anything. I liked The Secret when I read it, but in hindsight, I think it tried to sell to me the concept that if I 'believe' that I will get something, I will get it. Yet- it helped me understand the power of positive thinking, so I would still recommend it as a good reading. But A New Earth- that's a book I would gladly gift to anyone who was willing to give it a shot.

That said, I had an interesting experience listening to it while running. Tolle's voice started talking about being in the present- to be in the moment- not in the future, not in the past, but in the now. I dragged my mind from where ever it was to the now and what did I find- I was now suddenly aware of my legs and breathing and the more I focused on them, the more sorry things I discovered. My breathing was not steady- it was too loud. I could feel a pain in my calfs and my knee was beginning to hurt too. I tried to 'accept' these sensations like Tolle said in the book - "if you can't feel enthusiastic about what you're doing, accept it". It helped a little, but after some time - I discovered more things. It was obviously my devilish mind trying to make mischief. In the guise of being in the present, it wondered if I had a good 'running style' - was I looking knock-kneed when I ran or was I slouching etc. "That is your ego" said Tolle, and my mind reluctantly let go of these musings. Let's just say that listening to A New Earth while running was good, but not recommended for a beginning runner on the first day of their run without a mentor or coach on a tough course. Its still one of my favorite books of all time.