There are times when Sydney FC's Harrison Devenish-Meares feels as if he has a wild chimpanzee living in his brain.
"It's like there's a little monkey up there, running around and bashing everything up," said the Sky Blues goalkeeper, whose side face Wellington at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
"I have a really active mind… Other guys are probably just more relaxed."
Which is why the 29-year-old did something slightly different in the off-season.
In a bid to find the same level of calmness as his Sydney teammates, the late-blooming No.1 chose to spend a week in a Buddhist monastery in Indonesia meditating for 16 hours a day.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever done… when you're meditating for that long you stop sleeping," he told AAP.
"I was probably sleeping two to three hours each night and then your first meditation would be at 4.30am when the gong would go.
"It was a life-changing experience and there are some people who leave there with such profound changes that they end up donating parts of their salary for the rest of their lives."
It's now become part of his game-day and pre-training regime with the goalkeeper often spending the hours in the lead-up to kick-off walking barefoot and meditating.
And while it's yet to catch on with the rest of his Sydney teammates, Devenish-Meares believes the routine is putting him in a better headspace.
"My hyperactivity got me to try new things and work harder and keep working on my craft," said Devenish-Meares.
"I needed a bit more of a clearer, more grounded and more consistent mindset because you can't just keep chasing
"That brings in feelings of insufficiency, and at this level, you just can't do that; thinking that you're not good enough, you need to be the f*****g man.
"You're only going to feel like the f*****g man if you keep evolving and changing."
Devenish-Meares spent the majority of his career in the lower tiers of the USA and Romania prior to arriving at Sydney in 2024.
He didn't make his A-League debut until last season at the age of 28.
He was sent off in his first-ever game and a handful of other blunders led to concerns among Sydney's fans that coach Ufuk Talay had backed the wrong horse in dumping club great Andrew Redmayne for Devenish-Meares.
Those worries seem to have dissipated this season, with Devenish-Meares recording six clean sheets through Sydney's first 11 A-League games.
"I have so much trust for the guys in front of me," Devenish-Meares added.
"The way the coaches have set us up and how organised we are has made my job a lot easier."
