Mindfulness has become a panacea for well-being and performance and is widely used in workplaces, schools… and sports. Many sport psychology studies have documented its benefits for athletes and it has become one of the main topics of sport psychology conferences. Dr Dev Roychowdhury and Dr Maria Luisa Guinto visited the meaningful sport podcast to discuss why, despite all the documented benefits, we need to take a critical look into how mindfulness is appropriated in sport psychology practice.
I had the opportunity to get to know Dev and Marissa a couple of years ago and work together on an article that focused on the transnational migration of mindfulness and what was gained and what was lost when mindfulness became mainstream in sport psychology. In today’s episode, we will explore some of the arguments and share some stories behind the research.
The first part starts by stories from Dev and Marissa and how their sense of dissatisfaction with current mindfulness research in sport psychology relates to how they had learned to know mindfulness in their own cultural contexts.
Part 1 here:
The second part of the conversation moves on to discuss how mindfulness could or should inform practical sport psychology work; the importance of intercultural dialogues on the meaning and practice of mindfulness; and how researchers might want to consider the critiques of mindfulness in their future research work.
Part 2 here:
Dr Maria Luisa Guinto is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and Dr Dev Roychowdhury is a researcher and practitioner based in Melbourne, Australia.
Further resources to explore the topic can be found in Dev Roychowdhury’s blog.