BLOG 6

Training Week 16^th-23^rd April 2014-05-12

Hi Natalie, how are you doing this week? I’m glad that you are still motivated for the programme, it’s nearly finished now. In this week of skills training I will be teaching you how to use meditation as a form of motivation and stress reducer. Lots of people use meditation in many ways to help them relieve stress. The goal of meditation is to focus your mind and relax eventually reaching a level of awareness and calmness. You can meditate at anytime and also anywhere you like. I will now tell you the main points on how to successfully perform meditation:

.       Choose a peaceful environment and choose how long you wish to meditate for, you should be wearing comfortable clothes.

 .       Before you sit, stretch out your muscles to ensure you don’t create stiffness.

.       Sit in a comfortable position, most commonly sitting crossed legged is used.

.       Follow your breathing and become aware of the rise and fall of your abdomen and also try to focus.

.       If you wish you can repeat a mantra whilst focusing on your breathing, which is when you repeat a sound or word over and over again.

.       Practice visualization creating a peaceful place in your mind and then exploring it, until you reach a state of calm.

Try to meditate around the same time everyday which makes it easier for it to become part of your daily life and you will feel the benefits quicker. I would like you to attempt to learn the skill meditation over the next week; I would prefer you to complete the meditation before you go to training as this will calm you before you work intensely. I feel as though meditation will reduce your high anxiety levels and this will hopefully increase your overall performance. Before competing this week I would like you to make sure you have a session of meditation to see if it affects your performance in any way. There are groups which carry out meditation classes which you could maybe become interested in and join if you feel this skill is a useful one.Let me know how you get on with this week’s skill.

I have just finished speaking to athlete X and she told me how well this week’s programme worked out. She said that she thoroughly enjoyed the meditation skill and how she will love to continue developing it and using it as part of her daily routine. She enjoyed the visualisation of a place which she could explore which calmed her a lot prior to her matches. She said that her whole body felt relaxed during the whole process and she continued to repeat a mantra. She explained how she has even thought of joining meditation classes as her local gym, she said she felt less nervous going onto court this week after a session of meditation, meaning that this skill has paid off and worked.