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A little over a week ago now I went through "mindfulness" training. At first I thought it was going to be a complete waste of my time. I walked into the training dreading that my time was going to be spent possibly meditating or saying fancy little sayings about how much I love myself and so forth. An hour later I couldn't stop my thoughts from racing on how WONDERFUL the training had been, and how useful it would be for athletes to use when competing!
Mindfulness is defined by greatergood.berkeley.edu as:
"...maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment."
Think about the various experiences you have had competing. Now, think about how helpful something like "mindfulness" would be in future competitions. To be able to be conscious and in control of your thoughts, feelings and any external factors would be an amazing advantage would it not?
Too often I've seen athletes crumble under the pressure of what it means to be an athlete. Too often I've watched as athletes spent their high school careers falling apart at the slightest glimpse of controversy and later having regrets. It's hard to be an athlete in today's society! There are so many pressures and overbearing parents/coaches. The expectations are higher than they've ever been. I truly believe that "mindfulness" could be the answer!
I am going to be compiling a number of different resources in the next couple of weeks and will link those to my next blog post focused on "mindfulness". Stay tuned!