In an earlier lesson, we looked at data on meditation and state of mind in athletes.

Double bar graph in blue and red. Horizontal labeled meditated and did not meditate. Vertical labeled 0 to 50, by 10's. Blue represents calm. Red represents agitated.

Stacked bar graph in blue and red.  Horizontal labeled meditated and did not meditate. Vertical labeled 0 to 100, by 25's. Blue represents calm. Red represents agitated.

Is there an association between meditation and state of mind?

The bar graph shows that more athletes were calm than agitated among the group that meditated, and more athletes were agitated than calm among the group that did not.

We can see the proportions of calm meditators and calm non-meditators from the segmented bar graph, which shows that about 66% of athletes who meditated were calm, whereas only about 27% of those who did not meditate were calm.

This does not necessarily mean that meditation causes calmness. It could be the other way around, where calm athletes are more inclined to meditate. However, it does suggest that there is an association between meditating and calmness.