The beneficial effects of meditation
- Leon Heidkamp
- Psychology
“Know thyself”
In many sports, there are moments when planning fades and all attention must lock onto the present. Tactics and game plans aside, these decisive moments in a match demand perfect movement. Picture a tennis player about to start a crucial serve – there is no room to think about the next set if this point is not won. Or a football striker lining up a shot after having dribbled past his opponent – not planning for a multiple-goal lead, but wholly focused on timing the strike just right.
In these fleeting, high-stakes moments, an athlete’s mind must be fully immersed in the moment and actions flow intuitively rather than analytically. One training method that has gained popularity for training this is meditation [1].
Many approaches to meditation.
Although meditation was once primarily associated with spiritual or religious practices, there are more modern approaches making waves in neuroscience labs and mental health clinics alike. From the outside it might look like meditating people aim at relaxation or ‘shutting off the mind’. However, meditation resembles a workout for the brain and as it turns out a really tough one. For instance, Mohamed Salah says about his mental training: “It’s tricky, it’s really tricky, trust me. I’ve been doing it for a few years and I’m telling you, just you sit with yourself alone for 15 minutes before you sleep or when you wake up. It’s much more harder than you do the gym every day for 1.5 hours” [2]. Maybe this kind of training is so difficult, because the ‘muscles’ that are being exercised here are specific brain areas associated with emotional regulation, optimal behavioral control, as well as self-reflective processing [3].
Many people who start a meditation session, quickly realize how often their minds wander — lost in daydreams, past memories, or worries about future scenarios that may never occur. While these mental patterns are not inherently bad, they can interfere with performance in sports such as in moments that demand full attention or readiness to cues [4,5]. Meditation is proposed not only as a tool to recognize these mental patterns but also to reshape them and train the mind to gain more control. But what exactly is meditation? Let us look at some examples of common meditation techniques [6].
Focused Attention
As the name suggests, directing one’s attention is a central aspect in this technique. In particular, the goal is a deliberate and sustained focus on a single ‘meditation object’, such as distinct body sensations, most commonly the breath passing through the nose. Whenever thoughts or other distractions occur, the meditator tries to focus back on the meditation object as quickly as possible.
A meta analysis – a highly robust scientific method – has shown that Focused Attention meditation improves various qualities of attention, as well as resilience to distractions [7].
Mindfulness Meditation
The difference to the previous technique is that this method does not rely on steady attention but instead on open awareness and observation. In this way arising thoughts, sensations and other perceptions are observed consciously and in detail but with no judgment.
Research suggests the practice enhances attentional flexibility, adaptability, and readiness, particularly in response to unexpected stimuli, as well as the capacity to monitor and manage mind-wandering [8,9,10,11].
Body Scan
Although similar Focused Attention meditation, in this technique the attentional focus ‘scans’ in a deliberate controlled way over the body and observes the respective sensations.
Unlike Focused Attention and Mindfulness Meditation, this technique on its own was not found to produce any effects on cognitive qualities [12].
Consistency is key.
Just as with physical exercise, the benefits of meditation do not emerge from a single session. Consistent practice over many days is essential, with a focus on regular repetition rather than extending the duration of individual sessions.
Notably, significant benefits can appear after just four days of meditation. For instance, a study with 20-minute sessions reported reductions in fatigue and anxiety, as well as improvements in attention, visuospatial processing, executive functioning, and other cognitive skills [13]. Other research suggests that daily practice over eight weeks is required to achieve similar gains in attention, memory, and emotional regulation while also reducing fatigue and anxiety [14]. Encouragingly, these improvements were observed even with brief sessions of only 13 minutes per day.
In summary, while some benefits may be noticeable within a few days, lasting improvements typically require weeks of consistent practice. The good news is that each session can be as short as 10 to 13 minutes [15].
Meditation helps to reduce stress responses and even changes your body.
One of meditation’s standout benefits is its ability to downregulate the stress response [11, 14]. For example, practices of so-called “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction”, which is a standardized 8 week course for the clinical context, led to reductions in perceived stress and vital exhaustion, while elevating measurements on quality of life and mindfulness [16].
Many scientific studies support that stress levels can be effectively reduced by meditation practices [17]. In the body of a person practicing meditation, the parasympathetic nervous system – the part responsible for inducing the relaxing “rest & digest” state – becomes more active and the levels of the stress hormone cortisol decrease [18,19]. Beyond reducing stress, meditation might even improve immune system dynamics and reduce inflammation [20].
Is Meditation Really Worth It for Me?
Ultimately, everybody has to test for their own, whether it makes sense to implement a regular meditation session into their regimen. Find a technique that appeals the most to you and try it out. In addition to all the advantagous of meditation mentioned before, another one is that there is no special equipment needed and trying it out has never been easier. Apps like “Headspace” or “Calm” are great places to get started. Beyond that “Waking Up” also offers a background on Buddhist philosophy.
Also, the time of the day for a meditation session does not really matter. Kobe Bryant might inspire you to do as early as possible: “I do it in the morning, I do it for about 10 to 15 minutes and I think it’s important because it sets me up for the rest of the day. It’s like having an anchor” [1].
Our advice:
Be reminded that a meditation session can be as brief as one minute. it’s about repetition:
Simply sit or stand. while keeping your spine straight up, relax all other muscles. With your eyes closed, welcome all the sounds from the world around you and become aware of your body. Finally, focus your attention on the flow of air through your nose. Try to keep your attention bound to these sensations. Whenever you notice your mind has wandered, gently return to your breath.
If this feels challenging, it means you are effectively training your brain.
#trainyourbrain
If this article sparked your interest and you would like to know more about this or other topics, please do not hesitate to contact us via info@neuro11.de. We look forward to hearing from you.
References
[1] Youtube Video Meditation Training of the LA Lakers Link
[2] Youtube Video with Mohamed Salah Link
[3] Consciousness and Cognition article Link
[4] Memory & Cognition article Link
[5] Scientific Reports article Link
[6] Youtube Video Different Techniques of Meditation Link
[7] Mindfulness article Link
[8] Frontiers in Human Neuroscience article Link
[9] Cognitive Therapy and Research article Link
[10] Mental Health, Religion & Culture article Link
[11] Nurse Education Today article Link
[12] Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being article Link
[13] Consciousness and Cognition article Link
[14] Behavioural Brain Research article Link
[15] Nature Scientific report Link
[16] Annals of Behavioral Medicine article Link
[17] Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine article Link
[18] Physiology & Behavior article Link
[19] Health Psychology Review article Link
[20] Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences article Link
