The Most Powerful Supplement You Can Take
What gives the best athletes their game-winning edge? It’s not their physical traits or technical skills, but it’s having conquered their real opponent — their mind.
A warrior wins his war in the mind first whereas a defeated warrior goes to war first and then figures out how to win.
Kobe Bryant, the basketball star who needs no introduction, used a 15-minute daily meditation to be in his original words “ready for whatever may come my way”. Bryant said that meditation was introduced to the whole team by Coach Phil Jackson back in 2000 and it never left his life. “It’s like having an anchor. If I don’t do it, it feels like I’m constantly chasing the day, as opposed to being in control of the day”.
The Olympic speed skater Katherine Adamek struggled with anxiety and fear in her own mind, which led to a tragic hip injury. The injury forced her into retirement. She reached out to an Olympic psychologist and started incorporating meditation into her daily practice. In a few weeks, Adamek noticed remarkable changes in her life. She said “Negative emotions passed more easily. I noticed changes in my relationships with my family, friends, and teammates. I could enter a strength training session feeling confident, even if my last workout wasn’t great.” Guess what happened next? Adamek came out of retirement and set a new American record at the World Cup Circuit!
Another legendary athlete, tennis player Novak Djokovic, has won the Australian Open eight times. When asked about how he kept winning, Novak said: “I like to spend time by myself, I like to meditate, I like to have conscious breathing techniques that put me in the zone, analyze my opponents and my own game”.
Meditation/Silent time is an indispensable part of most professional athletes’ lives. So, we should be taking their example and incorporating it into our lives to make our lives better too!
What Makes Silence So Powerful?
It is not that silent time magically makes athletes run faster or perform longer, it simply brings the best in them; it helps them turn off the outside noise that could disrupt their performance and focus. Time in silence helps them to develop inner peace, focus, and control so they don’t get caught up in their external environment.
For example, if someone toots the horn at you in traffic, do you get angry and yell back at them? Does your mind wander from one thought to another? Do you get affected by how somehow looks at you or what says about you (good or bad)? Do you overthink or overanalyze everything your boss or your partner says every day? That is getting caught up and reacting to the external world…
When you react to these types of outside scenarios you give away your internal power and peace. Silent time helps you control and manage your inner peace. It helps you be in control, in the driver’s seat; not the passenger seat where you just react, stress, get angry and upset and let the external world around you control you.
There is a significant amount of research and studies that have proven the benefits of silence to improve health. If professional athletes are doing it and there are research and science-based evidence, why would you not adopt it yourself to improve your life?
What Can Silence Do for You?
Reduce stress and anxiety
Most people who have stressful jobs have higher levels of stress hormones (cortisol) which can lead to serious burnout. Meditation has been shown to reduce stress and eliminate negative emotions like fear.
In another study published on the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the researchers found that mindfulness meditation can decrease the activation of amygdala — the part of the brain that triggers the “fight or flight” response.2
Improve focus and flow
In Taiwan, researchers introduced meditation to a group of elite baseball players and found it significantly improved their “flow state”.3 In a flow state, athletes are fully focused and achieve their peak performance, which many athletes describe as “in the zone”. In the long term, the athletes who practiced meditation also experienced improved mental health.
Similarly, a study of 27 elite cyclists found that those who practiced meditation showed much better flow and focus attention than those who did not, leading to superior performance.
Accelerate injury recovery
Injuries are commonplace for professional athletes, which can bring tremendous physical and emotional distress. Fortunately, meditation has been shown to be an effective pain management therapy, which helps athletes recover both physically and mentally.
A study was published on the Frontiers in Psychology and reported that athletes who meditated had significantly higher pain tolerance compared to those who did not meditate. The researchers recommended that athletes incorporate mindfulness meditation to be a part of sport rehabilitation.
Boost immune health
A recent research study found that meditation could decrease the risk of developing an acute respiratory infection.6 In another study, researchers also found that meditation boosts the levels of immunoglobulins, which are molecules that fight pathogens in our body. In simpler terms that means it was shown to help maintain a healthy immune system.
How Do You Practice Silence?
You don’t need a yoga studio or a beach to be in silence. Remember this is a practice, it is not something you master in a day or two. You have to do it repeatedly to get better. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Simply find a quiet place where you can sit or lie down and be comfortable. I recommend doing this practice sitting down so you don’t fall asleep (because you get so relaxed).
2. Turn off all devices and make sure there are no distractions from people or devices during your silent time.
3. Set a time limit and put a timer to practice silence. Start with 5 minutes. As you practice this new habit daily, you can increase the duration incrementally.
4. Settle down and close your eyes. Concentrate only on your breath going in and out of your nose. You can also find guided meditation clips or music to help.
5. As you focus on your breath and keep doing it, your mind WILL wander many times to all sorts of thoughts….what you need to do the rest of the day…things you need to tell someone…wonder what you are going to eat next…something that someone told you….you name it! Just understand this is normal!
6. As your mind wanders off, don’t judge or be harsh on yourself. Simply acknowledge that your mind went wandering, bring it back, and re-focus. Think of a windshield wiper wiping your distracting thoughts away and bring your awareness back to your breath going in and out of your nose again.
7. Over the next few minutes, you should start noticing your muscles relaxing and your heart rate slowing down. Your brain will be producing relaxation hormones that counteract stress hormones.
8. Congratulations, you have now taken the most powerful supplement in the world to boost your health, wellness, and happiness!
Pro Tip To Continue Your Silence Habit
If you are like most people, you will try it once and then practice it off and on as you remember. The true benefits and mastery come from repeated practice.
Attach this silence habit to another habit you do every day so there is no extra thinking involved. It will help you build your habit discipline. For example, try doing it every day before brushing your teeth in the morning or tag doing it right before getting into bed.
I’d love to hear your feedback and success stories practicing silence. Please email me at Navin@Navinhet.com and follow me @Navin.het on Instagram.
References:
- John, S., Verma, S. K., & Khanna, G. L. (2011). The effect of mindfulness meditation on HPA-Axis in pre-competition stress in sports performance of elite shooters. National Journal of Integrated Research in Medicine, 2(3), 15–21.
- Desbordes, G., Negi, L. T., Pace, T. W. W., Wallace, B. A., Raison, C. L., & Schwartz, E. L. (2012). Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6(2012), 292–292. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00292
- Chen Jh, Tsai Ph, Lin Yc, Chen Ck, & Chen Cy. (2018). Mindfulness training enhances flow state and mental health among baseball players in Taiwan. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 12, 15–21. Retrieved from https://doaj.org/article/d7cc4670608242b0a0ffbd64a503dc99
- Scott‐Hamilton, J., Schutte, N. S., & Brown, R. F. (2016). Effects of a Mindfulness Intervention on Sports‐Anxiety, Pessimism, and Flow in Competitive Cyclists. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being, 8(1), 85–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12063
- Mohammed, W.A., Pappous, A. and Sharma, D. (2018) ‘Effect of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in Increasing Pain Tolerance and Improving the Mental
