How Sports Have Helped Me to Live in the Moment

Back when I was in counselling the second time. My counsellor told me I had a habit

of overthinking. I did and still do. All the time. Not just overthinking certain problems

specifically although there is that. But more like I have 12 thought processes running

in my head at once.

I have trouble living in the moment is what she told me, always considering other

things. Taking in my environment is good but when it’s all at once, I can get

overwhelmed and unable to focus. It was true what she was saying but she phrased

it as a problem. I saw it as my superpower. I could see everything and pay attention

to all of It at once.

I was told to try something called ‘mindfulness’ The way she explained it to me was

focusing on nothing but that exact moment and one specific thing. I was told to close

my eyes, stop bouncing my leg and hold onto the chair I was sitting on, the only thing

I had to do was feel the material, focus on my breathing and think of whatever I

wanted.

I think the idea was that by only having one sense working, by touching the chair. I

couldn’t take in anything else and was forced to put all focus on my thoughts and all

of a sudden, I only had one thought process in my head. The chair. It’s material, the

feel of it. How soft it was (they were seriously comfy chairs) and when I opened my

eyes again, I felt so calm and focused without all the other processes in my head

firing off. That is until they came back the second, I lost focus.

It made sense to me that by taking in everything all at once each thing only had a

small percentage of my attention and focus. It went something like this:

- The posters on the wall, what did they say = 15%

- Hey, my leg bouncing is making the water in that glass shake like in Jurassic

Park = 10%

- That man walking past the window outside looks funny = 17%

- I want a sandwich when I get home = 8%

- It’s been a while since I saw Jurassic Park, I should watch that again = 14%

- That’s a nice bracelet the counsellor has on, I should buy Mum one for her

birthday = 16%

- Only the remaining 20% of my focus would be on the counsellor's words at

any given time.

So, when I focused on the chair’s material and shut off my other senses. That chair

has at least 90% of my focus.

After I left counselling, I tried to engage in mindfulness now and then. But it was

difficult for me to sit still and focus too often.

Little did I know I’d been engaging in mindfulness for years during college and was

doing so intentionally. I just didn’t recognise it. I only realised what I’d been doing

when I came to university and began training in a martial art, Muay Thai. This is one

of those sports that demands all of your attention 100% of the time when you’re

participating in it, if you don’t focus you get kicked in the face it’s as simple as that.

It was during my first time sparring that I realised I was engaging in mindfulness. As I

circled my partner all my attention was on them, yes, I saw the people around us

also sparring, and I saw the coach analysing us all and judging my poor footwork.

But only one thing had my actual focus. My sparring partner. This was mindfulness to

me in a way I had never seen it. Like I said earlier, I saw the fact that I could focus on

everything as a superpower. But at that moment, I realised that my superpower was

analysing this 6-foot-tall guy in front of me. I could see where his eyes were focusing

on my body, I could see his footwork setting himself up for a combo to my head.

Nothing else was on my mind at that moment. It wasn’t 20% this or 15% that. It was

100% him.

So as he put his body into action and threw his hit, I was ready. He floored me, I got

a black eye that day. I said I trained Muay Thai, I never said I was good at it. Just

because I’d seen everything didn’t mean I knew what to do with it at that stage in my

training. But it made me aware that in a combat sport, I was fully mindful. This was a

way more fun way of practising mindfulness than sitting down and feeling a chair.

I wanted to experience it more but training in a combat sport 7 days a week is very

silly unless you want to become a world-class athlete. So I stepped back and then it

hit me that every sport was like that, maybe not to the extent of getting knocked out if

you aren’t focused. But in a sport, unless you focus, you lose.

So I began doing other sports and physical activities that if I didn’t focus I would lose.

I became aware that when I lifted weights in the gym if I wasn’t engaged in

mindfulness I could drop a dumbbell on my foot, or my face.

I learned to skateboard where If I didn’t focus on balance I would fall flat on my face,

an occurrence that happened very often.

I began to run to help with my cardio for Muay Thai but even losing focus doing that

led me to tripping up a curb or slipping on mud.

Doing all these sports and activities I learnt that you have to be mindful, and they

must have your focus, if you want to be good at them and not get hurt. Sports helped

me to live in the moment and calm my mind more than anything I’ve ever done

before.

I couldn’t encourage people enough to engage in a sport, not even for the health

benefits but purely to experience that focus you have when you’re in that moment

and truly mindful.