The idea of using breathing as a form of meditation is not unique to athletes. In a nutshell, the idea of mindfulness training is to focus on one thing - in this case, breathing - to bring your mind to the present moment, eliminating outside thoughts.
Ullmark explained the techniques he uses. There's the 5-5-5 technique, which requires breathing in for five seconds, holding the breath for five seconds, then breathing out for five more.
Then there's the "hot and cold" technique, which is more visual.
"You breathe in your nose and you feel like the cold air comes in, and it's blue," Ullmark explained. "Then when you breathe it out, it's red. So, you think about that. You get it in through your nose, it goes into your lungs, it builds up, it switches colors, and it's red."
It may sound easy, but Ullmark says the visualization of breathing requires a level of focus that allows external stresses to dissipate in the process.
"The whole thing about breathing, whenever you do it and you think about it, stuff kind of disappears because you're just focusing on one thing," he said. "You're not focusing on everything that's going on. You're just focusing on breathing. It's the simplest things you don't need to focus on to be able to live."