How Does Sports Mindfulness Affect The One Who Practices It?

Pelé, one of the most famous footballers in history, was convinced of this; for him, “it’s all about training”. It is good to think that the same is happening with sports mindfulness. The more you practice it, the more useful it will be to you. Is not it ?

According to sports trainer and psychologist Jonathan García-Allen, well beyond the application of cognitive behavioral therapy which is so fashionable,  a good number of professionals have opted for mindfulness applied to sport. . For what reasons) ?

What is mindfulness and how does it apply to sport?

Mindfulness is a technique that involves focusing all of your attention on what you are doing here and now, without judgments and with the smallest amount of filters possible. Its purpose is to teach the mind methods to deal with thoughts, emotions, reactions and attitudes in the face of situations that arise. In this way, this practice seeks the improvement of full consciousness through positive attitudes, self-knowledge and great freedom.

It seems obvious that this method can be ideal if we apply it to sport. Ultimately, a practice, game or showdown requires full concentration to achieve peak performance.

Mindfulness transports us to what we call the “state of flow”. Have you ever had that feeling of being so focused in an activity that you seemed to be floating in it? This is precisely what the athlete is looking for in the most important moments of competition. And this state can be achieved through this technique.

How does sports mindfulness affect the person?

From what we’ve seen so far, mindfulness works for all kinds of profiles. It is logical to think that the athlete is not exempt from the virtues of this technique. In your opinion, what is the influence of mindfulness?

• Mindfulness is an effective technique for raising the athlete’s level of motivation. This will obviously be vital for obtaining optimum performance.
• This technique is also vital for the activation of the individual. The more concentrated and active he is, the higher his level of efficiency will be.
• This process  helps activate optimal stress levels. In this specific case, we should not view stress as something negative. It is obvious that when we participate in a competition, this stress is necessary (to a certain extent). This is where sports mindfulness comes in: it raises stress to optimal levels to increase the athlete’s abilities.

• It should be noted that this technique is  successful in increasing the levels of self-esteem and confidence in the individual. It is necessary for an athlete to have full confidence in his possibilities to be effective in his sport.
• In addition,  mindfulness is very effective when it comes to interpreting successes and failures. Any athlete can end his career, whether it is because of constant success or failure. But with a sane and balanced view, his ability to judge will reach a level of consistent common sense.
• It also acts as an effective tool to give cohesion to a team of athletes. Mindfulness can create an optimal collective environment that brings great benefits to the interpersonal relationships of individuals.

Sports mindfulness as responsible for emotions

As we can see,  properly applied sports mindfulness can be a very effective technique. He will succeed in making emerge all the confidence in an athlete so that he / she achieves an optimal performance. Thanks to it, the individual accepts his emotions and thoughts and manages them in a natural way, without needing to modify or eliminate them.

This technique seeks to provide self-awareness and a state of emotional regulation that allows for effective management, not elimination. This leads us to the “state of flow” we were talking about before, that moment where everything flows naturally, where everything seems to be in perfect harmony. This is a condition in which the activity you are doing does not seem to require effort on your part.

Thus, achieving a state of effective acceptance in the present moment is essential. Instead of trying to control everything and reason excessively, the individual lets himself be carried away and unites with the present. It is something that increases his concentration, distances his negative thoughts and gives him greater athletic performance.

We can therefore conclude this article by saying that  sports mindfulness can be a very useful and effective technique to increase the performance of an athlete. In a state of emotional balance through which everything flows naturally, giving the best of ourselves will be a challenge but also a state that we will take full advantage of.