Meditation and emotional challenges in sport

Last updated: 2023/05/18 at 7:06 PM

3 Min Read

shane watson cricket australia uses meditation — **OVERCOMING STRESS AND ADVERSITY:** Shane Watson has become a regular meditator and a fan of the ancient Ayurvedic medicine. “In my break in the off-season I just knew that I needed to find another way to be able to either de-stress or just handle situations a bit better,” he says.

Meditation has been central to Australian cricketer Shane Watson in traversing the most emotionally challenging season on record, The Sydney Morning Herald writes.

More than a decade into his international career, Shane Watson is endeavouring to make meditating his secret weapon. Every morning now, whether it’s in a quiet part of his home in Sydney or in a hotel room on tour, Watson will practise yoga for 15 to 20 minutes, then meditate.

shane watson cricket transcendental meditation meditating practice — **WHEN DEATH STRIKES**: “I just put myself in Phil’s shoes and Phil’s family’s shoes and thought ‘that could have easily been me out there batting’ and my little boy would never see me again and my family and my wife…” Shane Watson contemplates the tragic accident on at the Sydney Cricket Ground, November 25, 2014.

This routine didn’t erase the despair at what he saw on November 25, standing only a few metres away from the bat where his colleague Phillip Hughes was struck down by a short-pitched delivery – never to get up again. However, meditation helped Watson process the grief resulting from those awful events.

“With my meditation especially, that was the thing that helped me handle it better than I would normally, because it just meant that I could try and flush out all the things that were flying through my mind at the time and let my mind be still for a little bit,” S.W. says.

Read full article:
“Shane Watson turns to meditation to conquer cricket’s mind games” by Chris Barrett, The Sydney Morning Herald