Applied Mindfulness

Due to the dramatic rise in mindfulness research, there has been an increasing awareness about its applications across various professions. Elite-level leaders from corporate executives to Navy SEALs have discovered personal transformation and performance enhancement through this important inner work.

While deep, long-term mindfulness practices can be a very worthwhile pursuit, my approach to coaching on mindfulness is to take the wide range of related practices and distilling down to what is most directly applicable to particular needs.

This is what I mean be applied mindfulness. Experts across various creative domains (acting, martial arts, military skills development, advanced social intelligence, Olympic-level athletics) have already done the work of creating applied mindfulness tools. My 1-on-1 coaching is about creatively putting the relevant tools to use. It is intended for busy professionals looking for tangible results without lengthly personal research.

Over the years, I have experienced and collected powerful methods (some listed here) that practically address the subjects listed below.

1. Truly know yourself

Understand your values, your purpose, and your beliefs. Know your “why.” Take a look for any stories you’re unknowingly carrying around that no longer serve you. Through honestly knowing yourself, you will gain the necessary perspective for understanding how to live purposefully, joyfully and effectively.

2. Build mental fitness:

While doing the intellectual exploration explained above is a good start, it is also important to do the deeper work of building mental fitness. This is what most people miss, and therefore reach plateaus. The ability to reliably notice and let go of disempowering impulses and emotional triggers in the moment is what truly enables us to live purposefully.

Our nervous system has inherited survival programming designed to keep us safe. But in our modern world much of how this programming expresses itself is actually maladaptive. Disempowering impulses like fear of failure, excessive people-pleasing or perfectionism can affect our decisions without us even knowing. Mental fitness can be learned and strengthened.

More details including recommended resources -> here

2. Develop interoceptive body awareness:

The ability to sense and work with internal signals from the body is key to regulating emotions, reducing stress, and increasing general well-being. The practical applications of interoception skills at work and in life are immense. When we have a healthy mind-body connection and have the techniques for interpreting how to work with internal signals, we emerge with calm wisdom and confident performance.

A brief explanation of the science of interoception -> here

3. Expand your comfort zone:

Seek eustress. Work on stretching outside your various comfort zones incrementally every day. Be creative. Do at least one action every day that is scary but aligned with your goals. Growing your comfort zone will build self-awareness, boldness, capacity and effectiveness.

4. Be non-attached to outcomes:

Cultivating non-attachment from strong desires for specific outcomes is one of the most powerful ideas that is often overlooked. When our ego is attached and we ruminate on fear of failure, that can make us less likely to achieve our goal.

Non-attachment does not mean you don’t care about results. It just means you know what you can control and what you can’t. You focus on and care greatly about your art, but are indifferent to the outcomes. An optimal balance between goals and non-attachment can and needs to be achieved.

More details in my article published on Medium -> here

An unusual exercise for experiencing non-attachment -> here