Hello, welcome back to the show. We are talking mindfulness today.
If you are a paddler or a cyclist or a skier or a climber, I’m going to bet that you love these sports, or your sport, your activity, because it puts you in the present moment, right? There’s that flow state that happens. I hear this all the time from whitewater paddlers—how much they love it because you can’t think of anything else when you’re paddling a rapid.
You’re only thinking and looking, and your full senses are on reading the water in front of you and making the moves, making your next move. And so it is actually—people describe it as a way, even though it can feel nervous in the moment—it really is a wonderful way to clear the mind, right? To participate in whitewater kayaking.
And that present moment awareness is so powerful to clear the mind, to build confidence, to experience that flow state.
I think that it’s very valuable to practice that mindfulness outside of paddling a rapid. And in fact, when you do, you enhance your ability to be more present when you are paddling a rapid. You’re not just waiting to feel that experience when you’re kayaking—you can learn to generate it anywhere you are, anywhere you find yourself.
Practicing mindful movement and mindfulness practices helps to clear the mind, helps to reset, helps to calm and regulate the nervous system. There are many, many benefits.
The reason this is on my mind is because we are in Mental Agility Mastery, the eight-week course. Week seven is mindful movement. I include breathwork in mindful movement because we are moving the breath through the body, and the muscles responsible for breathing are moving. It really is somewhat of a full-body exercise and awareness.
We’ve been doing some mindful breathing exercises and some mindfulness practices that support our kayaking so that if something—as one participant in Mental Agility Mastery said on our call this week—these mindfulness practices will help me to not buy into old stories or habit patterns or negative self-talk.
They help me to choose out of them and reset, whether it’s because of a swim, being off my line, or being involved in a rescue—whatever type of situation might throw you off. These mindfulness practices help to recenter, reset, and reboot.
So that’s why this is on my mind—the power of them, and the power of practicing them this week with the cohort in Mental Agility Mastery. I wanted to share today a few of the mindfulness practices that we are taking on this week. And maybe you’ll want to—well, not maybe—you want to. I invite you to try them out.
The exercises that we are incorporating include setting an alarm three times throughout your day. Set an alarm for some time in the morning, some time in the afternoon, and some time in the evening.
When it goes off, that is your cue to take a deep breath and bring your awareness to the present moment.
You can do that by taking one deep breath. We’ve been working a lot with breathing into the low back ribs and into the low back, which is very stabilizing for the spine and the deep core.
I recently learned a really cool grounding practice from one of my private instruction clients just this week that you might have heard before, but I hadn’t heard it. It’s called the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise.
You name:
Five things that you are seeing
Four things that you’re feeling
Three things that you’re hearing
Two things that you’re smelling
One thing that you are tasting in that moment
It’s quite effective, actually. It does take a moment, but it definitely helps bring you into the present moment.
So those are some mindfulness practices when your alarm goes off. We like to keep it simple.
We’re also committing to a mindful movement practice. That could be walking, yoga, or a stretching practice. You could have the intention of going for a mindful paddle.
What that means is that instead of waiting and hoping that kayaking itself will put you into the present moment, you are practicing noticing the present moment when you’re in the flat pools, even when you’re just putting on and looking around at the put-in—the beauty, the water, the trees, the birds.
You’re being very present to what is going on.
Same thing with mindful walking, which I really love. Sometimes I will just repeat:
“Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot.”
Again, it sounds really simple, but it’s very powerful. I just love how it brings me right into the present moment.
Or I will name what I see. I guess I’ve actually been practicing part of that 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise because I often bring myself into the present moment by naming what I’m seeing to myself. That can be a very powerful practice.
It can also be helpful when you’re scouting a rapid—really grounding you right there. It also helps keep the stories out when you’re just naming what you’re seeing rather than telling a story about what you’re seeing.
By the way, I should have said this in the beginning, but I really love Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness, which is:
Paying attention to the present moment on purpose and without judgment.
Right? Paying attention to the present moment on purpose and without judgment.
In all of these activities, that’s what you’re doing.
Lastly, we’re committing to three to six rounds of breathwork every day. Again, I like to keep it simple.
I’ve already mentioned breathing into your low back ribs, drawing the breath into the low back and then exhaling up the front of the body.
It could simply be inhaling and repeating to yourself:
“Inhaling, I breathe in.
Exhaling, I breathe out.”
Obviously, you’re repeating this quietly in your mind.
There’s also box breathing, where you breathe in—typically for four. That’s what you’ll see a lot:
You can start with three. I like to start people with three because it feels more attainable, and then you can move up to four.
You can also simply make your exhalations longer than your inhalations. That tends to relax and regulate the nervous system, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and bring you into the present moment.
A lot of my Reboot Refuel Reset clients and MAM participants do what’s called alternate nostril breathing, which is one of the most relaxing and grounding breathwork practices. There are videos on my YouTube channel, by the way, of alternate nostril breathing.
Lastly, I like the combination of breathing and mindfulness wrapped up in the Generating the Feelings exercise, which is also on my YouTube channel.
At the beginning of the river day, I always do this for myself and with my clients. We do a little warm-up, a little stretch, and then we stand and take some mindful breaths.
We think about how we want to feel at the end of the day—each individually. We don’t necessarily share it at that time. We’re thinking about it in our own minds.
Instead of focusing on visualizing paddling or a certain move, I ask my clients to bring up the feelings that they want to feel at the end of the day and focus on those feelings.
There might be some visuals that pop up, but I ask them to focus on the feelings, curl their lips into a smile, take some mindful breaths, and relax into those feelings.
That helps prep us for the day and helps get our intention focused.
So far, every time I’ve asked folks at the end of the day, “Do you feel how you wanted to feel at the beginning?” the answer has always been yes—at least anecdotally.
These are some mindfulness practices that we are practicing together in Mental Agility Mastery.
I invite you right now, as you’re listening, to take a moment and take a nice breath in through the nose and out through the nose. Feel your feet wherever they are and notice something about the present moment right now.
Of course, gratitude is one of my favorite mindfulness practices. You can think of something or someone that you’re grateful for and curl your lips into a little smile as you hold that thought of gratitude.
That is also a wonderful mindfulness and gratitude practice.
Again, it can be mindful movement. It can be mindful breathing. It can be setting an alarm to remind you to pause and breathe.
Just like I coach my kayak clients on the water to embrace the pause—stop over-paddling out of the eddy, which just leads you to be out of control. Stop over-paddling into the rapid when you don’t need to, or up into the hole if you’re trying to surf.
Instead, embrace the pause. The intentional pause.
It helps you be aware. In kayaking, it helps you stay in control. It helps you maintain control of your angle, which most of the time is more important than speed. Not always, but most of the time—or at least just as important.
So embrace the pause.
Embrace the pause as you’re paddling down the river. Embrace the pause in your life.
When we do, we’re not just waiting for that flow state or present moment awareness to happen because we’re in a rapid. We learn how to generate present moment awareness wherever we are—standing in line, driving, walking, talking with a friend.
I hope this is helpful for you this week.
I invite you to practice some mindfulness on and off the river. I would love to hear about it, so please email me to let me know how that goes for you.
My email is anna@mindbodypaddle.com.
I look forward to hearing from you, and I’ll see you next week!
