MF 13 – Lisa Hamilton of the Conscious Runner – Running as Meditation Practice

Interview with Lisa Hamilton of the “Conscious Runner”.

“Running is my form of meditation, my meditation practice.” Lisa Hamilton

 What brought you to a meditation practice?

Trying to eliminate chaos in her life, and also in her mind, and connect to peace in a nutshell.

You mention a natural disaster, hurricane Hugo in your book, what is the role of that major (traumatic) event in your life?

Lisa says that it did transform her, and she was traumatized by that experience. She still finds herself shivering and having other symptoms when there is  a storm. it can leave remnants. It still to this day has somewhat of an effect. She doesn’t necessarily think it changed the way she views things. She’s always known that there’s more to life than money, cars, etc. Just a knowing that there was more to life..

She wasn’t brought up that way, it was a painful upbringing. In part to escape that pain, she had to believe that there was something more to life.

What problem where you perhaps trying to solve with your meditation?

She didn’t approach it as a specific problem, like working on forgiveness, progress, or self-esteem. I wanted to solve the problem of chaos and unhappiness. Once I could connect to source into the present moment, that all of those other things would disappear. Going for the root than dealing with the limbs and for the branches. 

I don’t look too much for the branches. She always knew that there was something even larger than that. That if she just addressed the root cause (her chaos and unhappiness), then the rest would just fall away by itself.

You mentioned you had to love yourself, imperfections and all. Did that chaos disconnect you from being connected. 

Yes, some of that came from the Oprah show. She love Oprah like a mother. Back in the 90’s, Gary Zuchov was one of her favorite spiritual teachers. The world wasn’t ready for that at the time, she was crucified for it. But Lisa knew there was value for her in those interviews. She resonated with those interview. She played those over and over again, and learn more and more from it.

She said Gary was lighting the path for her, she decided to stick with it. Because this was the way she was going to “get it”. After this things became more clear to Lisa, that she had to love herself, imperfections and all. She is a great soul, that every place is a holy place, not just in the confines of a church. It can be anywhere.

Did those teachings turn you towards a meditation practice?

She turned towards running as a meditation practice, not sitting meditation. She could not resonate with that practice. She learned that meditation is anything that you can use that brings you into the present moment. Meditation is just a tool or a technique. There are many meditators sitting in cross legged positions who are not really meditating. They just look like they are.

So running is my form of meditation, my meditation practice.

Did you just discovered it?

Yes, she discovered it, she just knew it.  That was her form of being able to connect with source, and the present moment. And to experience her mind and body the way that she wanted to. Her running is more directed inwardly from the kind of feeling that she wants to have, and those are the tools to help her get that.

So you didn’t have a teacher or way to know how to know to get out of your own way?

Yes, any time your minds are in the way, it prevents us from getting into the now, the present moment. Whether we’re focused on the past or the future. She did go to a class in meditation and she found that sitting meditation did not work for her. Sitting meditation does work for her in a sauna, because of the heat. Which helps her with her thoughts.

Tell me more about how the thoughts when running,