Soccer & the Path to Meditation
Written by: Messi
I wanted to become a professional football player (USA: Soccer)During childhood I felt like I was in a dark tunnel with no way out, severely depressed.
Lionel Messi is my role model, my light and I wanted to be like him, a great person, always grounded, humble, full of joy, love, laughter and the best football player to ever have existed. I read somewhere that he was one of the rare players who meditates. That led me on the path of meditation. It was quite difficult at first and I couldn't do it well, but I kept on it and I started getting good, and I started to see results in my game. This fueled me.
In the matches where I closed my eyes and meditated for just a few minutes before a game I would play much better than if I didn't.I slowly became the best in my club and "awareness" was my superpower. My friends and coach nicknamed me "Messi".I became happier and found my ability to smile again. My interest was super piqued and I began to see insane possibilities and how raising my awareness can improve almost all areas of my life. It was like discovering a super exercise that makes your mind and spirit stronger! I loved and I was loved and I was at the top everywhere I went to play. I really liked the person I was becoming. I was offered a position on the reserve Indian National Football team. I was having the best time of my life and my goals were at my fingertips. But it could not happen as a series of awful injuries stopped me in my tracks and pushed my life off a cliff.
It broke my heart that I could not be a professional football player and it took me a long time to recover. But the lessons I learned on the pitch and off the pitch stayed with me. I took to heart my lessons on being relentless, fearless, sportsmanship, diligence, problem-solving and leading, awareness, generosity, compassion as my real trophy in life, much better than the golden Fifa one. And onward I went towards my other goals and landed in the US.
Over the years meditation has become integrated into my life so well that I don't think about it and I don't try to do it as a routine. I naturally return to a state of meditation and awareness most of the time, it has become my default state. Meditating with DBT Is a special time for me. It's less about focusing my mind and more about sensing the energies around me, reading intentions, feeling the love, sensing the anxiety of the room settling down, feeling the peace and the potential for the joy of the lovely people around. Meditation has made my experience in this world so much more colorful and everything seems magical, especially people and conversation. All my senses seem more awake to see, feel and sense so much more than what I used to, choosing to absorb more of the positive energy and less of the negative energy. Even arguments and fights seem good if there are good intentions behind those.
For these reasons, whenever I get the privilege of guiding someone in life, I always recommend meditation as the starting point of improving life for them and the people around them. As a side effect, we will have a better world.
