A Still Quiet Place for Athletes

Book excerpt: Find flow and reach peak performance—in sports and in life. Based on the groundbreaking Still Quiet Place mindfulness program, this workbook provides practical, step-by-step exercises and skills to help you gain present-moment awareness and achieve your athletic goals. Are you looking for unique ways to "get into the game"? To enhance your training and find focus? You aren’t alone. Increasingly, athletes and coaches—from amateur leagues to professional football champs to Olympic athletes—are incorporating mindfulness practices into their training. That’s because mindfulness can help you lower your stress levels, connect with the moment, and mentally bounce back after setbacks. So whether you're a sports enthusiast or a professional athlete, mindfulness can also help you deal with physical aspects of training, such as fatigue, aches, pains, injury, burnout, and exhaustion. Written by holistic physician, mindfulness coach, and long-time athlete Amy Saltzman, this practical workbook offers mindfulness-based skills you can use any time throughout your athletic career, as well as in daily life. You’ll discover what the author fondly refers to as the “still quiet place,” and from the vantage point of that stillness, you’ll be able to observe your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations—before and during practice and competition, between events, after a miss or significant loss, or exhilarating win. You’ll also find skills for dealing effectively with teammates and coaches, as well as skills for coaching mindfully. A parents guide is also included. No matter what sport you play, 90 percent of performance is mental. With this workbook as your guide, you can use mindfulness to enhance your training, competitive performance, and your life beyond athletics.