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1-Page Summary of The Mindful Athlete
Introduction
In the final seconds of a game in the 1998 NBA finals, Michael Jordan stole the ball from Karl Malone and made an amazing shot to win it. This play is one of basketball’s most memorable moments. During that moment, Jordan was said to be “in the zone.” He had been working with George Mumford for five years at this point. Mumford taught mindfulness techniques to prison inmates and learned how we can tap into our greatness when we know how to do so.
One of the best ways to connect with your inner greatness is through mindfulness. As you read on, you will learn about the five spiritual superpowers that Mumford believes are key to becoming more mindful: Mindfulness: Teach yourself to focus on what’s happening right now. Concentration: Ground yourself internally by ignoring distractions so that you can stay focused. Insight: Know your mental weaknesses and work hard to address them. Right Effort: Direct your energy toward achieving goals. Trust: Bring it all together and have faith in yourself.
Growing up in a dangerous neighborhood and unstable home, Mumford always dreamed of escaping through professional basketball. He was injured often during his high school career, so he turned to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with the pain. Even though he graduated college and got married, his drug problem only worsened. He started using heroin when a friend dragged him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that changed his life forever.
After completing a detox program, Mumford started practicing meditation. At first, he couldn’t sit still and was very uncomfortable with it. He quit his finance job and went back to school for a master’s in counseling psychology. He wanted to be able to help people like himself who had gone through the same difficulties that he did when growing up. After co-founding the Center for Mindfulness, Mumford started teaching mindfulness to prison inmates who were struggling with similar issues as him when he was growing up. A few years later, Phil Jackson hired Mumford to teach mindfulness to the players of the Chicago Bulls because they needed someone who understood what it meant being from difficult backgrounds while also having an interest in basketball since childhood just like them.
Mindfulness: Eye of the Hurricane
You’re at the free throw line in a championship game with your team down by one. You need to make both shots for your team to win. What’s going through your head? If you haven’t practiced mindfulness, it might be hard to avoid compulsive thoughts such as how you’d let down your teammates if you miss or how you just wish you were already celebrating in the locker room, and that makes it very difficult to make those game-winning shots.
Mindfulness is about focusing on the present. When you’re in the zone, your brain focuses only on what’s happening now. This isn’t easy to achieve because our brains tend to wander into memories and daydreams at any time. To reliably get into the zone, we must train our brains just like we would a muscle. In an untrained state, our minds are easily distracted by intense emotions or over-analyzing situations and doubting ourselves before taking action. Mindfulness is about unlearning these unnecessary mental responses so that we can act intuitively without thinking too much about it.
Sometimes you feel like you’re in a storm. You can be calm and mindful, just like the eye of a hurricane. Meditation is an effective way to cultivate inner peace, by sitting still and focusing on your breathing when the mind wanders.
Meditation can help you learn to distance yourself from thoughts and emotions. By learning to do this, your brain will realize that it doesn’t have to pay attention to every thought or emotion. This is important because in high-pressure situations, people tend not to perform well when they’re distracted by their emotions. Meditation helps you learn how to handle those difficult feelings so you’ll be able to focus better under pressure.
