Mindful Meditation, Light Isometric Tensing (LIT), and Socrates

Mindful Meditation, Light Isometric Tensing (LIT), and Socrates

It was Socrates who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I paraphrase that by saying: If you do not examine what you are doing and do not do the right thing, you are not going to have a very long or healthy life to examine.

The concept of Mindful Meditation as recommended by Thich Nhat Hahn, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Tenzin Gyatso (the last is the 14th and current Dalai Lama) is that we need to be aware in the broad sense of who and where we are virtually all of the time! That is, we should be meditating as we go through virtually all of the activities of our life with a broader awareness of who and where we are in time and space, and not be so narrowly focused on just the task at hand. Doing so allows a broader perception/relationship to humanity/self and the world/universe as a whole in which we have the privilege of living. We need to be aware of the very step we take, the chair we sit in, the people around us, the quality of the air/trees/sunlight - all of the time.

This is a method by which you can begin to focus on, and increase, your Light Isometric Tensing (LIT). Push down on the floor/ground as you walk. When sitting in a chair, tighten your butt. When you are anywhere, tighten the muscles of your chest/arms for 10 seconds. Try not to look silly or be obvious as you do this. But every time you make a muscle hard, you start to make it harder. Do this as much as you can to create a near continuous degree of Light Isometric Tensing/exercise.

H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT