Mindfulness is something that we are trying to emphasize and incorporate into our training at the Optimization Training Lab. It is something we have been encouraging clients to focus on during both their strength training sessions and mobility classes. It is something we are intentionally focusing on in the “Mindful Jiujitsu” classes that Conner is teaching.
Mindfulness is something that can be of great value in our lives. Ellen Langer one of the worlds’s leading research scientists, professor in Harvard’s psychology department, and creator of what she calls the “psychology of possibilty” says in her book Mindfulness, “Mindfulness is pervasive. In fact I believe virtually all of our problems- personal, interpersonal, professional, and societal-either directly or indirectly stem from mindfulness.”
Mindfulness is a term that can take on many meanings and can also be misunderstood. One of the things I am mindful of is the importance of clarity in communication. It has become a mission to provide better clarity of communication regarding our training systems. This is one of the goals of these emails, workshops, blog post, and videos.
Although mindfulness can mean many different things, today I would like to focus on mindfulness from the perspective of self awareness. I recently heard an interview with Brad Stevens, former Boston Celtics head coach and currently the president of basketball operations for the world champion Celtics. In his interview he mentioned that as we get older, we become more “Self Aware.” I would both agree and disagree with this statement. I believe that if you seek to become more self aware, this can be true, but I also believe if you do not practice mindfulness, then as we get older we simply ingrain old programs, belief systems, and corresponding actions that we come to believe are who we are.
So, how do we become more mindful. One of those ways is through meditation. We highly recommend a meditation practice for numerous reasons. However, we also realize for many it can be very challenging to start a meditation practice. To help you with this process we will be starting a class on Saturday’s at 9:00am immediately following Conner’s “Mindful Jiujitsu” class. We will be doing “Yoga Namaskar” together followed by the Isha Kriya meditation. The intent is to give you a specific structure and then a community of support of like minded people who wish to work on becoming more mindful.
Lastly, another quote from Ellen Langer regarding meditation, “Meditation is a tool to achieve post-meditative mindfulness. Regardless of how we get there, either through meditation or more directly by paying attention to novelty and questioning assumptions, to be mindful is to be in the present, noticing all the wonders that we didn’t realize were right in front of us.”