Don’t hesitate ... meditate
GET THE NOISE, CHAOS OUT OF YOUR LIFE AND JUST REFLECT
Iam always striving to take my athletes from good to great, and not just my athletes but the parents of my athletes too, to be honest. They too are an essential element in creating a thriving environment for family success and wellness. Having two young gremlins of my own, I now fully understand how crazy life can be having children. Don’t get me wrong; I would not change it for the world and I am enjoying creating sporting Spartans in the guise of play, but sometimes Dad just needs a time out. And that is just home life. I’m not even taking into account managing staff, running a business, managing our athlete success path, researching for this column, managing ASP sports science sites, growing the business, making time for friends and family, house hunting and social football to name a few. I hope you noticed I said nothing about my lovely wife. That’s because the last thing that I want to be adding to my list is making supper for myself. My life is probably just as fun and exciting, yet chaotic, as everyone else’s. If I look at the schedule of some of our athletes, it makes my life look like child’s play and I feel for the moms and dads who have to manage these schedules. There is just too much noise, chaos and pressure of life that people have to deal with and when you have too much on your plate, it will hamper your productivity, your goals and your success plan. I introduce to you meditation. Calm your elated response, class is now in session. Meditation is still relatively taboo in mainstream life and you are either considered a hippy or an earth child if you are open about meditating. If you had to describe someone who practices the art of meditation, your first impression might be that of a skinny, calm-looking guy with long hair who loves the mountain, “bru”. What if I told you that some of the world’s most influential, wealthy and respected people meditate? Would you look at it differently? If you understand the pressure these people have or had to perform at a high level every single day of their lives, then you must ask the question: “What do these captains of industry see in meditation that I perhaps don’t?” There is a lot of ongoing research that links having greater and longer focus to detail and clearer thoughts to a massive decrease in stress levels. Just these three factors alone can take a player like LeBron James from having a good game to a great game. Remember that not long ago I mentioned that training alone won’t get you the results you seek? This is one of those moments where you need to look outside the box and add this form of practice to your arsenal of weapons to gain that extra performance you need to get the opportunities you have been working for your whole life. The best part of all is that it can be done anywhere and definitely doesn’t take a whole lot of time out of your day. The first step is to get rid of the noise and tension in your body and you can do this by focusing on breathing correctly. You need to “belly breathe”. When you are stressed, you will shallow breathe, which means you will not get as much oxygen into your lungs and bloodstream as you should. As you breathe in for a count of six seconds, let your entire belly push out, hold for two seconds and then breathe out slowly for six seconds again. As you breathe out, feel the tension leaving your body.