Athletes Who Meditate

Athletes Who Meditate

 
It's commonly said that sports are 90 percent mental and only 10 percent physical. 

A lack of focus can result in a missed three-point shot, nerves can cause a gymnast to fall out of her landing, and a momentary lapse in confidence can easily make the difference between gold and bronze. 

So it's no surprise that some of the best professional athletes in the sports world are turning to meditation -- which has been shown to reduse stress and improve focus -- to boost their game and ease the anxiety of high-pressure performances. Athletic greats Joe Namath, Barry Zito and Arthur Ashe have spoken out about the benefits of meditation as a tool for athletic success. And even entire teams have been turning to visualization and mindfulness practices.

Joe Namath

"As a football player, I found that Transcendental Meditation helped me relax, and with a clear mind, I played better."

 (Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle) San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito (second from left), director David Lynch, and actor Russell Brand meditate during the San Francisco Unified School District Quiet Time anniversary at Burton High School in San Francisco on Monday, May 6, 2013. Student Chris Lacayo, right, joins them.

Zito and Brand are among celebrities that use and support the technique.

Brand told the students he “f-ing hated school” when he was their age.

Meditating “helped me access something inside of me that I tried to find in many other ways, through money, fame, sex, drugs,” Brand told the students.

Zito was equally enthusiastic about the technique, save the profanity.


He learned to use transcendental meditation in recent years as a way to turn off the negative comments directed at him on television, on the streets or in bars.

“I stopped putting so much stock in what other people thought of me,” he said. “My inner voice started to get a little louder than every one else.”

Mind - Thoughts and emotions by Nityananda Atman

Mind - Thoughts and emotions
by Nityananda Atman

Mental and emotional functions are both expressions of the one mind at different levels. That's why thoughts and emotions are interrelated and there is mutual influence between each other. Positive emotions cause positive thinking and the opposite.

Emotions are the responses of our emotional mind to sensory inputs and external influences.Due to memory and imagination the emotions can appear in our mind without the external condition. 

The emotions can be positive or negative. That which determines the nature of our emotions are the previous experiences we had in the past and our costitution* determined by the nature.

*The three doshas and the three gunas are the fundamentall material factors that create everything  in this universe. Every baby that is born has these factors mixed in a very unique proportion that creates the mental and body constitutiion which is unique like our fingerprints.  

Emotions are linked or associated with certain patterns of mechanical or compulsive thinking and this association is strenghtened by repetition. In certain conditions the emotions are activated; immedietly cause the mechanical thnking and are sustained by it. Emotions and mechanical thinking create a vicius circle.

We can overcome and finally eliminate negative emotions using different technics. The most important thing is to utilize purposly the higher capacities of our conscious mind (intellect-indelligence).

There are different kind of techniques that can help us develop our mental capacities and eliminate the negative thinking and emotions from our psych. Self-awareness, non-identification, self-observation, visualization, affirmation, meditation, control of senses, concentration, sattvic life style, self-enquiry are some important among them.

A common technic to change certain negative emotions is to replace the negative thinking pattern which is associated with this emotion with a positive one. Using this positive thinking pattern we give not support to the negative emotions be expressed. By doing affirmation with positive thoughts or thinking patterns we can develop positive emotions; For example if we feel anger we affirm to our mind thoughts that enable us develop  peace and tranquility. Of course practicing a compination of various technics we can have better results.

In reality everything that consists a human being it is interrelated with all other parts (mind, intellect, senses, vital, body, emotions) and an imbalance or disarmony to one part cause imbalances to all others. Only the center of our being which is pure awareness or consciousness is not affected by any other part. Awareness is unchangeable, unmovable, indestructible and unattached by anything that happens in its instruments from the mind down to the body. Awareness is the base (substratum) on which take place all the expressions of human existence. 

As humans we are a compotition of various sheaths, energies and functions.

In brief we are:

• Consciousness,
• mind, 
• vital energy 
• and body

If we want to develop our mind and consciousness and reach our highest potential we must know and understand our nature more profoundly:

1. Consciousness - Soul - Existence

2. Mind:

       Higher mind or intelligence: intuition, creativity, Discernment between real and unreal, cognition or perception of reality

•        Intellect:  Cognition, Reasoning, Discernment, undersatnding
•       Thinking mind
•        Emotional mind
•        Sensory  - perceptive mind
•        Motor mind
•        Instinctive mind
•        Subconscious mind: memory of emotional, mental, kinetic or motor experiences and the instictive funcions.)

 The three gunas (Sattva-Rajas-Tamas) are related mainly with the mind and the psychic prana but also with the vital energy and body.

3. Vital energy or prana:

·         Psychic prana: it gives the energy for all psychological funtions

·         Physical prana: it gives the energy for all physical actions and functions.

The three Doshas (Vata- Pitta- Kapha) are related mainly with the physical prana and body but their condition affects the psychic prana and all aspects of mental funcions (intellect-thinking mind- perceptive mind-motor mind- emotional mind- memory).

  

4. Sexual energy

5. Senses: 5 senses of cognition and 5 senses of action

6. Physical body

There is an interrelation between all parties of our existence.The disfuncion or the imbalance of every part of our existence affects all the rest, except consciousness which remains unaffected. If we want to maintain balance, tranqulity, calrity to the mind we have to maintain balance to all other parts. Only with an integral balance and harmony we can achieve high level of performance and real success in our life.

The ancient greek philosophers had put it very simply:
'Νους υγιής εν σώματι υγιεί' , 'Healthy mind in a healthy body'.

We must train appropriately every aspect of our existence in order to sustain health, emotional and mental balance, harmonia. The above are the basis of a high level performance in tennis, for success in every aspect of our life and finally to achieve Self-realization which is the highest goal of every human being.