Athletes are always looking for new and exciting ways to boost their performance. Whether it’s a change in their diet, lifestyle, training program and schedule or anything in between, there are so many variables.

It doesn’t even matter what sport you’re involved in, if there’s a way to boost your training to make you better, you can be sure that you’ve tried it. Or have you?

Meditation is big at the moment, and the chances are that you’ve heard of it. You might know someone who practices it or maybe you even practice it yourself. However, have you tried meditating with the sole purpose of enhancing your performance?

Meditating as an Athlete

By meditating as an athlete, right before you work out or train, you can help yourself become very centred and present. Although it’s not going to actively be able to make you run faster or throw further, it can help your body to relax and to become very focused. There’s also a huge benefit when it comes to your breathing.

When you’re exercising, breathing is such an important aspect to consider. Usually, you may find it difficult to keep your breathing steady and in check. However, through meditation, you can centre your breathing, so it remains calm and regulated throughout.

There’s also a tonne of research and studies that show that meditating can actively reduce stress and pain when exercising your muscles.

How to Meditate

There is a tonne of articles on this blog that can show you how to meditate so I won’t share with you the basics. However, there are a few things that you’ll want to remember.

Firstly, and most importantly, you’ll want to find a calm and quiet space where you can concentrate and relax. You don’t have to necessarily sit with your legs crossed, just upright and comfortable, so you’re not fidgeting around.

Of course, it’s not about clearing your mind; it’s about focusing on your breathing. Thoughts and emotions are going to come into your head during this time but don’t worry about it. As soon as you notice you’re thinking, return to your breath.

Improve Your Meditation, Improve Your Performance

As you practise meditation, you’ll naturally get better and better at it. As you improve, you’ll start to see the benefits more and more, as you will in your training sessions.

To start with, you’re probably going to want to meditate for around 10 minutes but, as you start to see the benefits, you’ll probably do it for a lot longer than this. The longer you meditate, the more benefits that you’ll see. You’ll also notice that it’ll start to affect other aspects of your life, for example, you’ll be a lot calmer when you’re stuck in traffic!

Before long, you’ll be at the top of your game and only ever getting better! Give it a go and let us know what you think!

Life is full of good times and full of bad times.

You may have heard about all the joys of meditation, how it can reduce stress, make you calmer and just make you feel better in general. There’s a benefit of being happier in your life.

However, one of the most common questions that come up is where this happiness comes from. Nowadays, life is filled with pressures from work, issues with social groups and expectations to get things done. Is there really enough time to be happy?

These people believe that meditation will help them find a new source of happiness in their life, but where does this happiness actually come from? In short, much like the oceans of the world, it’s always there.

A Journey to Find Happiness

When you’re sad or feeling down, it’s hard to imagine what happiness feels like.

If you’re going through a hard time or continuing to go through a hard time, it can be very challenging to envision what happiness feels like. I’m talking about real raw happiness that you can’t control.

However, being happy isn’t as black and white as ‘being happy’ and ‘not being happy’. Some days we are excited to be alive and feel motivated to have the best day. Others, not so much. Some days you can feel productive and others, not. It’s a constantly changing and evolving set of emotions.

When it comes to meditation, the practice understands that life is never the same, moment to moment.

So, how can we set about actively recognising the happiness that exists, rather than focusing on the negatives?

In short, it all comes down to our perception of life.

Perception is the Key

The majority of our lives we spend thinking about our external selves. This is how others perceive us and how we perceive the situations around us. We are constantly filled with judgements. One day you might think it’s too hot. Sometimes you think it might be too cold.

Perhaps you feel like you’re late. Perhaps you feel safe and secure. Other days you may feel angry and irritated, all for no reason whatsoever. In situations like this, we tend to look for external reasons, such as financial problems, or maybe a friend let you down. Rarely do we look inside ourselves.

We tend to forget that feelings represent the surface of what our minds are capable of thinking.

Imagine the oceans mentioned above. You might have a thick fog that clouds your ocean that is life. This fog is full of doubt, worry, anxiety and it clouds our view of the beautiful blue ocean.

It’s an endless stream of comments and judgements that build up the elusive power that this fog has.

Of course, if you try too hard to clear the fog, you wound up getting irritable when it does clear, and you end up demanding more from yourself. You end up judging yourself when you can’t provide.

Balance is Necessary

It’s all about clearing your mind of these judgemental thoughts and feelings. Don’t take things at face value, recognise the deeper connections that feelings and events in your life have. With this, you’ll learn to appreciate the little things that are positive and even the positive benefits that come from negative events.

Approach this subject within yourself with patience and treat your mind gently. Through meditation, you can become central and neutral, cleaning your mind so you can become truly happy with who you are and what you’re doing.

I’m constantly on the lookout for new and innovative mindfulness practices that can benefit life. I understand a lot of us always find that we’re too busy and we’re always in a rush. It’s also easy to miss a meditation practice. It all comes from breathing.

It’s all about creating that habit and environment for which we, as individuals, can thrive in. However, with so much going on in our lives, it’s so easy to lose focus with what we’re doing.

Our minds can slip onto a thought process that’s not relevant to what we’re doing. It can travel off to faraway places and inconsistent concepts which harms how we are in the present.

In fact, the actual practice of meditation is about training our focus to return to said present moment. For some of us, this lapse in focus can occur countless times a day.

To help regain your focus when this happens, here’s a quick five-minute meditation you can follow to bring yourself back to where it matters most.

The Practice

Start by finding a comfortable and calm location.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re at home, at work, commuting or out and about.

You can sit in a chair, on a cushion or whatever, just as long as you’re upright and comfortable.

If you like, you could close your eyes.

If not, gaze at a fixed point on the floor.

Just breathe

Don’t control your breath or force it to go a certain speed, just breathe.

Notice the physical sensation of breathing.

Notice how the air feels cool on the inhale and warmer on the exhale.

You might notice how your body is expanding, like your chest and your diaphragm.

With each breath, think the words ‘inhale’ and ‘exhale’.

Almost straight away, you’ll feel your attention being pulled to other thoughts.

With each pull, bring your attention back to your breathing.

You could even be reading these words and solely focusing on the while you practice.

Read each word slowly and take in the meaning of every character.

You might hear sounds or see things moving around you.

That’s okay.

Don’t be harsh or strict with yourself.

Accept that things are happening around you, it’s inevitable.

Don’t try and force a calm mind, if your mind is busy; it’s busy, that’s okay.

You’re not trying to change your mind; you’re trying to become aware of what it’s doing.

When you’re ready, take one big deep breath in through your nose.

Fill your lungs up with as much air as possible.

Hold for two seconds.

Breath out through the mouth as slowly as you can.

If your eyes were closed, you can open them whenever you feel ready to.

Say to yourself ‘I’m going to be the best I can be today.’

Go and do it.

We’ve all become quite numb to the usual methods of trying to adapt our brains. We’ve all heard of tests and courses that can boost our IQ dramatically. Maybe you’ve signed up in the past to brain-training exercises to try and hone your mental power. However, the hype around these aspects of life has subsided.

On the other hand, meditation is continuously gaining traction as an effective way to unlock your brain and to live a better, healthy lifestyle. And now there’s another one to prove it.

In a recent study, carried out by a team based at the Max Planck Institute, they have found that three unique types of meditation and training are directly linked with certain aspects of the brain.

Within the study, the participates varied, aged between the ages of 20 and 55, all of which engaged in three different types of meditative training for three months at a time. Therefore, the entire study lasted nine-months, classing this as quite a substantial study.

The three different types of training they partook in was called Presence, Affect and Perspective.

Presence

This was the traditional kind of meditation where the individuals would sit and focus on their own breath. When their minds wandering off onto a trail of thought, as soon as they realised, they brought their consciousness back to their breath.

Affect

This is similar to a guided meditation in which the individuals learnt to think lovingly, kindly and compassionately towards themselves and other people in their lives. Empathy is a big part of this style of practice.

Perspective

The Perspective practice was where the individuals thought back to themselves. It was an attempt to monitor their own thoughts during a meditation session. They would label their thoughts, without thinking about them too much. This was to help them gain a greater perspective on themselves, their lives and the people around them.

As you can see, the study covered the main types of meditation that people around the world would practice. At the end of each area of training, the brains of the individuals were scanned. They were then compared to the people in the other groups. The results were extremely clear.

While training using the Presence method, this directly linked to a thickness occurring in the anterior prefrontal cortex as well as the anterior cingulate cortex. These areas of the brain are renowned for their connection with an individual’s attention span.

While training using the Affect methods of meditation, it was found that this has a direct impact on some regions of the brain that are directly linked with emotions, such as empathy.

Perspective training also brought to light some interesting results. It was found that it directly connected with areas of the brain that are associated with the concern of the mental state of one’s self and the mental state of others.

As you can see, these results are very exciting. It’s another step towards proving the countless benefits that meditation can bring to the mind and the body.

All in all, these results show very clearly that meditation can benefit people no end. It can help to reduce stress, anxiety and depression as well as nurturing a more positive outlook on life.

One of the most common reasons that people pass trying a meditation session is because they simply believe that they won’t be able to manage it. If you’re one of these people who think that meditation is all about clearing your mind so you can reach a higher state of consciousness, I’m here to tell you otherwise.

Mediation is all about getting your mind into the present moment. Think about everything that you’ve thought about today. Are you worried about an upcoming bill? Are you thinking that you’re going to be late for work? Maybe your planning what you’re going to have for dinner tonight? Maybe you’re dreaming about going on holiday?

For most of us, these are all very common thoughts, some of which we think about every day, sometimes every hour. However, whether you’re thinking about something that’s happened or something that’s going to happen, you’re constantly thinking about the past and the future.

What about this moment?

What about right now? How about this exact moment when you’re reading this sentence? How about right this very second? Are you aware of it? Well, it’s gone, and now you’re in this moment.

For some people, this can be a very scary train of thought, one that provokes feelings of time just passing us by. This is something we all do. In fact, it’s been hard-wired into our brains since birth.

But, don’t be scared of this concept.

Embrace it

Meditation is all about training our brains to become aware of this current moment so we can make the best decisions for the now, rather than worrying about a situation that might never exist.

Getting Started

To get you going, here’s a ten-minute meditation you can practice anytime, anywhere and whenever feels good for you, and you’ll be able to start feeling these benefits instantly.

• Find yourself a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. Alternatively, if you can’t find a space, for example, you’re on a train, go on YouTube or Spotify and type in ‘meditation music’ and put something calm and relaxing on through headphones.
• Make sure you’re comfortable. If you’re in a quiet space, you can lay on your back, sit in your chair or sit cross-leg on the floor, whatever feels best for you.
• Close your eyes slowly and take three really deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Fill all your lungs up with air as much as you can and sigh when you breathe out, pushing out every single last bit of air that you have.
• After these three deep breaths, return to normal breathing. Breathe in and out through your nose and focus your attention on where you can feel the air most clearly in or around your nose
• Notice how the air feels cold coming into your body and warm on the way out.
• Really try to keep your attention on your breathing.
• If any thoughts pop into your head, or you find yoruself lost in a train of thought, simply recognise that it happens, after all, it’s completely normal and then return to your breathing again.
• After ten minutes, slowly open your eyes and appreciate everything around you. What colours can you see? What sounds can you hear? Can you smell any smells? View everything around you and inside you as a miracle.

Final Thoughts

And that’s it! This is a complete meditation session, and that’s all there is to it! How do you feel? Do you feel relaxed? Perhaps you feel calm? Feeling reduced amounts of stress? Do you feel present? Let us know in the comment section below!