It’s (Not) All About the Bike!
I’m an avid road biker. (My wife might use other terms…). I try to get out on the road at least once a week (and train indoors the other days to be ready for the road!). Sometimes I join with friends, as we wheel along the byways of Los Angeles, enjoying the protection of numbers against the cars that speed by us. Other times, I head out on my own, following routes that avoid heavy traffic. When I bike alone, I use bone-conducting headphones that allow me to safely hear the sounds of traffic as well as an uplifting music track that inspires my feet to spin in the pedals and pound my way up the hills.
As I returned to my bike after several weeks of the heatwave-induced break, I experienced a sense of exhilaration and centering that was much needed. Before the ride, I was feeling out of balance and yearned to feel the road beneath my wheels. That’s where the insight I gained from biking may have universal application. With the ramping up of the year as the High Holy Days approach, kids returning to schools, our work cycles resuming their post summer intensity, and as we endure an election, the increase in antisemitism, and a war in Israel, how are we to maintain any sense of balance? It seems that we are constantly barraged by an endless stream of stress-inducing events that exist beyond our control. This doesn’t even include our own daily life stressors.
I’ve discovered that the time on the bike provides an opportunity for mindfulness that otherwise eludes me. While I’m on the bike, my heartbeat elevated, feet spinning quickly, focused on balance and direction, my thoughts wander in all kinds of directions. I appreciate the music in my headphones, the homes and gardens I pass, the trees shading me from overhead. I allow one idea to drift in until another takes its place. When a thought I like pops to mind, I’ll allow it to percolate for a while until it’s replaced by another. While on the bike, I often hatch the first kernels of a sermon or the core of writings such as the ones I’m sharing this week. This practice of biking mindfulness is a very important part of my own mental health.
As the High Holidays approach, our tradition encourages us to explore our own lives and reflect on what can make us better at being the person we need to be. I’d like to invite you to find a setting that allows you to practice your own version of mindfulness. While you might not all be bikers, we are all thinkers, and we are all immersed in this world and face its challenges. Mindfulness—the practice of letting our thoughts drift, of being nonjudgmentally aware of our bodies and surroundings—can be a useful component of our own renewal.
—Rabbi Ron Stern