You have probably read or heard that mindfulness training has value for serious archers. I have advocated that myself. But there seems to be some confusion over mindfulness, that is what that term means. I was reading a mental...
You have probably read or heard that mindfulness training has value for serious archers. I have advocated that myself. But there seems to be some confusion over mindfulness, that is what that term means.
I was reading a mental game book and this quote was offered “Mindfulness is a pause–the space between stimulus and response–that’s where choice lies.” (Tara Brach)
Uh, no. That is not mindfulness or even something close. I was taught that principle as a principle governing creative action decades ago. If you do not open up some time between a stimulus and your response, you are acting as an automaton. Opening up that gap allows for various options for a response to be considered and that makes you a more thoughtful person. To not do so means you will respond the same way to the same stimuli over and over and over . . . and who wants to be that predictable?
Then, in short order, I read that mindfulness was “being in the moment.” Close but no cigar. I have used that phrase when promoting “shooting in the now” by avoiding thoughts about former shots or future outcomes, etc. but it is a short phrase to be used with those who already know what you are talking about, not when trying to explain the concept for the first time.
Mindfulness is allowing your mind to be open to all that is going on around you without judgment or opinion. Allowing your mind to be filled by such sensory data means there is no room for fears, worries, predictions, etc. One can be “in the present moment” while blocking out everything that might be coming in, aka not being mindful, but being mindempty. (I know this because I was doing just that while I was trying to learn how to meditate. I asked my teacher “People report seeing all kinds of things while meditating but all I see is a blank.” He responded with “Did you look?”) Mindfulness is looking, hearing, feeling, etc. . . . everything everywhere all at once, to use a movie title.
Mindfulness as it applies to archery is a restricted form. It is being mindful of just a short list of things related to making a shot. It is not just the items on your shot sequence because it includes being open to distractions that, when recognized, cause us to let down and start over. (Shot sequences are lists of what is to be attended to, in what order, but as such they have been truncated, tightened up so they are not cumbersome.) Only things related to the current shot are we supposed to be mindful about.
Mindfulness training, therefore, is like gym training. In a gym you can develop more strength, stamina, etc. but those do not affect your shots directly. They prepare you to “shoot your last shot as you shot your first,” etc. Mindfulness training prepares you to fill your mind in the present moment with what is going on around you, something you do not want to do while shooting. The color of the grass, shapes of overhead clouds, the smell of lunch being cooked, etc. are all things that you could be mindful of but are counterproductive. You and your students need to practice filling your minds with each and every aspect of the shot you are shooting now, nothing more, nothing less.