Meditation

Meditation For Athletes, Because Sporting Success Starts in Your Head

By Jade Doherty

Meditation for athletes is the perfect way to master your mind, improve your performance, and achieve your best. Find out how to get started.

If you think of someone who practices meditation, I'm guessing the image of an athlete isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

But, as the popularity of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness continue to grow, more and more athletes are learning meditation to improve their performance. Just as you need physical training for physical strength, you also need to train and look after your mind, which is where meditation comes in.

Being an athlete is a lot of pressure. Whether you're a high school athlete trying to get a scholarship, a college athlete with academic and athletic commitments, or a fully professional athlete competing at the highest level, the pressure can be intense!

For any athlete, it's so important to keep stress at bay and to be both calm and focused. Anyone who has played a sport will know that you have to find that sweet spot between being over-aroused and losing concentration, and being under-aroused and not being able to get into the game.

The idea of meditating might not seem relevant to playing a sport. Isn't meditation all about relaxing? Wouldn't it be better to get myself pumped up before a game, not meditating like an ancient yogi?

Meditating is relaxing in the sense that it calms your mind and body, but it can also be incredibly energizing and focusing, especially when combined with breathing techniques.

I played soccer throughout my teenage years, and always noticed that I actually really liked it when we had to do a minute of silence before the match kicked off. It was a bit boring for “teenage me”, but I noticed that it really helped me to focus and I normally played better if I'd spent a few moments being quiet and still before kick-off.

There are so many pressures on an athlete. From the external pressures of getting picked for the team, to the game pressures of taking a penalty, serving to stay in the match, or waiting for your race to start.

Meditation can help with all of these pressures- the stress on and off the pitch, court, or track.

What are the benefits of meditation?

Before we get into specific techniques, let's have a look at some of the benefits of meditation, and specifically how they apply to athletes, from the professional athlete to the young athlete who's just getting started.

There are a ton of benefits to meditation, as vouched by practitioners and the majority of them also backed by science:

Improves mental health
Improves resilience and mental toughness
Calms your mind
Keeps your mind in the present moment
Increases focus
Enhanced mindfulness
Regulates your nervous system
Reduces stress
Reduces depression
Improves sleep
Increases positive feelings
Improves your personality and increases social connectedness
Improves pain tolerance

All of these benefits are great for anyone, athlete or not, but for the athlete having a way to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, improve sleep (and therefore energy), and increase positive feelings can only improve their performance. Meditation is also great for handling pain and injuries that so many athletes inevitably face during their careers.

Who's doing it?

More people than you might think are practicing meditation!

LeBron James is a famous athlete meditator, even meditating during the timeout during the 2012 Playoffs to help him stay calm and keep his focus.

The Seattle Seahawks also incorporated regular meditation into their preparation in addition to their physical training. This type of mental training and focus on mental strength has brought great results for them. After their 2014 Superbowl win, coach Pete Carroll said he'd hired a sports psychologist to teach them meditation and mindfulness.

The Indian National Cricket Team is doing it! The Indian Cricket Team are long-term practitioners of SKY Breath Meditation and Sahaj Samadhi, two meditation techniques created by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. And you can learn it too!

Balon d'Or winning soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has also spoken about his regular meditation practice, saying he meditates almost every day.

Tennis great Serena Williams meditates. So does swimming legend Michael Phelps who meditates and practices breathing techniques. In fact, in researching for this article, almost every great athlete I searched for, meditated!

Meditation is great for your mind, it's great for reducing anxiety, it's great for staying focused. In short, meditation is great.

How can an athlete become a meditator?

I'm sure by now you're noticing a trend. Elite athlete, plus meditation, equals great results.

So, how can you get started?

There are many styles and methods of meditation. The internet is full of meditation techniques. From mindfulness meditation to loving kindness meditation to mantra meditation to breathing meditation to visualization, there are so many styles and techniques it can be a bit overwhelming!

In The West, exactly what constitutes a meditation practice has gotten a little confusing, with many teachers putting out a variety of methods, some tested some less so. It can be very difficult to know where to start and if you’re practicing something which is tried and tested and comes with long-term benefits, or something which isn’t.

Check out this article if you’d like to understand what meditation is and what meditation is not and clear up those misconceptions, and how meditation is different from mindfulness.

Start with guided meditation:

If you are an absolute beginner, guided meditations are a great way to dip your toes into the world of meditation. The great thing about guided meditations is that you have an instructor telling you what to do, and this is a very accessible way to begin your meditation journey.

Here are our best-picked 22 guided meditations.

As you’ll know from playing any sport, practice makes perfect, so we’d recommend choosing a meditation from the article above, and practicing it regularly to not only feel better right after but to also compound the benefits of meditation.

You might like to set yourself a “challenge” to meditate every day for 21 days, or if you’re more of a team player, why not get your teammates involved too?!

If you would like to continue your journey, The Art of Living Journey App has a playlist of some beautiful meditations from as short as 5 minutes to 30 minutes long. Download the app from App Store or Google Play for free, start meditating and enjoy your journey to calm and peace!

Go further with meditation training

If you’re serious about developing a meditation practice, it’s a good idea to learn from a well-qualified instructor.

At The Art of Living we have taught hundreds of thousands of people how to meditate, and in doing so helped them to not only calm their minds but to also enjoy a ton of health benefits, as well as improving the quality of their lives.

The Art of Living Foundation is a pioneer organization in the field of yoga, meditation, and spirituality for 40+ years and has a presence in more than 156 countries. The Foundation offers training for a breath-based meditation (SKY Breath Meditation) and a mantra-based meditation (Sahaj Samadhi). Millions of people across the globe have taken these programs including many athletes.

Olympic Champion Lissette Stevens is one such athlete-turned-meditation teacher who credits SKY Breath Meditation with not only helping her to be happier but also to be a better athlete. She says “My reward this time is not a gold medal, which is only something of the outer world, but more mindfulness, inner peace, happiness, bliss, and belongingness. I call this gold for the inner world, which is more available for everyone than a golden Olympic medal”

SKY Breath Meditation and how to get started

SKY Breath Meditation was created by world-renowned spiritual teacher Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and it is great for athletes.

SKY offers many research-backed benefits, from reducing stress and negative thoughts to improving health, sleep, and well-being.

You can check out Harvard’s research on SKY here.

SKY is also a great way for non-meditators to start meditating. A lot of people hear that meditation is awesome, and try it out themselves, but without knowing what to do they can easily get frustrated. Like trying to learn a sport without a coach.

It's much easier when you have a well-qualified instructor who can teach you the best techniques. So even if you've tried meditation in the past and found it really hard or perhaps very boring, SKY will give you the tools to not only enjoy meditation but to bring about a whole host of benefits. From mental health to physical health, to improving focus, SKY can give you the edge in your performance.

Beyond Breath

If you're ready to give meditation for athletes a go and join all those high-performers who are using mindfulness and meditation to improve their game, join us for Beyond Breath.

Beyond Breath is a free introduction to breathwork and meditation. You'll learn Bellows Breath which will be a great addition to your pre-game preparation and will also be able to find out more about meditation for athletes.

An expert instructor will guide you through, and be available to answer any questions you may have.

Click below to join us and take your performance to a new level.