When it comes to performance, sports people have known for a long time that training their state of mind is as important as training their body.
Nevertheless, its wonderful to hear such an inspiring sports person as Djokovic attesting to the value of Mindfulness not just for performance but for optimising his potential as a human being.
As he says, isn’t that what we are here for? to be happy, live fully and enjoy our precious life.
“I believe in the power of the mind, very much so,” said the Serb on the eve of his campaign for a third title at the Monte-Carlo Country Club. “If we all trained our minds as much as we are training our muscles and physical body, I think we would achieve and maximise our potential. We don’t know how much we can really achieve until we have this kind of mindset of wanting always to evolve and improve.
“I believe in the power of the mind and visualisation, which is a big part of my everyday life. I know I cannot influence physically the next day or what’s going to happen in the next weeks or months. But I can send good vibes to the future and then do everything in my power to get myself prepared. Then, when the time comes, I’ll try to seize the opportunity.
“It’s mindfulness, this kind of holistic approach in life that allows me to maximise my potential as a human being, from every aspect of my being, not just physical, but mental, emotional, spiritual,” continued Djokovic. “I try to be disciplined with all these different kind of exercises that I execute on a daily basis that make me feel good and present and calm and happy. At the end of the day that’s the purpose of life, to have inner calmness and be happy and do what you love to do and enjoy every moment of this life.
“I don’t like the word obsession because it doesn’t come from the right emotion. Roland Garros is a wish and it is a goal. Honestly I haven’t had any difficulty in my thinking in order to really tell myself that. I feel like in the past couple of years I managed to train my mind to stay as much as possible in the present moment and focus on what’s coming up next. Of course, like all players, I do think in advance and try to plan in advance. But when you need to operate as a human machine, you need to do that only in the present moment and in the present time. When that time comes for me, I will start thinking about it more than I do now.”
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