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A Still Quiet Place for Athletes: Mindfulness Skills for Achieving Peak Performance and Finding Flow in Sports and Life
256Overview
Find flow and reach peak performance—in sports and in life. Based on the groundbreaking Still Quiet Place mindfulness program, this workbook provides practical, step-by-step exercises and skills to help you gain present-moment awareness and achieve your athletic goals.
Are you looking for unique ways to "get into the game"? To enhance your training and find focus? You aren’t alone. Increasingly, athletes and coaches—from amateur leagues to professional football champs to Olympic athletes—are incorporating mindfulness practices into their training. That’s because mindfulness can help you lower your stress levels, connect with the moment, and mentally bounce back after setbacks. So whether you're a sports enthusiast or a professional athlete, mindfulness can also help you deal with physical aspects of training, such as fatigue, aches, pains, injury, burnout, and exhaustion.
Written by holistic physician, mindfulness coach, and long-time athlete Amy Saltzman, this practical workbook offers mindfulness-based skills you can use any time throughout your athletic career, as well as in daily life. You’ll discover what the author fondly refers to as the “still quiet place,” and from the vantage point of that stillness, you’ll be able to observe your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations—before and during practice and competition, between events, after a miss or significant loss, or exhilarating win. You’ll also find skills for dealing effectively with teammates and coaches, as well as skills for coaching mindfully. A parents guide is also included.
No matter what sport you play, 90 percent of performance is mental. With this workbook as your guide, you can use mindfulness to enhance your training, competitive performance, and your life beyond athletics.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781684030217 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New Harbinger Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2018 |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 1,204,283 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword xi Introduction 1 Body 1 Spirit 2 Mind 3 Body, Mind, and Spirit 4 Part 1: The Fundamentals—Mindfulness 1. Welcome 9 Mindfulness 9 Finding Flow 10 How to Use This Book 13 Notes 14 2. Taking a Rest, Taking a Breath 17 Basic Concept: The Benefits of Mindfulness 17 Practice: Rest 20 Reflection: What Was It Like to Rest? 21 Activity: Bowing In and Bowing Out 22 Practice: Between Bowing In and Bowing Out 24 Activity: Pleasant Events 24 3. Bringing Awareness to the Body 29 Basic Concept: Mindfulness of the Body 29 Practice: Body Scan 30 Reflection: Body Scan 33 Activity: Finger Yoga 34 Practice: Embodied Warm-Ups and Cooldowns 34 Activity: Seeing and Feeling—Visualize and Body-ize 35 Practice: Breathing Into and Through 36 Activity: Outward as Well as Inward 36 Practice: Seeing Space and Opportunity 37 4. Self-Care 39 Basic Concept: Fine-Tuning 39 Basic Concept: Wise Effort and Injury Prevention 48 Basic Concept: Energetic Bank Account 50 Activity: Maintaining a Positive Balance in Your Energetic Bank Account 50 Activity: Precompetition Ritual 54 5. Getting Your Head in the Game 57 Basic Concept: Thought Watching 57 Practice: Thought Watching 58 Practice: Bubbles 58 Activity: Nine Dots 60 Reflection: Thinking Outside the Box 63 Activity: A Challenge 64 Basic Concept: Unkind Mind 65 Activity: Comparison 65 Activity: Positive Scanning and the Magic Ratio 67 Activity: Positive Inner Instruction 70 Basic Concept: Beyond Unkind Mind—Nonjudgmental Awareness 73 6. Befriending Feelings 75 Basic Concept: It’s Okay to Feel Anxious 75 Practice: Befriending Feelings 76 Reflection: How Did It Feel to Befriend Your Feelings? 77 Activity: Having Your Feelings Without Your Feelings Having You 78 Reflection: Dealing with Feelings 79 Basic Concept: Tuning Your Instrument 79 Basic Concept: Emotion Theory—Watching the Waves 80 Basic Concept: Refractory Period 81 Activity: Watching Your Emotional Waves 82 Activity: Embodying Emotion 85 Activity: Unpleasant Events 87 7. Responding Rather Than Reacting 93 Basic Concept: Holes and Different Streets 93 Practice: ABCs 97 Reflection: The Power of Responding 97 Activity: Holes 98 Activity: Responding, or Choosing a Different Street 99 Part 2: Advanced Skills—Integration 8. Facing Challenges 105 Practice: PEACE 105 Practice: Befriending Physical Pain 107 Activity: Suffering = Pain x Resistance 108 Basic Concept: Humor 109 Basic Concept: Good News, Bad News, Who Knows? 110 Basic Concept: It Is Happening for Me, Not to Me. 112 Basic Concept: This Too Shall Pass—Impermanence and Equanimity 113 Basic Concept: Faith, Patience, and Perseverance 113 Activity: Next Sane and Joyful Step 117 Basic Concept: Quitting or Transitioning 117 9. Mistakes, Self-Compassion, and Intentions 121 Activity: Mistake Rituals 121 Activity: Self-Esteem 122 Practice: Self-Compassion 125 Activity: There’s a Winner and a… 128 Activity: Goals and Intentions 131 10. Being a True Teammate 133 Practice: Filling Your Teammates’ Emotional Tanks 134 Basic Concept: Reading the Mental and Emotional Game 136 Basic Concept: Emotional Wave Theory 137 Activity: Mindful Communication 139 Basic Concept: Acceptance—You Can’t Always Get What You Want 142 Practice: If You Spot It, You Got It 142 Basic Concept: Compassion 145 Practice: Kindness and Compassion 146 Basic Concept: Generosity 147 Activity: Generosity 147 Basic Concept: Inclusion 148 Basic Concept: Beyond Generosity—Making Each Other Better 149 Practice: Forgiving Others 150 Practice: Stretching Toward Sympathetic Joy 151 11. Almost Moments, Sportsmanship, and Integrity 153 Basic Concept: Respect and Integrity 154 Basic Concept: When No One Is Looking 155 Practice: THINK! Before Texting or Posting 156 Reflection: THINK! About the Comments of Others 157 Basic Concept: Mistakes, Apologies, and Amends 158 Practice: Apology 159 Practice: Forgiving Yourself and Asking for Forgiveness 161 12. Habits of Excellence 163 Practice: Gratitude 163 Activity: Responsibility—No Excuses 164 Basic Concept: Preparedness and Flexibility—Expect the Unexpected 165 Basic Concept: Finishing—It’s Not Over Until It Is Over 166 Activity: Joy—A Powerful Source of Flow 167 Activity: Fluidity—Moving Along Continuums 168 Basic Concept: Sportsmanship—It Is About More Than the Game 169 Basic Concept: Freedom—Also Known as Nonattachment 169 Basic Concept: Vigilance and Addictive Mind 170 Activity: Humility—No One Does It Alone 174 Practice: Being of Service and Paying It Forward 175 13. For the Love of the Game 181 Basic Concept: Practice Makes… 183 Practice: Flashlight 184 Activity: Love of the Game 185 Reflection: Beyond Competition 186 Part 3: Skills for Coaches and Parents 14. For Coaches 191 Reflection: My Coaching 192 Activity: Intentionally Creating the Culture 194 Practice: The Magic Ratio and Filling Emotional Tanks 195 Activity: Attending to Individual Athletes 196 Reflection: Attending to the Team as a Whole 200 Practice: Three Questions to Build Connection 202 Practice: Responding Rather Than Reacting 203 Activity: Mindful Communication 204 Basic Concept: Player-to-Player Communication 205 15 For Parents 207 Activity: Your Data 208 Activity: Your Child’s Data 211 Practice: Listening with Love for Understanding 214 Reflection: How Did We Get Here? 215 Basic Concept: Scholarships—The Reality 216 Reflection: You’re Being Evaluated Too 220 Reflection: Why Practice Mindfulness? 220 Reflection: Recognizing When We Pressure Our Children 220 Practice: Choosing Your Behavior 222 Acknowledgments 225 Appendix: Nine Dots Puzzle Solution 227 Selected Reading 229 References 231Interviews
Saltzman resides in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.







