The Art of Mindfulness: How to Use It for Manifesting Your Pro Cheer Dreams
Mindfulness is a beautiful art that lowers a person’s stress, anxiety, anger, or any level of negative emotion. It can be done by being observant of your thoughts, emotions, and sensations.
Because of this, you’ll be able to let go of the past, stop stressing over the future, and calm yourself in the present to make the best possible decisions today. Mindfulness is essential for aspiring pro cheerleaders because there are a lot of things that could happen in the auditions.
Take a read to discover more about mindfulness, its importance for your pro cheer career, and the various techniques to practice it.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a mental state or type of meditation where you’re being intensely aware of your senses, thoughts, and feelings at any given moment. This is done without you making any judgments or interpretations of whatever is happening around you or what’s going on in your head.
Why is it Important for Your Pro Cheer Career?
Things happen and we react. Most if not all of the actions you made in your life were done due to environmental stimuli and past experiences. Sometimes the action you’ve taken is not for the best. By practicing the art of mindfulness, you can find emotional balance and do the right action to whatever it is you’re facing.
Instead of abandoning your pro cheer dream out of disappointment, a cancellation, or beating yourself out of a simple mistake, you’ll be able to observe your reaction to the problem first. It can also give you the courage to be confident when facing situations that make you anxious. Then, you’ll be able to realize that whatever negativities you’ll feel are just products of your mind and they’ll just pass.
It isn’t about running away, fighting back, or surrendering. It’s about confronting your emotions, making friends with them, and controlling your relationship with them. On the topic of chasing the pro cheer career, you’ll be able to make better decisions to achieve it.
Once you feel discouraged, sad, angry, or anxious, you’ll just say, “If I get rejected, I’ll feel down. Yet, this feeling of negativity will just pass. I’ll apply for another pro cheer team then. But I have to do better next time.”
5 Ways to Practice Mindfulness
1. Observe your breathing
During tense moments, our breathing changes. They are either fast and shallow or deep and irregular. Whichever it is, it can cause our minds to muddle. By observing your breathing in an extreme situation, you’ll be able to bring your breathing back to normal and calm yourself. This tip is very useful for aspiring pro cheerleaders who overthink the auditions.
2. Go for a nature walk
Walk around the nearest park and observe the beauty of nature. Observe your breathing, your every step, the wind blowing, as well as your thoughts. This can get you out of autopilot mode and reopen your inner awareness. If your mind wanders, observe what you’re doing again. You can do this as you finish your morning run.
3. Stop everything and notice
If you feel an emotion you don’t like, stop whatever it is you’re doing. Take notice of how your body feels, the things racing through your mind, and identify the emotion you feel. By doing this you’ll be able to pause and prevent yourself from doing something or making a decision you’ll regret. You’ll need this if you identify yourself as a person who makes a lot of rash decisions.
4. Avoid doing too many things at once
The opposite of mindfulness is your mind on autopilot. And the cause of your mind going full-auto is because you’re doing a multitude of tasks at a given moment. Always aim to do things one at a time. Schedule your audition prep tasks. Know, rank, and set your personal, career, and pro cheer priorities. Time management is the key here.
5. Open up a thought cloud
As cartoonish as it sounds, a thought cloud is an effective strategy to observe your thoughts without any biased interpretation. Now imagine yourself being angry. The thought cloud would probably look like a thundercloud.
Look at the cloud. You might say to yourself, “Oh, I’m angry. This usually won’t end up well.” Because of that, you are now fully aware of what’s going on in your head. This will help you get back into the state of being mindful by doing the exercises to calm yourself down.
Fun fact: Mindfulness is one of the teachings of Buddha towards the path of enlightenment. It is called “Satipatthana” which means “To keep your attention inside.”
Stay updated with Pro Cheer Life's best fitness, beauty, motivation, and audition day tips
Our professional cheerleading community has all the tools and resources you need to achieve your pro cheer goals. Whether you are a dreamer, pro cheer candidate, newbie or veteran, Pro Cheer Life is here to help you succeed.
Join our community by signing up for our mailing list below. What’s in it for you? We offer you free pro cheerleading advice that will boost not just your pro cheer career but also improve other areas of your life.