Although many of the benefits of mindfulness are about improving health and well-being, the practice can also have a positive impact on our performance, both professionally and in our personal lives. Mindfulness is used to improve performance in education, the workplace, the military, the arts, and professional sports, which is a great example to explore. Sports psychologists and coaches have come to really value the benefits of mindfulness to improve performance in professional sports like tennis and athletics.
Forms of mindfulness have been around for some time in professional sport. Back in 1974, Tim Gallwey’s best-selling book The Inner Game of Tennis outlined a set of techniques that sports professionals use today. One idea in the book is that we have a self-one and a self-two. The first self is the inner commentary that criticises a faulty shot or poor performance. The second self, referred to as the subconscious mind in the book, is the body that’s hitting the ball. One principle of the Inner Game is to allow the body to get on with the job, free from the nagging remarks of the mind. Gallwey’s formula is that performance equals potential minus interference, where interference is the negative and depleting thoughts and emotions. This is like the distinction between the foreground content of consciousness, for instance, thoughts and emotions, and background conscious awareness, the open and aware space that thoughts and emotions flow through. The Inner Game is about practising focused awareness in a state of relaxed concentration, without judgement or self-criticism. Interestingly, Tim Gallwey went on to publish many other books around the same theme, as well as successfully coaching organisations like AT&T, Apple, and IBM in using the techniques and he is still active today.
In the world of work, the potential performance benefits of mindfulness include improved focus, mental clarity, reduced stress and anxiety and improved relationships. These can make a difference right across the organisation, from the boardroom to front-line staff.
Practising mindfulness helps settle mental and emotional agitation and reduce unhelpful habit patterns. Both can be viewed as a form of interference in our performance. With agitation, we’re tangled up in the content of thoughts and emotions, which we can let go of and release through intentional practise. Most of us are not conscious of the limiting habit patterns as they tend to be in our blind spots. We can start to reduce these by observing and gaining insights when we notice them operating. We can also use mindfulness to improve our relationships, by bringing openness, kindness and compassion and really paying attention to other people through mindful listening.
Tips for using mindfulness for improving our performance at work include:
- Taking regular breaks away from screens to check in with ourselves; seeing what feelings and emotions are around, whether our mind is settled or agitated, and taking some intentional breaths while relaxing and releasing any tension.
- Keeping grounded, open, and alert in meetings by bringing our attention and awareness to our body and senses.
- Working with emotions as they arise, by using the awareness of the changing sensations, like tightening in the body as an early warning.
We all strive to be happy, successful and fulfilled in our professional as well as our personal lives. We can go through years of education yet may have never been taught what it means to be human, with an amazing mind, heartfelt emotions, a miraculous body, and wonderful senses. Mindfulness helps us improve our attention and awareness, so we can reach higher levels of performance and respond skilfully to whatever arises in the present moment.
Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes or lower your gaze while the meditations play.
- Play the first settling practice, then read the session content, which you can print off if that helps
- Then play the second audio to explore performance
