Mindfulness: Can You Actually Change Your Brain?

What goes on in the brain of Rafael Nadal anyway? Ever lose a match because you got a little tight on a critical break point? Or lose your focus and make uncharacteristic mistakes when you're trying to close out a match? Or maybe you are that rare player who doesn't think too much about the score, but still gets frustrated and negative when you're off your game. All these problems are related to your ability to manage your anxiety and negative emotions. One line of thinking goes that the solution is to try move to a place where you play from positive feelings of confidence and fun, the ideal performance state. No doubt this is a great goal all players should strive for that produces awesome tennis. But how often do you actually get into and maintain that state for the duration of an entire match? Most of us have glimpses of these feelings, but struggle through the majority of our competitive experience dealing with feelings of fear and uncertainty, at least at some level. Now research on the brain suggests a completely different solution, through an ancient technique called "mindfulness." Rather than completely eliminating negative feelings, mindfulness training can...