As an avid long distance cyclist, I talked to multiple people from, let’s say, conventional meditation community. All of them agreed that solo cycling is damn close to meditation if not the same. Especially road cycling, mountain biking is a different beast. On calm backroads, of course.

Personally wall-style meditation is damn hard. But cycling makes it doable. My routine is to focus on cycling for the first hour or so. Which is also needed to get away from the city and suburb traffic. By the time I’m far away there’s enough endorphins and whatnot in the system to help and then sliding into my own deep thoughts is pretty easy. For some time till physical exhaustion kicks in.

What I find crucial is pre-planned route and having already ridden it. No need for checking the map, no fear of missing a turn without navigation and no new sights to stare at.

And pace is important. Slow & steady. Not too slow. Zone 3 is perfect IMO.

I found swimming laps to be the same.

Extremely repetitive in terms of scenery, breath, everything. The first few laps get into the rhythm and later ones are just you and your thoughts. Or, if you're lucky, just you.

I'm not an avid distance cyclist but I have biked to work (14 miles round trip) quite a bit and I don't get into a meditative state. Instead I tend to fabricate stories or run through what-if scenarios for most of the route.

I've remodeled my house, building the greatest workshop ever, I've captured Bin Laden (before he was killed), I've teleported Putin and Jimmy Carter to a remote cabin, I've had a meal with Vonnegut, I've mastered guitar, I've repeated all the big events of my youth, and I've spent more time with my Dad and my dog.

I don't really get bored because my imagination takes over pretty quickly.

> And pace is important. Slow & steady.

Yes! When I was shopping for my bicycle (I ended up buying a steel touring bike) I spent time reading the bicycle subreddits and the common refrain there was that commuting by bike doesn't get easier, you just get faster. That's bullshit. It gets way easier because I'm not in a hurry. I have thoughts to finish.

Do you just mean endurance sports? What about like boxing or skateboarding?

As a "boxer", my active tike is over and I do only for the workout by now, it isbsomewhere in between. It is not boring, especially sparring, but then the drills and general carduo is boring in the sense thatvit doesn't need a lot of concentration of the complete brain. You just don't think a lot, meaning while doing it a huge part, of at least my, brain runs on idle.

Thinking of it, I need to go to the gym more. And I need some periodd of general boredom. Lately my brain had close to no occassion to run partially idle and I feel it.

You need boring sports where you don’t need 100% attention to not get hurt. E.g. road cycling on backroads is perfect. Mountain biking… no chance.