Meet Your Endurance Mind. Every Second Counts
From Meet Your Endurance Mind: Mindfulness Meditation for the Endurance Athlete by Bruckner Chase and Michelle Evans-Chase, Ph.D. at the Endurance Sports Expo Seminar Series in Philadelphia, U.S.A. on February 21st.
“Mindfulness is a practice as well as a state…Mindfulness meditation is a practice in which we are an observer of our thoughts and actions with nonjudgemental, present time awareness,” explains Dr. Michelle Evans-Chase.
“A mindfulness state of being is a state that with practice we can enter into at any time. Sitting in mindfulness meditation and being mindfulness has been associated with positive changes such as increases in: overall well being, self-regulation, emotional control and sleep quality as well as decreases in anxiety, depression, anger, aggression, worry, pain, stress, substance abuse, binge eating and PTSD.”
Bruckner adds, “When you let yourself chase those thoughts and emotional responses of fear, anger or anxiety your negative experiences of the associated pain and discomfort escalates as well. Imagine that if everything escalates at the same time you are beginning to face fatigue late in a race there will be a negative impact on your performance. In 2015 sitting in mindfulness meditation sessions lasting just thirty minutes several times per week are having an incredible positive impact on training sessions in which doubt and discomfort would normally slow me down by a second or two per hundred meters.“
If you are first in line to purchase new technology and training equipment because you believe that seconds count, then discover that just sitting a few times per week and spending no money will bring an awareness of how every second counts.”
Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association
