What attracts many to become extreme sports athletes is something akin to the flowlike state provided by mindful meditation, one in which you’re so in the moment that everything else drops away.

Extreme Sports And Mindfulness

Many extreme athletes are careful and thoughtful planners, and avoid thrill-seekers when possible.Most research that links extreme-sports to thrill-seeking, hedonism, and a taste for risk, was done using young subjects, who tend to be impulsive and poor decision-makers regardless.
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Extreme Sports Athletes

“The activity itself enables experiences that are beyond the everyday. People talk about their senses being alive, about being able to see things much more clearly. It gives them a glimpse of what it means to be human as in the capacities they have that we don’t tap into in everyday life.” - Eric Brymer, psychologist, on the effects of extreme-sports

“My vision is sharper, and I’m more sensitive to sounds, my sense of balance and the beauty all around me. … Something sparkles in my mind, and then nothing else in life matters.” - Dean Potter, climber.

People assume that extreme sports athletes have no fear, but fear is an important part of the experience. Fear makes them more alert to potential threats and mistakes and, when the conditions aren’t right, it often leads them to give up an attempt.

Extreme Sports And Fear

Last weekend, famed extreme athlete Dean Potter, along with fellow climber Graham Hunt, died in a BASE jumping accident as the pair attempted a wingsuit jump off Taft Point, an overlook that towers over Yosemite Valley. And on Monday, a YouTube video surfaced of a 73-year-old BASE jumper named James E.

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