Mindfulness and meditation is a secret weapon that a myriad of highly successful athletes use. For example, Google “Michael Jordan” or “Kobe Bryant” and “meditation,” and see what pops up.
Did you know that studies show we take between 17,000 and 30,000 breaths per day and, on average, have between 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day? That means our thoughts are moving faster than we are breathing! This is one of the main reasons we use conscious breathing, meditation and mindful movement to learn mindfulness. It is the fastest and most effective ways to slow down our heart rate, breath, and thoughts.
So why isn’t mindfulness and meditation talked about more often in sports? For starters, there’s the whole culture of having to appear to be extraordinarily tough. Athletes might be afraid that they will be viewed as wishy-washy or ridiculed if they break out into a meditation in the locker room. Others might feel like they are already in control of their thoughts. Another reason is simply the fact that most athletes have never heard of or been introduced to mindfulness and meditation.
Mindfulness is living in the moment is being fully focused on the present without concern of the past or future. It is a mindset of heightened awareness that creates a gap between emotions, thoughts, and reactions in a nonattached manner. The individual is completed connected to mind, body, and soul. In this space, the person experiences heightened self-awareness, mental clarity, focus, and inner peace.
Mindfulness helps you become simultaneously clear and connected in such an effortless, unrestricted way that you are one with where you are at, unmoved by outside circumstances with the keen awareness of what is happening in the moment and the ability to anticipate what is coming. It’s an energetic connection with what is unseen by everyone else who is led by ego alone.
Elite performance is achieved when your mind, body, and spirit are in unison. One is not greater than the other. In this place, which is commonly referred to as the “zone,” you are connected with everything and everyone. It in this heightened state of awareness where everything becomes almost like it is in slow motion. Each moment feels as if it is free-flowing and you are clear, aware, and able to perform at your highest level.
Click here to learn more about mindfulness training and meditation for athletes.