On an Old Book, Mindfulness, and Block Practice
Not fully sure what port I'm sailing to with this one, but I think I caught a favorable wind by the end, despite what Seneca warned us about.
Over twenty five years ago, Bob Cullen* wrote Why Golf?, which remains an intriguing read for any golfer who has ever wondered something along the lines of, “why in the world does this game hold so much of our attention?”
Through conversations with experts, Cullen dug deep into several theories as to why humans have been enamored with golf for centuries. There was the psychiatrist who explained the innate explorative-assertive motivational system we all have and another expert who lectured Cullen on our evolutionary psychological attraction to “prospect environments”. While these sound like dense, esoteric topics, the book is a fun read – I promise. (But probably only if you love golf.)
More recently, I was having a discussion with some fellow golf sickos. The original purpose of the conversation was to get together and discuss Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way (I’m not the only one, apparently, that sees how Stoicism makes for a great golf mindset) but as group conversations often do, the topic drifted and we got onto tricks and hacks for staying focused on the golf course, which in turn drifted to the benefits of mindfulness meditation and the benefits of anchoring your attention on the breath or another sensation**.
There is a misconception that the point of mindfulness meditation is to reach a state of calm, blissful, Zen. Rather, the point of mindfulness meditation is to simply notice when you are distracted (which will always happen) and bring your attention back to the breath or your anchor of choice, and the repetitive act of doing so, if you trust the process, builds up the “brain muscles” responsible for preventing us from endless distraction, daydreaming, and ruminating. Attention drifts off, you realize it, you focus your mind again, it drifts off, you realize it, you re-focus, lather, rinse, repeat.
Even more recently, I was in a practice session, trying to ingrain a movement pattern. Frankly, the movement pattern has me hitting the ball better and more consistently than at any other time in my long, long time playing this sport but even so, after a poor swing on the range, I might find myself getting distracted and thinking about another movement pattern – maybe something I read or saw on YouTube or Instagram, who knows. After another mediocre swing or two, I realized hey, you aren’t paying attention to your intention, c’mon man. I went back to the pattern that has been working for a while now and the shots felt solid and pure again.
After the session, a thought came to mind: is it possible that one of the reasons we are so enamored with golf is the same reason that we find mindfulness meditation to be beneficial? On some level, do we know that bringing our minds back to the task at hand and not being distracted by thoughts or feelings or swing thoughts or swing feelings is what’s best for us? Maybe. Sure seems like, at the very least, it’s worth adding this to the very long list of reasons we love golf.
Seneca wrote, “To be everywhere is to be nowhere” and this little essay is becoming a bit everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. I’ll close with this: next time you are on a practice range and as the crazy loud huge aluminum mechanical box deposits a hundred balls in that green plastic basket, ask yourself, “what am I trying to accomplish today?” Make a point to work on that one thing and one thing only with each ball that you rake from the bucket. No big deal if your mind drifts for a swing or two, but realize that, say to yourself, “not now monkey mind” and re-focus on your original intention.
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*If you recognize that name, Cullen was a professional writer who co-authored many of Bob Rotella’s books on golf psychology and mindset.
** Yes, I too see the irony in a conversation about focus meandering to and fro’ on adjacent topics.