Time, it is sadly becoming a luxury good. Work is grinding us down, and the idea is that our hobbies should be a side hustle rather than for enjoyment. I was hoping you could turn your hobby around and use it to bring control back to your life through mindfulness meditation.

The mindful idea

I write these ideas with a nod to BMX, given that it is my release from life, but the idea should be easily transferable to learning any skill. Even taking a minute to work out how to transfer the idea is a moment where you are in the moment, and you can forget about your stress and daily life for a moment. Treasure these moments.

Every day we all believe we are multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is the idea that we can concentrate on multiple tasks at once. For the majority of us, this idea doesn’t work. Even when we feel we are multi-tasking, we are more than likely just performing two different tasks rapidly, one after the other.

Science believes that only 2.5% of people can multi-task.

Mono-task

I want you to mono-task.

Pick one skill you would love to learn to do on your bike (or in any other pursuit)

We are going to concentrate on that skill.

I want you to break the skill down. What are your hands going to do? Where does your body weight need to be? Where do you need to look?

Now, it is time to try out the skill.

How did it feel?

How did your body feel?

Once you start to make the new trick, focus on:

• Your breathing
• Your bodily sensations
• Your contact points on the bike.
• The feeling when you are rolling away.

By concentrating in this way, you are meditating. It wasn’t as scary as you thought it would be now, was it?