Can meditation help you learn to juggle?

A lot of people I know would love to learn how to juggle, but find it very difficult and eventually give up. I wish they wouldn’t give up so early. It’s such an enjoyable activity that is a great arm and mind exercise. It can also help improve hand/eye coordination.

So I am always looking for ways to make learning to juggle a lot easier. Something that may help novices throw their first 3 ball cascade flash(3 throws, 3 catches) is to meditate beforehand.

According to the Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, in the study, Meditation acutely improves psychomotor vigilance, and may decrease sleep need:

RESULTS:

Novice meditators were tested on the PVT before each activity, 10 minutes after each activity and one hour later. All ten novice meditators improved their PVT reaction times immediately following periods of meditation, and all but one got worse immediately following naps. Sleep deprivation produced a slower baseline reaction time (RT) on the PVT that still improved significantly following a period of meditation. In experiments with long-term experienced meditators, sleep duration was measured using both sleep journals and actigraphy. Sleep duration in these subjects was lower than control non-meditators and general population norms, with no apparent decrements in PVT scores.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results suggest that meditation provides at least a short-term performance improvement even in novice meditators. In long term meditators, multiple hours spent in meditation are associated with a significant decrease in total sleep time when compared with age and sex matched controls who did not meditate. Whether meditation can actually replace a portion of sleep or pay-off sleep debt is under further investigation.

It looks like meditation may help improve motor skills. So if you are struggling with juggling, try meditating first. You may not have to meditate for 40 minutes to get the benefits; perhaps as little as 10 to 15 minutes may help. Above all, relax and focus, get rid of all distractions. Meditation may also come in handy when you are making the transition to joggling.

Due to the focus juggling requires(at least in the early stages), it is for good reason it has long been called an “active meditation”.