Mindfulness is a hot-button topic in society and scientific research at the moment. Almost everywhere I look I am starting to see more and more information on being present and in tune with yourself and your environment, and the potential benefits of these practices. There is mounting evidence to support the ability of mindfulness to positively affect both one’s mood and physical performance. As somebody who is constantly looking for ways to improve my performance in the sport of CrossFit, I have started applying these principles and practices to my workouts.
In short, Mindfulness is the process of being aware of the sensations and experiences happening to us at any given time. Meditation exercises can be used to further develop this ability. Examples of these exercises include focusing your attention on the movement of your stomach while breathing, or what you experience while eating a raisin (one of the more well-known mindfulness exercises). The important part of mindfulness practice is that you are simply becoming aware of what you are experiencing, rather than trying to control or change these sensations. This practice is surprisingly difficult, and you may often find your mind wandering to other thoughts. When this happens, know that it is normal and acknowledging that you have strayed is an important piece of the practice, as it allows you to then re-focus your energy and attention. You are not trying to achieve any higher state or change in your body, you are just being rather than doing.
When you first start mindfulness meditation exercise, most people recommend spending 10-15 minutes a day working through one drill or the other. Since this just happens to be roughly the same timeframe as most WOD’s, and I will always freely accept something to take my mind off of the clock, I decided to use this time as my meditation practice. I started by focusing my attention on one of the following things:
Breathing: This is my favorite place to start as it has so many profound effects on the rest of the body. When am I inhaling/exhaling? Am I holding my breath at any point? Am I taking long, deep breaths or short breaths? Am I fully exhaling before trying to breath again?
Body Awareness: Simply what is my body doing in space. Where am I holding tension in my muscles? How does my ankle/knee/hip/shoulder react when moving through a squat? Are my feet together or apart? Where am I experiencing discomfort?
Heart Rate: Managing your heart rate is one of the hardest things to do during a CrossFit workout. What movements increase/decrease your heart rate the most? Is your heart rate staying consistent through the workout? Am I feeling out of control or panicked?
You can see how many experiences are occurring to you during a workout, and how difficult it can be to keep track of everything moment by moment. When I start to feel overwhelmed and tired, or the workout is starting to get the better of me, I simply try to bring it back to my focus for the day and start all over. Lastly, you’ll notice that there is no question of what SHOULD I be feeling or how can I CHANGE these sensations (that’s a topic for another blog). There is no judgement in mindfulness, just the process of becoming aware of what is happening to you!
– Coach Davidson
If you are interested in starting a journey toward mindfulness. Here is a great body awareness exercise you can try at home taken from “The Mindful Way Workbook” by Teasdale et al.
BODY SCAN MEDITATION
-Lie down, making yourself comfortable, lying on your back on a mat or rug on the floor, or on your bed, in a place where you will be warm and undisturbed. Allow your eyes to close gently.
-Take a few moments to get in touch with the movement of your breath and the sensations in your body. When you are ready, bring your awareness to the physical sensations in your body, especially to the sensations of touch or pressure, where your body makes contact with the floor or bed. On each outbreath allow yourself to let go, to sink deeper into the mat or bed. Remind yourself of the intention of this practice. Its aim is not to feel any different, relaxed or calm; this may happen or it may not. Instead, the intention of the practice is, as best you can, to bring awareness to any sensations you detect, as you focus your attention on each part of the body in turn.
-Now, bring your awareness to the physical sensations in the lower abdomen, becoming aware of the changing patterns of sensations in the abdominal wall as you breathe in and out. Take a few moments to feel the sensations as you breathe in and breathe out. Having connected with the sensations in the abdomen, bring the focus of your awareness down the left leg, into the left foot, and out to the toes of the left foot. Focus on each of the toes of the left foot in turn, bringing a gentle curiosity to investigate the quality of the sensations you find, perhaps noticing the sense of contact between the toes, a sense of tingling, warmth, or no particular sensation When you are ready, on an inbreath, feel or imagine the breath entering your lungs and then passing down into the abdomen, into the left leg, the left foot, and out to the toes of the left foot. Then, on the outbreath feel or imagine the breath coming all the way back up, out of your foot, into your leg, up through your abdomen, chest and out through your nose. As best you can, continue this for a few breaths, breathing down into your toes and back out from your toes. It may be difficult to get the hang of this – just practice this “breathing into” as best you can, approaching it playfully
-Now, when you are ready, on the outbreath, let go of your toes and bring awareness to the sensations on the bottom of your left foot – bringing a gentle investigative awareness to the sole of the foot, the instep, the heel (e.g., noticing the sensations where the heel makes contact with the mat or bed) Experiment with “breathing with” the sensations – being aware of the breath in the background, as, in the foreground, you explore the sensations of your lower foot.
-Now allow the awareness to expand into the rest of your foot – to the ankle, the top of the foot, and right into the bones and joints. Then, taking a slightly deeper breath, directing it down into the whole of your left foot, and, as the breath let’s go on the outhbreath, let go of the left foot completely, allowing the focus of awareness to move into your lower left leg – the calf, shin, knee, and so on, in turn.
-Continue to bring awareness, and a gentle curiosity, to the physical sensations in each part of the rest of the body in turn – to the upper left leg, the right toes, right foot, right leg, pelvic area, back, abdomen, chest, fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, head, and face. In each area, as best you can, bring the same detailed level of awareness and gentle curiosity to the bodily sensations present. As you leave each major area, “breathe in” to it on the inbreath and let go of that region on the outbreath.
-When you become aware of tension or of other intense sensations in a particular part of the body, you can “breathe in” to them – using the inbreath gently to bring awareness right into the sensations, and, as best you can, have a sense of letting go, or releasing, on the outbreath.
-The mind will inevitably wander away from the breath and the body from time to time. That is entirely normal. It is what minds do. When you notice it, gently acknowledge it, noticing where the mind has gone off to, and then gently return your attention to the part of the body you intend to focus on.
-After you have scanned the whole body in this way, spend a few minutes being aware of a sense of the body as a whole and of the breath flowing freely in and out of the body.
-If you find yourself falling asleep, you might find it helpful to prop your head up with a pillow, open your eyes, or do the practice sitting up rather than laying down. Feel free to experiment with doing the practice at different times of the day.
Teasdale J, Williams M, Segal Z. The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8 Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress. New York: The Guilford Press. 2014