5 Tips to Bring Mindfulness into Everyday
*This piece is written for athletes and exercisers but can be applied to all folks who over-rely on headphones to get their work done and go through their routines.
If you’re following elite athletes or elite performers closely, it is more than likely you have heard the concept of mindfulness. Mindfulness has become a significant component to many athletes’ pre-game routines, recovery routines, and even daily living.
Mindfulness offers athletes, coaches, exercisers and parents a number of benefits. It helps increase self-awareness, promote confidence, self-esteem, concentration, emotional control and improved relationships with others. All of which are important in excelling at sport and in life.
Mindfulness is essentially, tuning into to your present experience without judgment. Meaning you recognize how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally. The following are some tips to bring mindfulness into your everyday.
Present focus
What is going on at the present moment. Tuning into the current task is a technique of mindfulness. What are you doing, how is your body feeling, what are you thinking, and how to do you feel? This present awareness of not only what is going on externally but also internally is a foundational point of mindful practice.
My personal strategy is to redistribute my weight evenly over my feet and center my body. I cue into my feet on the ground. I move the center of my body over the top of my feet. Lastly, I improve my posture and tune into my breath. This simple action allows for me to tune into the present moment. I am not thinking about the past or the future but the present.
Relationships
Identify relationships that are meaningful to you. Throughout life there are relationships with others that are significant, such as family, partners, or childhood best friends. There are close relationships like friends from school and teammates. There are others that are not as close such as co-workers and friends of friends.
Meaningful relationships are the ones where connecting with the person is easy. There is no second-guessing yourself, you are not worried about what they are thinking; you are able to speak what is on your mind and hear them when they talk. This effortless connection is a cue into the present moment; it is the ability to feel the flow of conversation and move with it. Meaningful connections are not just reserved for significant relationships. These types of connections can occur with anyone in your life.
Optimism
Optimism is often thought of as just a persistent positive attitude. This is not the case. Optimism is the belief that things can and will get better. Optimism does not discredit or ignore the negative things present in life. In order to be optimistic you actually have to acknowledge the present downsides, negative parts of life and competition. However, in optimism and mindfulness you do not stay there. You acknowledge and recognize the present emotions but then actively make the decision to move past it. Optimism is the decision to believe in positive events and actions to come.
Accept Change
Accepting change is a theme mentioned in the previous section. Every change is an opportunity to recognize the your physical and emotional experience; negative or positive. Change is a natural part of life; as you get older the competition level changes, your goals change as you achieve them, and your career changes as you become more skilled.
So frequently I hear the phrase “I don’t like change.” While this may be true for a few people, often I do not believe it. More often than not people do not like negative change. People enjoy positive change. For example ,a high school senior would enjoy the change of no set plans after high school to receiving a scholarship to attend their dream school. Other examples are a sophomore athlete who has second string and finally gets the call to start the next game or an assistant coach who is looking for a change to be a head coach. It is often forgot that reaching goals is to achieve something new and different. That is change.
Change can be difficult and it often takes time to adjust. This is okay. However being mindful means that you acknowledge the present experience, allow yourself to feel the emotions, and them move passed it. This is the simple action of telling yourself that change is part of life. Change is largely uncontrollable. Instead of wasting your time, energy, and attention on an aspect out of your control, your best course of action is to understand that it happened, it can’t be changed, and you need to make a plan to move forward.
Mantra/Self-Talk
A great way to increase present focus and remove judgment is a cue word. Your regular thoughts build patterns of thinking, and these patterns become your beliefs. Intentionally adding positive cue words and present self-talk increases your ability to practice mindfulness.
An example of a present focused phrase that incorporates mindfulness is “now” or “do what I can.” Using a personal word or phrase helps redirect your attention and energy towards your current task. For example, while writing this I’m distracted by the notifications on my phone. If I stop to check them my quality of work will go down and it will take me exceptionally longer to complete my task. However, if I use my personal phrase “finish strong,” then I am able to complete this post without allowing any unnecessary breaks.
How do you use mindfulness?
Mindfulness is wonderful in that it can look different to different people. The core elements are the same but mindfulness can be used in any situation. It differs from the traditional sense of meditation because you do not have to sit in a quiet room and attempt to rid your mind of all thoughts. Mindfulness is the ability to recognize the present without judgment. Not letting yourself get angry or frustrated, rather just noticing your experience and allowing it to pass through.
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