Page 7 - Mindfulness

I was in a music group at the time, so it was a little easier to hide! I do though, remember experiencing a high degree of anxiety playing a guitar solo at the Sydney Opera House. I also had an experience with a similar fear factor: a keynote in front of 600 people with a live cross to a further 8000 in different offices with multiple cameras and live questions from a webcast. I also remember “freezing” in a live interview on national TV when an interviewer asked me a question in Italian and I didn’t understand him. Three seconds can feel like an eternity when under pressure let alone ten! As someone who had a period from suffering from panic attacks in my mid-twenties, the techniques I was offered then weren’t practical in dealing with significant pressure moments quickly. Now, armed with many more years of success and failure, and clinical study and practice, I’m getting a better understanding to help myself and others when time is limited. Developing and applying techniques to get us in the moment before taking a penalty or a free kick or a goal kick or walking into a major Boardroom or going on stage, is possible.
I’m delighted to see all the incredible works, articles, books, research now emerging on mindfulness. However, little of the material focuses on fast practical advice, and assumes plenty of time to tune into being mindful. I would also argue much overcomplicates the subject. Too often I’m noticing the attempt to construct mystical and scientific methodologies and subtexts thus leaving such works sitting on library shelves or practitioner’s desks.