England player Joe Cokanasiga on practising mindfulness
“What I did was discover my ‘why?’ and work with Katy Mobed. The one thing I struggled with is finding my ‘why?’ and I think the mind stuff has helped me a lot, especially this whole summer. It’s made me more determined and hungrier for it.
“Going through, it's a long process. We went through my whole life, from when I was born to how I grew up. My ‘why?’ has always been there but I needed to tap into it.
“My ‘why?’ is always my family but then you kind of forget that you play for yourself as well. I always play for that young Joe who wanted to be in the World Cup. I always think back to the 2015 World Cup where I was a mascot for Fiji and Fiji was the World Cup first game, and I was stood there, and I thought ‘I want to do this’. I always think back and go for the young Joe.”
MINDFULNESS“I do a lot of breathing. One thing I got into was journaling. I try and journal before I sleep and after a big week of training. It’s a nice debrief. And just writing down before games helped me a lot, I think.
“I've got this book, I think it's for men, it’s called ‘The Mind Journal’. It asks you how do you feel today? What were your feelings? And I think that's something I’m quite big into now and definitely recommend to other people.
“It’s helped a lot. Because I think, especially for men, they can keep a lot of things in. I think just writing things down helps you, it just takes a weight off your shoulder. It's good for before games as well, because you just get more clarity from it.
“I try to journal every night. I'm trying to get into reading as well but it's quite hard when you've got Love Island on. I’ve been quite good. I haven’t bought my PlayStation in; I've just left that at home. I think for me, just getting the consistency of writing things down. But once or twice a week as I try and start reading. I'm reading Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey. I find that quite interesting. I'll take it on holiday and try to stay away from my phone.”
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT“In the summer the main thing was getting my body in the right shape. I lost some kilos which for me was hard to do in the off season.
“Less sweets, no snacking at night, avoid drinking and that was it. Towards the end of the season, I was like, 118kg. Now I'm under 113kg and like, I feel good, I can run, feels a lot better for my joints and my knees.
“For me, I think something hit me just mentally different. I don't know. My girlfriend always speaks about it: she always says I’m a lot more driven now.”
