6 Ways Meditation Improves Your Physical Performance

“Take a deep breath…”, that’s generally the advice given to athletes or anyone who’s been given a moment to prepare for a crucial action. Penalty kick takers, surgeons, snipers … all take a deep breath. And with good reason. Why? Composure. Focus. Clarity. Calmness… Execution.

Traditionally, breathwork and pranayama techniques are a method used to prepare the body for meditation - just like warming up before a 10k. Breathwork regulates your bodily systems (cardiovascular, nervous, parasympathetic, digestive…) and meditation takes that rejuvenation even deeper. It’s no wonder top athletes like Simone Byles and LeBron James openly praise their meditation practice for helping not only their mental health, but their competitive edge. Even if they continually gain 0.1%, they are constantly gaining.

Here, Daniel Conneely, UK-based meditation teacher and founder of Gen Zen Meditation, breaks down some of the scientifically approved performance benefits that a consistent meditation practice will give you.

Less Physical Stress

Meditation allows our body to rest REALLY deeply. This reduces the number of stress chemicals in our circulation such as cortisol and glucocorticoids. This means our hormone levels rebalance — which directly results in healthier bones, organs and functional systems — which enables us to physically perform at a higher level.

Less Mental Stress

Meditation has been scientifically proven to reduce mental stress, anxiety and depression. By balancing your nervous system, meditation combats stress related conditions by enabling your mind and body to enter a resting state up to five times deeper than during your deepest point of sleep (yes, really!). This floods your body with ‘bliss chemicals’ such as anandamide, dopamine and serotonin.

Better Sleep

We all know a key component of high performance is the ability to rest. Meditation is scientifically proven to help us sleep better. In fact, I didn’t sleep properly for 6 years until Vedic Meditation solved my sleep issue within 48 hours of learning the technique. I haven’t had a sleep issue since.

More Energy

Studies have shown that regular meditators have a strong prefrontal cortex and a high functioning amygdala. This helps us to handle micro-stresses and situations with ease — conserving vital energy. Think of meditation like putting your smartphone on permanent aeroplane mode, while still running your apps/texts/calls as usual. This means your battery (level of energy) never gets below 80%, no matter how stressful your day.

Improved Cardiovascular and Heart Health

A five-year study asked 201 patients with coronary heart disease to meditate (using the same technique we teach — where you sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed and silently repeat a mantra) for 20 minutes twice a day. What did they find? Meditation reduced the risk of death, heart attack, and stroke by 48 per cent. These changes were associated with lower blood pressure and lower stress levels.

Brain Function

Meditation has an incredible effect on our brain health — it can physically change our neurons, blood flow and brain muscle groups for the better. Studies have linked meditation to better focus and clarity, decision making, improved learning ability, and better short and long-term memory. Think of your brain like a muscle. Train it!

Conclusion

With all the above benefits of meditation, it’s easy to see how they can all come together to improve our physical performance and ability. Meditation can also give us the confidence to believe in our abilities. We can see our performances improve. We feel more able to overcome mental and physical challenges. We recover quicker. We can detach from the negative thoughts that can be a barrier to us achieving our goals.

So, have you thought about learning to meditate? Be the best you can be. What’s stopping you?

Daniel Conneely is a UK-based meditation teacher and breathwork instructor and founder of Gen Zen Meditation. If you're interested in learning to meditate, check out the Learn to Meditate course options and dates on www.genzenmeditation.com. For retreats, events, classes and workshops check out the events tab. For corporate wellbeing and workplace wellness options visit the corporate tab. Questions to hello@genzenmeditation.com

Study sources: Chopra Foundation research papers https://choprafoundation.org/ the David Lynch Foundation research papers https://davidlynchfoundation.org.uk/ and the EOC Institute https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/