Day 1: "We Are All Batman": Becoming One with Your Inner Bat

So today is kind of an odd day in that it is a US national holiday which, by a most joyful consequence, means I have the day off from work. This affords me the luxury of a little research time and gives me the opportunity to look into some of what I consider to be the ancillary aspects of the physical regiment I will be adopting during the course of this project.  Specifically, I've decided to look into meditation.  Now, full disclosure, I have never really been much into meditation in a professional sense.  To a large extent, I have been skeptical as to all the purported benefits of meditation and even more so of the zealotry exhibited by some of its practitioners. Still, if I am going to try and do this thing, I will endeavor to make the Bat-Regiment as authentic as possible.

So, the next question you might be asking is, "Does Batman Meditate?"  To answer that, I've turned to a number of comics and DC approved media.  I may perform a deeper study of this as the blog matures, but even a cursory examination of my own private collection of comics and movies does, in fact, reveal several instances where it appears Batman engages in meditation on some level.

Some of the Reference Items I Used Include:

1.) Batman Gotham Knight: Episode 5 - Working Through the Pain 
2.) Detective Comics Vol.2 Issue#0
3.) The Lost Yak

Now, I don't think I'm ready to invest heavily in this practice just yet, but I'm certainly willing to ease my way into it. To begin, I will be adopting a very straight forward and practical technique that was given to me by one of the co-owners of the boot camp I have joined, Synergize Fitness. (I will go into more detail about this amazing group of people in future posts.  They will also be providing me with the workouts that I will be posting on this site.)  It is a very straight forward meditation practice that I think just about anyone can work in to their day.

The Four-Square Meditation Technique:

Step 1: Find a quiet space you can call your own, a personal Batcave, if you will.  Although you are free to vary it as you'd like, I will begin by dedicating four minutes in the morning and four minutes at night to meditation in this fashion.  As per instructions I have received, my ultimate goal will be work in about half an hour at each interval as part of my daily routine.

Step 2: Adopt a posture that is aligned and comfortable at the same time.

Step 3: Once you are ready, begin by either dimming out the lights in your cave or closing your eyes altogether.  Take  in a deep breath for four seconds.  Try your very best to clear your mind of all distraction as you do this.  You are now entering your mediation phase.

Step 4: Hold your breath for 4 seconds.  Continue to work out all distraction from your mind.

Step 5: Exhale for 4 seconds.

Step 6: Inhale for 4 seconds.

Step 7: Hold your breath for 4 seconds.

Step 8: Repeat this process for the duration of your meditation.  (In my case, for 4 minutes.  I will be increasing this time by two minutes every week until I achieve my 30 minute goal.)

I will be trying this starting tonight and giving you brave readers the skinny on how it goes.  Stay tuned for additional posts and, as always, thanks for joining me!