I meant it when I said that it was a privilege to be there last night. It is always a privilege to have an opportunity to share about something that has, for me, not simply been life changing. I hold mindfulness responsible for saving my life. On more than one occasion.
Cate, the Founder of PUSH, and I had our first conversation about the role of mindfulness at a bootcamp some time back in 2013. PUSH was not yet conceived of, but several seeds were sown. The fruits of which are now being devoured by the first participants taking part in the UK's first ever re-bootcamp!
Mindfulness has come to feature so prominently in my life: personally, and professionally. Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of the importance of my practice, and if life gets in the way of my practice, no matter how briefly, I know I'm in trouble.
There are no dramas or crises of the magnitude that once used to be a regular feature of my so-called life'style', but leaving the house of a morning without having touched base with my practice feels a little like leaving home having forgotten to put on my deodorant: I am likely to feel slightly uncomfortable, ill at ease, and possibly out of sorts.
Mindfulness comprises a set of tools that, if kept sharp, can cut through the complexities life is apt to throw at us. To look at any of these individually, you perhaps won't feel wow-ed, or overawed. They are clean, and simple exercises - it's the effects that get people excited.
To be mindful is to be more present, more of the time, and to experience life more fully. To be mindful is to notice those things that cause us difficulty, and to have a truly effective mechanism with which to rise above and continue 'as if' - thus enabling us to free ourselves from negative thinking loops that hold us back and get in our way.
Mindfulness is about the prevention of burnout and injury. On a traditional bootcamp the emphasis is places within the physical domain. At PUSH we have turbo charged and re-booted camp to explicitly incorporate mindfulness, alongside coaching and nutrition in order to address the whole body-mind.
I have, for some time, been interested in the relationship between mindfulness and resilience, and its role and effectiveness in preventing and treating burnout. Those I have worked with to date quite often fall within the a self-described category of highly functioning (with an emphasis on the 'fun') who, despite success on lots of levels, feel their lives to be missing something... Mindfulness has helped many address this sense of emptiness, and change a running-on-empty mentality and physicality into something more meaningful, more fun and more fulfilling.
At PUSH, mindfulness will be promoted alongside the burpees and lunges, and mixed in with the green sludge apple cider vinegar by Team PUSH who are committed to supporting those who attend to achieve their goals and realise their intentions this January.
I look forward to meeting you at a PUSH event soon!
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