Can Meditation Improve Your Reflexes?

Can Meditation Improve Your Reflexes?

There are a lot of scientific benefits tied in with meditation. And one of the things that many don’t often think about is our reflexes. 

Who wouldn’t want to improve their reflexes and operate in the same capacity a superhuman does? 

Fortunately, those who stick with meditation long enough are fortunate enough to see these changes in themselves. 

There seems to be a strong link between meditating and decreased reaction time. Where mere ten-minute meditations could decrease your reaction time by 22%. Whereas with non-meditators, it landed at 7%. 

So when done right, meditation can be a game changer when it comes to everything we do. 

Now, that’s assuming you do it right because there’s a difference between sitting still and doing nothing where you’re constantly distracted by your mind and actually entering a full-fledged meditation. 

Even if it wasn’t for the improved reflexes you could get from consistent meditation, if you give yourself proper rest on a mental and physical level, you’re likely to come back stronger. 

Meditation is a hidden gem, kind of like a superpower we all have where a few minutes of your day could be enough to start seeing noticeable changes in things you were overlooking up until this point. 

What if you could be mindful of your reflexes and what if you could be more meticulous and calculating about what’s about to come? 

That’s what meditation teaches you on a subconscious level, and simply sitting still and focusing on your breath, which seems simple on the surface, is enough to accomplish a higher level of focus and improve your reflexes. The best part is that you don’t even have to think about it.

Less Sleep Is Needed and Better Performance

Many see meditation as time-consuming and it takes from the day. But it can be quite the opposite, since the practice can reduce the number of sleeping hours you need in the day, leaving you with a bit more time. 

You might’ve gone from needing 8 hours all the way down to 7, or 6. Of course, this is different from person to person but we could all do more with some extra time without sacrificing our well-being in the process. 

But not only does it decrease your need for sleep, but it also boosts your performance, and the reduction in reaction time will come in handy if you are driving or if you find yourself in a situation that needs you to act quickly to survive. 

Remaining Calm in Stressful Situations

We would all love to remain calm amid a situation that’s stressful. And many, including myself, look up to those that manage to maintain their peace when others are freaking out. 

But it’s not a far-fetched thing, it’s a quality accessible to everyone that’s willing to cultivate peace of mind because the peace you build from within isn’t something anyone can take away from you. 

It’s liberating to know since it gives you more control over your life and you give less into the reaction of the mind, being mindlessly led throughout your day-to-day. 

Meditation is just like taking the driver’s seat in your life, except meditation is safe and can be stopped at any moment. 

Not giving in to pressure is hard if you are reactive, but at the same time, what you react to is what you give power to, and the more you meditate, the more you’re able to keep that power within yourself. 

At that point, since you’ve already cultivated a calm approach to things, that could wind up reflecting on how you react to things. To some degree, stress is useful, but when it’s excessive, it only takes away from us. 

Now, while you can’t control what happens to you, you can learn to control how you react, which in many cases puts you ahead of a situation that would normally warrant chaos and will often make you competitive in an environment where the ability to remain calm for many is scarce. 

Becoming a calmer person, if that is an ideal characteristic of someone you want to become is a form of self-love, and if meditation is able to help you achieve that, you’d be practicing self-love. How you act in one situation will often replicate how you act in other situations.

Increasing Your Discomfort Threshold

The combination of mental strength and remaining calm will often be useful when it comes to improving your reflexes. Calmness helps you plan ahead and mental strength helps you to retain that calmness, almost regardless of what happens. 

This mental fortitude can often be increased the more you put yourself in uncomfortable situations and don’t shy away from them, but instead, use them as an opportunity to grow. 

And while you can’t say this is directly linked to your reflexes, one thing will often lead to another, since sometimes there’s fear inside us keeping us from reacting as fast as we should. Or there is some sort of overthinking. 

By having that mental strength in place, we’re able to remain indifferent to adversities showing up in the present and we’ll often spend less time overthinking. 

In fact, many turn to meditation as a way out of overthinking, since overthinking usually never leads to good decisions when situations are critical since we’re too fixated on not making the wrong move. 

Making You Fearless and Better Reflexes

I’m not gonna pretend fear isn’t useful at times, but many times, it can get in the way, especially when we’re in a critical situation and we need to make a decision now. 

It turns out, meditation can reduce that fear and clear your mind which will often lead to better decisions, as opposed to overthinking it, getting paralyzed in fear, and still making the wrong decision. 

At the very least, meditation helps you take a step back before you rush through things and gives you that extra layer of protection. 

Good Sleep and Diet

While it’s true that meditation can reduce your need for sleep, that’s not to say you should omit it altogether. 

The right amount of sleep isn’t what you read in some random article, it’s something your body tells you. Ideally, you want to wake up without needing an alarm clock and letting your body wake you up.

But the combination of a good diet and good sleep can contribute to improving your reflexes, and more so when it’s combined with meditation. 

Just doing meditation alone but skipping your sleep could worsen your reflexes, since you’re missing a key piece of the puzzle. Arguably, one of the most important ones.

When it comes to diet, green foods that are rich in vitamins are often recommended for improving our reflexes, notably Kale, Spinach, Broccoli, etc

Video Games

Video games are perhaps many’s favorite ways to improve their reflexes. It’s also a fun, stress-free way of doing so. 

Certain types of video games can also improve people’s memories, which is another thing meditation achieves as a byproduct of consistent practice. 

The drawback of video games is that they can be addictive and make many unproductive, which is the opposite of what meditation aims to achieve, but while you’re at it, it doesn’t hurt to add mindfulness to the gaming experience since, at that point, you could more or less meditate while you play video games, and it might result in sizable improvement in your reflexes.