James Hall's Key Ideas from The Mindful Athlete
by George Mumford

In 2013 playoffs, people caught LeBron James sitting courtside with closed eyes, focusing on his breathing 

You can enter a state of relaxation by controlling your breathing, think of the space between an inhalation and an exhalation as your inner center, where your watcher watches everything.

Our breathing works in tandem with 2 other parts of our autonomous nervous system. 1st is the sympathetic system, which is activated by fear, anxiety, and stress.

The 2nd is the parasympathetic system. It releases the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which lowers our heart rate and makes us more relaxed

Scrutinizing the thoughts behind your habits is like looking under the hood of your car, rather than just staring at the dashboard.

Everyone has a unique collection of emotional blueprints, which includes their insecurities and other negative emotions. It’s important to be aware of them because the negative ones can build up and burst out in negative actions. Practicing mindfulness means letting go of who you think you are. So accept negative emotions like anger or resentment for what they truly are: fleeting distractions that shouldn’t define you.

Bruce Lee is a famous example. Martial artists like Lee use their intuition to connect with the Zone. They focus on the journey, not the final destination.

So when your actions align with wholesome, positive thoughts like love, kindness, compassion, and generosity, that’s the right kind of effort for your path.

Another important part of reaching your maximum performance is letting situations play out by themselves. Mindfulness is about knowing yourself and focusing on the present, but you have to forget yourself again if you want to reach your highest possible performance level.

Faith is related to the concept of “God” a word that means different things to different people. But the idea of God is really about trusting the divinity within yourself. 

We all have it and we have the potential to awaken it. It doesn’t come from the external environment; you find it by looking within.

Trusting in yourself instead of looking for guidance from others fosters your own self-efficacy. Mindfulness allows you to connect with higher forms of consciousness, and you can build a strong spiritual foundation by practicing it.

It gives you the right type of energy and motivation to push through and succeed. Attention always follows intention and you have to put out into the universe what you want to receive. Keep listening to yourself, your body, your thoughts, your emotions, but deeply listening to others is as important of a skill. It helps in finding your intention and in helping others.

In the sense that they are optimizing for flow and optimal cooperation rather than simply beating the other team. It is a “we” mindset rather than a “me” mindset and one that is focused on growth rather than outcome. Right effort heightens energy rather than detracts from it – it allows you to be present and to become one with those who are working with you on the task at hand.