Cycling For A Quieter Mind – BionicOldGuy

This was an interesting and useful book by Gerardo Regalado who writes under the pen name Captain G. It is for people who may have difficulty quieting their minds through conventional methods such as meditation. He explains how he often manages to achieve a calm mind while riding a bicycle. This is not something that can be forced, but we can take simple steps to prepare the environment to make it more likely to happen. He also links this to Zen practices from a website from Leo Babauta. Gerardo is familiar with proper neuroscience, and he explains that what we’re trying to do is silence the “automatic mode network” I discussed earlier.

I come from a different background perhaps than my target reader, because I have enough experience in meditation that I can easily quiet my mind during a regular meditation practice. But I am always looking to incorporate this peace into everyday life. Since riding a bike is such an important part of the day, I’m interested in ways to make it a moving meditation. I found the tips in this book very helpful in this regard.

I disagree with the author on only one point. He felt that among the various forms of exercise, riding a bicycle is the best for calming the mind. He thinks walking is too slow, and running “asks the body to tighten up with every step, and the brush itself is a constant little noise.” This may be true for him but we are all different. The endurance activities I’ve had the most are running, hiking, walking, and biking. For me any of them help to calm the mind. But in my case running was the best, with cycling and walking tied for second. Walking helped but not that much. Now that I’m older and slower and can no longer run, walking works very well. As for the effect of running, it wasn’t like that for me when I did it a lot. It felt like it was floating. The only time that effect was noticeable was when my body was tired at the end of a very long race like a marathon. This actually increases the scope of the book’s offering, however, because the cycling tips provided are easily adapted to running, walking, and walking.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to use mindfulness exercises to help quiet their minds. I tried it for one ride and loved the results, and I’m looking forward to doing it further on future rides.