By Chris BarrettJan. 30, 2015, 3:56 p.m.

Shane Watson says a mind-body practice made famous by the Beatles helped him deal with the death of Phillip Hughes and hopes it can inspire him at the World Cup.

You can imagine what the hard-living cricketers of the past might have thought if it was suggested to them they should try transcendental meditation.

Dougie Walters, Ian Botham and the like only shut their eyes when their heads hit the pillow, and plenty of times after a beer or 10 had been drained.

New-age mumbo jumbo, they might have rubbished it as, if they knew what it was at all.

Shane Watson, raised in working-class Ipswich, used to think the same way. More than a decade into his international career, though, he is endeavouring to make it his secret weapon.

Every morning now, whether it's in a quiet part of his home in Sydney or in a hotel room on tour, Watson will practise yoga for 15 to 20 minutes, then meditate, repeating a personal mantra while his eyes are shut.

The cynics, and there are plenty of them when it comes to Watson, will say he should be repeating to himself his desire to score another Test hundred, so scarce have they been throughout his career.

What this new regimen is about for him, though, is an escape from that.

Since working last year with Sydney meditation teacher Tim Brown, Watson has become a devotee of the ancient Ayurvedic medicine, which governs his diet and lifestyle, tying in with the daily yoga and meditation.

More:
Shane Watson turns to meditation to conquer cricket's mind games