The calm conversation goes something like this: “This is starting to hurt now. It should. I’m running hard. But I am separate from this pain. It is going to be okay.” Just like the expert meditators, Steve’s best runners choose how they respond to the stress of a workout. Their amygdalas are not hijacked. Although not all of Steve’s elite runners meditate, they’ve all developed a strong mindful muscle through the years of deep, solitary focus that being an elite runner demands. Steve hasn’t scanned their brains, but we’d wager that if he did, he’d find their prefrontal cortexes are bursting
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