‘Cause it’s One, Two, Three Strikes You’re Zen…at the Old Ball Game
At any given time, someone among us is disappointed by the result of a sporting event. The sports seasons overlap with each other so that a sports enthusiast has something to follow year-round. When your basketball team is eliminated in the playoffs, you can immediately turn your attention to your favorite baseball team’s season. When your baseball team is eliminated, it’s just in time for your basketball team to start their season again. Of course, this also holds true if your team were to become champions. Regardless of the outcome, we can all be assured that there will be another sporting event just around the corner.
The constant, varied nature of sports fandom offers some of us a great opportunity. Above all else, rooting for a sports team is an emotional experience. Unless you work in sports or are a vendor at the event, very few of us ever materially benefit from the fortunes of our sports team. My team becoming champions leaves me thrilled but not a penny richer. The only real skill we build when following a sports team is the skill of following a sports team. Being a die-hard fan isn’t a skill set that can be used to do anything else. So, we watch for the emotions, both good and bad. After all, it’s in enduring many seasons of failure that makes a season of success more enjoyable. Without the sour, the sweet isn’t as sweet.
When you combine an endless source of drama with an emotional commitment to that drama you get a potentially great way to monitor, analyze and train your mind and emotions. In short, sports let us practice dealing with the ups and downs of life in a safe, relatively-abstract way. Throughout a sports season, a fan is given hundreds of positive moments to cheer- wins, great plays, the promise of a young prospect, a trick play, a big trade. And, the yang of light always comes with the yin of dark in the form of losses, injuries, errors, dropped passes, missed plays, or finishing in last place.
Here are three areas in which following sports can be a great apparatus to benefit your mindfulness and meditation practices.
Training in Non-attachment
One of the prime mindfulness processes is that of “non-attachment,” the idea that we will not “attach” our emotional well-being to the results of outside events. In practicing this philosophy, one works on nurturing peace and happiness within themselves with a commitment to not allow outside events to affect their peace and happiness.
Non-attachment means freedom. The less your happiness is linked to what other people do, the more independent you are in this world. Many people try to gain this freedom by acquiring enough money to not depend on others. But, you can feel that feeling for free by practicing non-attachment. And, rooting for a sports team is a great way to not allow the team’s wins and losses to affect your mood and emotions. The next time your team lets you down, take a deep breath and literally decide to not let the result affect your peace. As you improve your ability to generate peace within, it will become easier and easier to detach from things that used to rattle your zen, like when your team hits into a double play with runners in scoring position. You know what I mean.
Training in Acceptance
Sports also allow us to train in acceptance. Every sports season offers countless negative results that we can work on “accepting” in our minds. Sports make this easy because, unlike a social issue, in sports, there are set times for games and seasons to end. When you follow sports you are forced to practice acceptance. When your team loses, you cannot serenade them under their window to make it better. Sports force us to accept and give us a chance to practice being ok with what we accepted.
Training in Compassion for the Athletes
Sports can train us in compassion. One of the groups of people we can feel compassion for is the players in the game. When one of your team’s players botches a play, try to remember that the mistaken player is trying their best. Try to remember that everyone makes mistakes. Remember that the payer did not make the error on purpose. And, above all, try to remember that professional athletes make their sport look easy and that none of us would do any better if we were put on the field ourselves.
Training in Compassion for the Other Team’s Fans
People are all very similar. You want happiness, security, love, recognition, adventure, and the best for your family. You also want your team to win. Do you know who else wants all of those things? The opposing team’s fans. That’s right. The opposing team’s fans are not the enemy. They are people just like you. People who root for opposing teams might work in the same office, live on the same block, ride on the same trains, and watch the same movies. In fact, many times the only significant difference between two people might be the sports teams they support.
Sports offer us a chance to practice compassion for the opposing team’s fans. Practice relating to them. Practice feeling your connection to them. Practice putting yourself in their shoes. When your team is defeated in the championship game, try to think about how happy the opposing team’s fans are and how they might have been dreaming of that moment for years. Try to remember that many of the opposing team’s supporters are children, the most innocent among us. This change in perspective can change an angry mood into a positive, loving mood.
Since being mindful can happen at every second of our lives, every moment offers us a chance to practice managing and nurturing our minds and emotions. Because of the inherent drama involved, following sports can offer us many uniquely beneficial moments to apply our mindfulness practice. With a little guidance and a new perspective, the next time your team blows it, instead of shouting “Boo!,” maybe you will chant “Om.”
Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher. He has received thousands of hours of training and hands-on experience in guiding individuals with social and emotional challenges.
Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
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