by Sierra Smith
I had heard of mindfulness before, and my interpretation was that it was to control your thoughts. But as much as I practiced mindful breathing or trying to control my thoughts, negative or doubtful thoughts still made their way into my mind. It wasn’t until someone explained what mindfulness really means that I was able to make progress and interact with my thoughts better.
What mindfulness is
Similar to physical training, mindfulness is a skill developed over time. You can’t expect to be perfect after practicing just once or twice. I have often heard that 80% of sport is the mental part of the game, and I recognize that in myself. Yet I didn’t spend even a fraction of the time on my mental performance as I did on physical performance as an athlete. After giving myself permission to make mistakes and hold on to things I could control—like my response to negative thoughts rather than being concerned about them coming all together—I was more excited to give mindfulness another chance.
What mindfulness is not
Mindfulness is not stopping negative thoughts, but rather practicing the act of noticing the thoughts when they come, nonjudgmentally, to avoid giving them too much weight. I assumed that with more practice, I could minimize the negative thoughts I had about my swim practices and competitions. More than that, I looked up to so many great athletes and assumed they didn’t have the same thoughts I did. After hearing their stories and practicing mindfulness with swim teammates, I realize that even successful athletes have negative and doubtful thoughts, but it doesn’t mean those thoughts are true or have the ability to shake their confidence.
How to grow your mindfulness practice
Mindfulness practices can adapt and grow as an individual learns the skill. For example, I started out practicing mindful breathing in a classroom setting until I understood the concept. Then, I found myself using mindful breathing to control my heart rate as a way to focus in class. Eventually, the connection between mindful breathing and a physiological response was strong enough that I was able to implement the breathing techniques during swim workouts. This allowed me to get deeper breaths on the wall during a hard set, or control my breathing, heart rate, and mental calmness before holding my breath for a long time during underwater training.
Sitting in a classroom to practice breathing now seems boring to me, but it was great to have a starting point to apply to my own life. When a mindfulness exercise is offered, I challenge you not only to participate, but to also think about how you could adapt it to best help you. Overall, these practices are meant to give you a starting point to bring your mental game to the next level. It doesn’t happen right away, but sticking with it and patiently working with mindfulness will allow you to look back after a few weeks and see meaningful progress in sport and life beyond sport. Learning to let thoughts pass or counter them with facts you know to be true gives an unshakeable confidence for sports and life challenges.
I’m so thankful I got the chance to learn I’m not alone in having negative thoughts creep in, and that there’s something I can do to practice and change how I respond to them. I don't spend as much mental energy combating negative thoughts as I used to, and I have more peace going into competitions, hard training days, and life challenges. I’m also so excited you have the opportunity to find the same for your life.
