Welcome to meditation.
This is going to be a meditation geared towards and for athletic performance.
So please,
When I use the word sport or sports,
Please in your mind feel free to sub in your particular athletic performance or sports area.
For example,
Football,
Basketball,
Volleyball,
Golf,
Whatever it may be.
And so to begin our meditation,
Let's find a nice quiet spot to sit down.
Find yourself that comfortable position where you can ideally remain still,
Where you feel supported and grounded.
And when you're ready,
Close your eyes.
And we're going to begin just with some breathing exercises.
And then we'll move into the athletic portion of the meditation.
We're going to begin with an inhale of three and an exhale of three.
And then we're going to increase that length a little bit each time.
I always like to prepare you for what's coming.
So go ahead and inhale in through the nose.
One,
Two,
Three.
Out,
Three,
Two,
One.
Let your breathing resume to a normal pace in between.
And then we will inhale.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Out,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
One more breathing round as we inhale.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Out,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Enjoy the silence for a moment.
Be still with yourself.
I want you to begin by allowing whatever might come to mind when you think about your sport.
Maybe it's the uniform you wear.
Maybe it's the equipment you need.
Maybe it's the court or field that you play on.
Allow yourself to pull up those images for a moment,
Picturing yourself in your uniform at the place of your athletic performance.
Again,
A court,
A field,
A pool,
An arena,
Whatever it may be.
Just take a moment and picture yourself standing there before your game or your competition.
Allow yourself to see yourself standing there alone,
Taking some time for yourself.
And then we'll incorporate more.
But right now it's that quiet time just to get focused as if an artist does before they go on stage.
You're looking out to the field or the court.
You're looking out to the seating area.
You're picturing everything.
Everything.
For example,
If it's an indoor arena,
You're picturing the court,
The seating,
Maybe the jumbotron above,
The flags that are present in your area building.
And you're standing there in uniform and you're just taking a minute and soaking it all in.
Just kind of picturing the place.
And then I want you to run through in your mind.
So allow yourself some time to do this.
You can even pause me for a moment.
But I want you to imagine the plays or the performance that is awaiting.
For example,
If you're a dancer,
Maybe this is a nice time to use imagery in your head and to see yourself going through your performance.
If you play a,
Say for example,
Basketball,
Football,
Volleyball,
Anything like that,
Take a moment and picture yourself in your position,
The position you play,
And allow yourself to imagine some of the plays in your head.
But as you're doing this,
I want you to bring in some things.
Not just the play.
I want you to picture it going well.
Okay?
And I want you to picture yourself feeling calm and confident,
Excited and energetic,
But in a contained,
Productive,
Helpful way.
So again,
You're imagining yourself on your court,
Your field,
Your stage,
Whatever it may be,
Standing there by yourself,
Feeling calm and confident,
Running through plays and performances in your mind.
You're giving yourself this prep time.
Breathe in that success.
Breathe out any of the jitters or worries.
Breathe in the confidence.
Let go of the fears.
Now,
I want you to picture yourself at your actual game,
Competition,
Performance,
Whatever it may be,
Trying to make this as universal as possible to allow you space to pull in your particular sport.
So now I want you to picture yourself right before your performance,
Your game,
Right before you're getting ready to go on,
So to speak.
And I want you to take a moment and just pause.
It's almost as if you're just getting ready to walk out and you just have this freeze moment,
As if somebody has a remote and they are able to pause everything.
And you can take advantage of this moment to just look around and take it all in,
To really absorb it all.
The crowd,
Seeing your teammates,
Your coach,
Yourself,
Feeling confident,
Feeling prepared,
Feeling ready.
And then that pause button is unpaused.
Now we go into our performance or our game.
I want you to picture it in your mind.
Picture competing.
Picture performing.
Picture playing.
Take a moment and allow yourself to see it.
Allow yourself to see the plays that you're making,
The performance that you're providing,
The crowd cheering you and encouraging you.
You can hear players saying good job.
Everybody's excited.
Everybody is playing their role just as they are too.
It's going well.
Everybody's feeling good.
And if it's a single performance,
Then you are doing well and you are feeling good.
And the crowd is responding in just the way you hoped they would.
And take a moment to picture the end.
The end of your game,
Your performance,
Whatever it may be.
Imagine the success,
Winning,
Whatever that means for you.
You did it.
It feels so good.
All the hard work and effort paid off.
Allow yourself to see it,
To really see it.
Whether it be the end of that game and you look up at the scoreboard and your team won.
Maybe it's an individual event that you're judged on and you see the scores that you wanted or the crowd's reaction that you hoped for.
Again,
Whatever it means to you.
And again,
It's almost like there's a pause button and you're allowed to just stand there for a minute and soak it all in.
To really internalize that moment in a way that we can't do in real life.
And you're getting ready to leave.
You've won in the way that it means to you.
You're feeling great.
People around you are happy.
The hard work paid off.
Success was your reward.
Breathe in through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
You're feeling calm and confident,
Knowing that you can prep yourself in this way,
Anytime,
Anywhere.
That power is right within you.
One more nice breath in,
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
Begin moving fingers and toes,
Hands and feet,
Waking yourself up,
Taking any last stretches you need.
Thank you for listening.
I hope you come back sometime.
