From Mind to Muscle

In sports, our mind performs at its peak, whether learning new motor skills, improving existing abilities, or reaching full potential in competition. Here, the mental limits imposed on our bodies become apparent. Meditation is systematic mental training aimed at expanding mental abilities, breaking old thought patterns, and integrating new, more effective behaviors. It strengthens key psychological skills such as attention, emotional self-regulation, body awareness, and self-awareness – all crucial for athletes. Meditation techniques are therefore ideal for mastering the challenges of everyday training and competition situations.

Although research on meditation is still in its early stages, numerous studies show changes in brain activity both at rest and during specific tasks. These studies document improvements in mental functions, physical health, and cognitive performance. Today, we can rely on a solid scientific foundation that demonstrates both morphological and functional changes as well as behavioral and performance improvements through meditation. The fascinating aspect is that our nervous system, as the seat of consciousness, can reprogram itself.

Our attention can be divided into three components: attentional readiness, directed attention, and conflict monitoring. Attentional readiness refers to the preparation for an upcoming stimulus. Directed attention means selecting specific information from multiple sensory stimuli. Conflict monitoring, also known as executive attention, is resolving conflicts between mental activities in different neural areas. Specific neural networks have been identified for all three functions.

During meditation, attention is directed to a single object, such as the breath, bodily sensations, thoughts, or emotions. When the mind wanders, attention is consciously redirected to the chosen object. Distractions such as external events, memories, or bodily sensations are ignored to maintain focus on the meditative object. These present conflicts within the task at hand. This practice strengthens all three attention networks mentioned above.

A systematic review of several studies found that early phases of meditation lead to improvements in conflict monitoring and attentional orientation. With increasing practice, attentional readiness also improves, indicating better unconscious anticipation of stimuli. Meditators report that regular practice enables them to focus their attention longer, and distractions are less disturbing both during meditation and in everyday life.

The brain structure most commonly associated with attention is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Neuroscientific research shows that the ACC enables executive attention by detecting conflicts from incompatible information processing streams. Specific neurons in these areas quickly relay control signals to initiate targeted responses in cognitively demanding tasks.

Sport is an activity where we use and work with our bodies. A central aspect is body perception, which primarily includes proprioception and interoception. Proprioception refers to the perception of movements, posture, and balance. Interoception means the ability to perceive bodily sensations, from subtle sensations like breathing and heartbeat to more intense experiences like emotions, discomfort, or pain.

In meditation practice, attention is often directed to inner experiences: sensory perceptions of the breath, emotional sensations, or other bodily perceptions. Practitioners frequently report that this mindfulness leads to better awareness of physical states and a clearer perception of subtle interoceptive sensations. Neuroscientific studies on mindfulness in discomfort and pain support these reports.

A central brain structure in this context is the insular cortex. It is frequently activated during interoceptive perception tasks, and its volume of gray matter and cortical thickness correlate with the accuracy of interoceptive perception and visceral awareness. This improved sensory processing is considered enhanced bottom-up processing of the stimulus, i.e., a heightened awareness of the actual sensation of the stimulus.

Emotion regulation includes a variety of strategies to change our emotional behavior patterns. These strategies influence which emotions arise, when they occur, how long they last, and how they are experienced and expressed. Methods of cognitive regulation include selective disregard of emotional stimuli, distraction by other tasks, reappraisal (reinterpretation of a stimulus), and extinction (reversing stimulus-response patterns).

In meditation, one consciously faces all present perceptions, including external stimuli, bodily sensations, and emotional experiences. One allows oneself to be influenced by these experiences without reacting internally and instead brings acceptance to the bodily and emotional responses. Unlike typical emotion regulation, where attention is diverted from distressing emotions, the practice focuses on the emotional stimulus. This leads to exposure and trains new patterns for processing emotions.

Studies show that mindfulness reduces emotional interference, decreases emotional reactivity, allows for a quicker return to emotional balance, and improves adaptability in dealing with emotions. The hypothesis is that this type of emotion regulation works by strengthening prefrontal control mechanisms, thereby reducing activity in regions like the amygdala, which is responsible for recognizing and processing emotional stimuli.

For meditation beginners, the process is characterized by conscious regulation as they must overcome habitual reactions to emotions. This requires stronger prefrontal activation. With increasing practice, however, a new pattern emerges: experienced meditators no longer rely solely on prefrontal control. Instead, they have automated more flexible mechanisms and show enhanced bottom-up processing without relying on voluntary control efforts.

The self is experienced as the concept that inhabits the body, thinks thoughts, feels emotions, and performs actions. The perception of a self is understood as the result of ongoing mental processes that quickly recur in the stream of mental events.

Through meditation, inner perception can be significantly improved. Mental processes are observed more clearly and precisely. By closely observing the contents of consciousness, it becomes clear that experiences are constantly changing, arising, and fading, and thus transient. One takes on an observing role towards conscious experiences and the processes involved, leading to a distancing from immediate identification with the content of consciousness – even in the earliest stages of meditation.

Meditation influences brain structures responsible for self-related processing, such as the insular cortex and the so-called default mode network (DMN). Increased activity in certain regions shows a more intense perception of the present experience and a more objective analysis of inner (insular cortex) and outer (somatosensory cortex) sensory impressions. The main nodes of the DMN are less active in meditators. Through meditation training, self-awareness is improved, making one less lost in thought and more focused on the present moment.

The described components are strongly interconnected and mutually reinforcing. This process can be understood as an upward spiral that overall improves the overarching ability of self-regulation. Attention regulation (Step 1) is crucial and forms the basis of all meditation techniques. It is necessary for the other mechanisms to take effect. Focused attention on internal events increases awareness of bodily sensations (Step 2). Since emotions are closely linked to bodily perceptions, this awareness forms the foundation for more effective emotion regulation (Step 3). Simply put, increased awareness of bodily reactions to emotional stimuli is necessary to regulate these emotions. All this leads to greater awareness of one’s experience, which is a central part of momentary self-experience (Step 4).

One final note: A strong expression of all the mentioned components is not always advantageous. On the contrary, attention, body awareness, emotion regulation, and self-awareness can be both helpful and hindering. Especially in sports, these factors can stand in the way depending on the situation and the athlete. Additionally, they never work in isolation but always in interplay. Therefore, one speaks of individual zones of optimal functioning that must be individually adjusted for each athlete. This should always be kept in mind in one’s own efforts.