Along the same lines as last blog when I discussed race mantras, this time around I wanted to talk about pre-race meditations. Meditation has been proven an effective tool for managing stress and anxiety, improving self-awareness, and honing focus and cognition. Just as you can use mediation as a tool to manage the stress of daily life, you can also use it to manage pre-race anxiety.
Meditating in the days and weeks prior to a goal race has helped me countless times in the past to get into a calmer and more confident state of mind. Usually, I’ll go to trusty ol’ YouTube and find a 10-20 minute meditation for athletes like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuMEk7HfmsQ
There are a variety of types of meditations out there — try a few kinds and figure out what works for you!
- Guided imagery & visualization: mentally rehearsing the race, imagining trouble-shooting through various scenarios so you have a plan in case those scenarios happen
- Breathing techniques: to help calm the nervous site, and activate the parasympathetic (rest & digest) nervous system
- Body scans: mentally scanning each part of your body to identify tension spots and release them
Gabriella Rao, RD 
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