The Mental Pushup
Get your mind in shape to support you during high-stress situations. Jannell shares how we can strengthen our attention through mindfulness “workouts,”so it’s easier to stay present, focused, and self-aware in the midst of chaos. From the Mental Strength Training Collection.
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Have you ever been put on the spot in a meeting and had a hard time gathering your thoughts, or maybe you felt your heart race, got butterflies in your stomach? At the same time, your mind raced with thoughts of being nervous or unprepared? What if you could focus your attention and rise to the occasion instead? Our attention system can assist our brain by detecting and selecting one particular thing to focus on at a time. It's like a flashlight, and that flashlight can be laser focused on what's going on right in front of us, but it can also point inward at our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Many times when we're engaged in an activity and our attention system turns inward, it can become detrimental to our performance in that moment. One of the most effective practices we can use to train our mind is mindfulness, a core skillset we focus on developing here at Headspace. I want you to think about mindfulness as a practice and something you can actually train every day. It's like mental pushups, a way to strengthen your attention system to stay more present and focused. We all understand the importance of doing physical pushups to build our physical strength. Well, our minds are no different, and so we need to do our mental pushups, practice our mindfulness to build mental strength and awareness. In the following audio recording, we will practice mental pushups together. It might seem tedious or overly simple, but by putting this into practice, you're building mental flexibility, mental agility, and increased awareness by strengthening your attention system. If you train your mind like you train your body, I am confident you can train your monkey mind to settle down, so you can cultivate a sense of calm, focus, and control in any high stress environment. Let's start our training now by doing the accompanying audio exercise....
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A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
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Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
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As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
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Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
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Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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