High performers build out the secret weapon of mindfulness in their lives by first understanding that most of our mental activity is automatic. Our brain is constantly generalizing, simplifying and excluding relevant information in an attempt to comprehend the world. Our brain is also wired for speed because that gives us a survival advantage. We’re set up to make quick evaluations that involve unambiguous categories of all or nothing thinking.
It’s through the skill and practice of mindfulness that we learn to become more flexible with the story we’re telling ourselves. We can critically question the mental model that we’re building to ensure it’s one that allows us to expand and grow rather than constrict and stagnate.
This is how high performers use mindfulness to awaken more cognitive skills and therefore more potential in their brain. With so much of our mental activity on autopilot, our capacity to make high quality choices for ourselves really does boil down to knowing the nature of our brain and using mindfulness to intervene in our otherwise automatic ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. This is how we gain control from an internal perspective and develop the ability to make choices that are in alignment with our deepest values.
– Coach Liane
