Sport as Meditation

Each day in the forest we spend three hours in some form of meditative state. When we wake we spend two hours doing Asana, which are postures and sequences and typically described as ‘yoga’ in North America. The full extent of the yogic philosophy is that there are 8 ‘limbs’ to yoga, and Asana is only one of the facets. The Asana are meant to be a rhythmic form of meditation, where the mind is focused on the movements and the physical exertion of the body. Asana is also designed to form the body into a state that can withstand meditative postures. Asana strengthen the core and back and create flexibility in the joints in order to sustain long periods of time sitting in the same position while the mind is freed. The classic seated posture for meditation (Lotus) is to be seated with your legs crossed and your feet intertwined on your lap. The back must remain straight: the whole purpose of the posture is to maintain alignment of the spine from the tailbone to the crown of the head in order for energy to flow up and down the spine through the chakras.

Meditation is another limb of Yoga and I’d define it as an intentional effort to clear the mind of external and internal influence, creating calm and peace within thoughts, feelings and emotions. Meditation is an active effort to begin with, but with practice and the passage of time becomes more routine. I still struggle with both the physical aspects of meditation (sitting for long periods of time, and the I can’t even pull myself into Lotus let alone stay seated for extended period of time) and the mental, which is to accept that the mind wanders but not allow stories to develop inside your mind. The effort is to ‘see’ your thoughts enter your consciousness and not attach a story or emotion to them such that you are aware of your thoughts but are in control of where they do or do not go. Through these efforts, you can calm the constant chattering and distraction of your own thoughts and truly ‘listen’ to how you are feeling, both physically and emotionally. The success of my meditative efforts varies greatly each day – some days I am distracted and uncomfortable while others I am barely aware of my own body and I am witnessing incredible things within my closed eyelids, emerging from the session feeling energized and lightened. I have found, though, that there are a few thoughts/sensations that I can rely on to help me become more centred, and they all revolve around sports.

When I am trying to quiet my cerebral dialogue, I have found that thinking of sporting moments allows me to focus on small slices of time in which I have felt pure joy and calm. The moments that I recall are not concrete events – although I have had some success in sports I do not think of specific goals or hits. Instead, the moments that I recall are abstract events that I have experienced countless times, without attaching a specific time frame to any of them. For example, I focus on the physical and mental feeling of hitting a baseball squarely and purely. I visualize this repeatedly in an effort to see and feel the event from any angle possible. Or I ‘remember’ making a clean pass in hockey, moving the puck to a team mate in an effort to neutralize an oncoming attack and create a scoring chance for my ‘team’. My ability to draw on these memories, which are ingrained in both my muscles and grey matter, always bring a sense of peace and have allowed me to make positive strides in my meditation in a relatively short period of time. If you go back to my crude definition of meditation you’ll notice that I made no mention of sitting or quiet or incense or candles. You do not need to circle a time frame within a day or week and set it aside to meditate, although it is recommended, you just need to make a conscious effort to fulfill your daily activities in a mindful, meditative state. For example, vacuuming the floor can be a meditative activity, as can walking the dog or doing the dishes. This makes sense to me, too, as I reflect on the people I know that find comfort and peace in their cleaning duties. These tasks allow them to focus their mind on a task which does not require cognitive thought, creating a haven of peace, tranquility, and accomplishment. Those that know me know that I do not find the same peace in cleaning activities, but I do now recognize that sports have always been my oasis of mental tranquility.

When playing sports I am wholly invested, both physically and mentally, in the game that I am playing. I am not worried about the time of day, my job, my bills, or anything outside of the playing surface. I am the most present, out of all activities in my life, when I am playing a sport. I think this has been the reason that, until recently, I could never define why I love sports so much – I have never been able to understand what they provide for me. When playing a sport I will rarely smile and I don’t often take the time, mid-game, to reflect on how much fun I’m having or how alive I feel. This is because I am too busy living, experiencing, and competing, and I do not need to take a step back to appreciate anything. For me to step back and appreciate the high I get from sport is to acknowledge that there are other aspects of my life that provide the counterbalancing lows. The highest compliment I can pay to my sports is to stay focused, intent, and in the moment for the duration of my playing time because then I do not poison my mindful joy with negative, defeatist thoughts. This takes me back to my own definition of meditation. Through this journey both Robyn and I have accepted that, at our core, we are both athletes and we are entitled to wear that emblem with pride. This does not mean we fancy ourselves elite athletes, but rather we understand that athletic activity helps bring ourselves in focus. So we must ensure that we allow the proper time within our schedules to take part in these activities and grant them the significance they deserve.


What are your meditative activities, and are you doing them often enough?