Use Performance Mindfulness To Be Primed & Ready For Anything Life Throws Your Way

Humans have made incredible advances since the dawn of our existence. We have gone from hunting, gathering, and scavenging to simply speaking into our devices and having whatever basic needs (or comforts) we desire delivered to our front door. And although technology continues to excel, the human brain has not evolved away from its primary responsibility: keeping us alive and safe. 

Consequently, this default operating system is wired to continuously scan internal and external environments and direct our attention toward threats—both real and perceived. This works very well for our basic functioning and survival (eating, sleeping, shelter) as well as ensuring our safety. It helps us to react quickly to catch something midair when it's knocked from a shelf and keeps us out of the way from a car speeding down the street. Unfortunately, this default operating system does not help us very much in high-pressure, high-precision situations, or with chronic stress that often appears in our lives. 

Many athletes know to hold their attention toward what they can control and influence yet many athletes also (incorrectly) believe that they have control over their thoughts and emotions. (Anyone who has ever stepped on a Lego in the middle of the night knows that the immediate pain and knee-jerk reaction of anger were not intentionally chosen.)

However, the choice of our behavior in any situation is our own and more easily within our control. We can choose to act in alignment with our emotion or we can override that default programming and choose to act in alignment with our values or with the behaviors that are more likely to yield the results we ultimately desire. Becoming aware of this internal system of attention, thought, emotion, body sensation, and behavior is the core of performance mindfulness. The key to using this model to our advantage requires us to observe what we are putting our attention toward, accepting what is, and intentionally selecting to focus on the behavior we want to do next.    

Despite her success, something had suddenly changed, and Maria feared she no longer had the "it" factor she had seamlessly possessed before. She began to doubt whether she truly belonged at the pro level, and her scores had started to affirm that belief. Where in previous competitions that Maria knew she could win, feeling excited and confident, she now noticed a pulsating, trembling feeling in her hands—particularly when standing over easy, 5-foot putts in contentious rounds. She desperately hoped the feeling would go away. She wished it would stop. Instead, it worsened. Maria had never experienced this, and the sensation always seemed to flood her senses during her most crucial competitions. Obviously, less than ideal timing.

Using mindfulness, Maria began to take note of her thoughts, emotions, and body sensations at various points throughout her tournaments. In the beginning, we would break down each round, shot by shot. Upon reflection, Maria quickly realized that in those clutch moments of competition, she would shift her attention away from the line she wanted the ball to travel and instead focus on how her hands were feeling. However, during days when she felt more confident and less pressure, she didn't notice pulsating and trembling in her hands. 

While the postgame reflections helped Maria build her awareness, the observations were not the only key to improving Maria's performance. The next task, accepting, would prove even more important. Moving forward, Maria would need to observe when she experienced the sensation in her hands and then simply accept that it was her body's natural response to the stress.

It may surprise you (as it did Maria) that many elite athletes have similar experiences under peak levels of pressure. There is nothing wrong with the athlete (or their brain) when they begin feeling less than confident and notice distracting body sensations or negative self-talk. It just means that the brain needs an operating system update, in the form of mindset training.

To retrain Maria's brain, we introduced a "priming" exercise into her daily routine. We started with something easy and manageable: a short mindful minute of breathing each morning. Once Maria had the breathing exercise down, we introduced imagery. Maria would center herself with the breathing and then envision her day and the competition. She would bring to her mind's eye a solid performance, as well as her hands shaking. It may sound counterintuitive, but it was important for Maria not only to contemplate what would go well but what might not go well. This is what helped with the acceptance. 

I still check in with Maria from time to time, but the distressed young woman I once knew is not the person who walks into my office. We discuss her performance mindfulness routine each time we meet, examining what works well and what is worth improving. And it still requires practice—not every game she plays is perfect or goes according to plan. Becoming skilled in performance mindfulness takes time—it is more complex than the flip of a switch and is different for each athlete and their sport. However, with time, practice, and patience, performance mindfulness is a skill that any athlete or individual can use to optimize the way they think to ensure they perform at the highest level possible.