"Morning Mindfulness..."

Published by Kristina & Breanne,

Posted by Breanne Smedley |


For the past 8 weeks in a row, I, along with 12-20 girl athletes in my mental training program sign into zoom together at 9am PST.

We only meet for about 15 minutes.

8 minutes of a guided meditation.
2 minutes to write and share what we're grateful for.
4 minutes to schedule the day.
2 minutes to give them a journal prompt that they write about after for 3 minutes.

And we're on our way.

Such a small amount of time to spend each morning, how could it make that much of a difference, right?

Well, I did the math.

We have two more weeks of Morning Mindfulness, to equal 10 weeks total of meeting together every weekday morning.

That equals 400 minutes of meditation.
100 minutes of gratitude practice.
90 minutes of being intentional with planning the day.
250 minutes of journaling and processing thoughts.

When I add it up like that, it seems crazy!

How many other 14-19 year olds say that they have meditated nearly 7 hours during quarantine?

I'm starting to get some feedback from the girls about this daily, small practice we're engaging in together.

Things like:

"I feel more focused and calm."
"I am able to get my thoughts out."
"The breathing helps me when I get upset or frustrated throughout the day."
"I feel more productive."

We tend to underestimate the power of the small steps.

The small wins in the day that, over time, add up to major transformation.

I tell my athletes all the time that we can't expect to perform well in "big" moments, if we first don't practice the skills and mindset needed in the small ones, too.

It'd be like asking you to squat 300lbs the first day you show up for conditioning.

We start small. Stay consistent. Build.

15 minutes of mindfulness a day is like a workout for our minds.

Preparing our minds to know what to do when the pressure is on.

When the stakes are high.

When everyone else is wondering how they're going to perform or respond.

We can be confident knowing that we've prepared for this moment.

15 minutes at a time.

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