"Everyday Mindfulness"

All opinions in the blog are solely mine. Don't blame anyone else. 

Dartmouth Magazine shares mindful ideas from graduate Doug Bachman '97 who became a monk. Build your body and mind. Resilience shows up over the long pull. Mentally tough teams play harder for longer. Implement ideas that resonate into your MVB practice. 

Read with attitude. Apply new information to fortify your game. And remember Picasso, "good artists borrow; great artists steal." 

Start with your breath. When we focus on our breathing, we cannot focus on fear, anxiety, nervousness, or distractions. 

Pay attention to your body. Mindfulness allows us to feel how our clothes fit and how our body responds to our environment. 

Slow down. When we're going at full speed, we can't appreciate everything around us, from our families to nature. 

Learn to walk. "Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet." Be aware of the world around us, the sights, sounds, and even scents. 

Feed your body and mind. Work nourishes both. Food does, too. 

Wake up and smile. The author asks whether happiness makes us smile or whether smiling more increases happiness. 

Minimize distraction. Electronic information surrounds us. Freedom from distraction improves our learning and our practice. 

Build stop lights into your routine. There's a concept, .B (dot B), stop and take a breath. 

Cultivate gratitude. Appreciate what you have. The '21 Day Gratitude Challenge' advises writing three things to be thankful for each night for 21 days. Then review your list. It's a lot. 

Focus on right here, right now. Be here now. Play present. Next play. The last play, good or bad, is over.   

Lagniappe. You are part of a strong team, a strong program, what another Middlesex League coach called a "legacy program." Playing other excellent teams should mean excitement, not nervousness. Exceptional players have a consistent mental approach. "Fear is the mind killer." 

Skill matters but mental toughness carries teams in long, competitive matches. 

Lagniappe 2. After each training or learning session, ask "what did I learn" and "how can this make me better?" 

Lagniappe 3. Overcoming. 

Post by @liveyourimpossible

View on Threads