EVENING!! Mindfulness, when I think about mindfulness communication is the first thing that comes to mind. I can talk, I can talk for quite some time too. I am sure that if you go ask anyone on the team who talks the most, they will say DiDi Richards. Another characteristic that really defines me is competitor. I am one of the most competitive people you will ever know. With being competitive comes delivery to me team, if we are losing or something was done wrong how do you communicate that to your team? I have struggled with this for quite sometime now, since before high school. My freshman year at Baylor my coach challenged me to be mindful of my delivery and how I talk to people on the court. It was probably one of the most difficult things I had to do, but it was keeping me from being great one day.

There are so many stories that I could think about for mindfulness but that was the first story to come to mind. Mindfulness is something that is going on at all times around us, it is just a matter of emphasizing it. Griffin et.al. defines mindfulness as “a presence or awareness of what participants are making in the midst of their conversation,” (73). In the same paragraph Griffin et. al. further defines mindfulness as “observers willing to step back and look for places in the conversational flow where they can say or do something that will make the situation better for everyone involved,” (73). Toward the end of the page Griffin et. al. discovered “it helpful to respond to challenging or boorish statements with phrases that showed curiosity rather than offense,” (73).

In order to be mindful of something, you have to know that something is wrong. I knew what I was doing was wrong, I knew that my delivery needed work. It took my coach telling me in order to be mindful of how I was talking to my teammates. The first quote supports my experience, but more on the awareness side of things. I needed to become aware of the situation and how heated the moment was before I just yelled what I wanted to yell. I also needed to be more aware of my emptions before I said whatever I needed to say. The second quote further emphasizes my experience but more on the back end of the situation. That quote shows the person I am now and what I do instead of just talking before listening. I learned to sit back and wait before I speak on what I have to say. Lastly, the third quote shows the tone of voice that is needed in order to appeal to the group you are speaking to. I realized if I really wanted to get to my team I have to really just talk normal, whether they hear you or not talking normal is the only way some understand that you aren’t mad or yelling at them.

when all else fails, make them laugh.