Mindfulness in the News: Compassion Seeps Westward
Mindfulness was in the news last week. In Science News, the winter Olympics and last summer’s stories of Simone Biles and the “twisties’ inspired a story about quantifiably-improved athletic performance through mindfulness training - even in comparison to relaxation techniques. In the Guardian, environmental activist Rebecca Solnit reflects on how, in only 50 years, Thich Nhat Hanh’s activism brought “compassion” into the common Western lexicon. Mindfulness practices have event penetrated the corporate world, though an unexpected result is how mindfulness-trained employees are rebelling against corporate policies.
Awareness Through Movement is very much a body-centered mindfulness practice that translates out into daily life. Get down on the floor, feel yourself, and be transformed. Maybe not all at once, but even a 1% change is momentous over time.
Mindfulness has spread into the West. Societal norms have expanded to include compassion. Even major companies have embraced mindfulness practices.
How Buddhism has changed the west for the better
Environmental activist Rebecca Solnit honored Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s influence on the west. In only 50 years, she writes, “compassion” has become part of our common lexicon, behaviors that were once acceptable are now read as violence. She notes that corporations coopting of mindfulness practices to improve productivity learn that employees trained in compassion want to act that way - not the intended management outcome.
“We are not who we were very long ago. A lot of new ideas have emerged from Buddhism and other traditions emphasizing compassion, equality, nonviolence and critical perspectives on materialism and capitalism...
His (Thich Nhat Hanh) death seemed to me not an ending but a reminder that something far grander than this great teacher began sometime in the last century and continues to spread...
You have to go back to how widely accepted various forms of cruelty and domination were half a century ago, from corporal punishment in public schools to domestic violence and systemic silencing and exclusion, to recognize how much has changed...
Of course the new ideas are corruptible, and charismatic leaders, including in Buddhist lineages, have abused their power – but I was amused to find that corporate attempts to co-opt mindfulness sometimes backfire when they make employees less tolerant of harmful policies.”
Simone Biles and other elite athletes are prioritizing mental health. Researchers find mindfulness tools help personal and athletic performance.
LOIC VENANCE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
How mindfulness-based training can give elite athletes a mental edge
The scientific evidence is in: Mindfulness training demonstrably improves athletic performance; athletic role models may help the next generation of athletes balance mental and physical fitness.
“Athletes can be reluctant to report mental health problems because of stigma. In a 2019 consensus statement from the International Olympic Committee, data on mental health disorders in elite athletes were limited, but depression and anxiety rates appeared similar to the general public’s. Eating disorder rates were higher in athletes....
[These] results align with a study that pitted mindfulness and elements of ACT against some of the traditional, performance-focused psychological tools athletes have been taught for decades, such as visualization, relaxation (similar to what was used in Jha’s study) and positive self-talk. In that experiment, 18 women’s basketball players at a Division III university in New Jersey were divided into two groups. One worked through relaxation and stress management exercises developed by psychologist Richard Suinn and described in the 1986 book Seven Steps to Peak Performance. The other group worked through exercises for mindfulness and acceptance of thoughts described in the 2007 book The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance: The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) Approach by psychologists Frank Gardner and Zella Moore.
A month after the study ended, MAC-trained players had dips in anxiety, substance use, eating issues and overall psychological distress, along with gains in emotional regulation. Players trained in traditional psychological skills had less improvement in those areas, Princeton University psychologist Mike Gross and colleagues reported in 2018 in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Minkler argues that performance problems rarely have anything to do with technical skills. Mental hang-ups in training and competition are often related to interpersonal issues, like relationships with teammates, coaches or loved ones...
“These people we see as pillars of excellence [are experiencing] extremely dysfunctional mental states,” Jha says. “How do we have the mental fitness match the physical excellence?” Studies on mindfulness and ACT hint that a match-up is achievable, and the training might benefit not only elite athletes but every one of us.”