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Habit and mindfulness-based interventions
In contrast to being mindful, the individual will engage in thoughtless automatic and stereotypical actions when reactions are instinctive and without much awareness or thought, in essence, habitual behaviour. Individuals are likely to develop habitual behaviour if they are not paying enough attention to themselves since a sufficient degree of attention to oneself is necessary to exert self regulatory processes (Brown et al., 2007). This is specifically important when influencing health behaviour. Fulwiler, Brewer, Sinnot and Loucks (2015) acknowledged that traditional health behaviour interventions tended to focus on changing or creating habitual behaviour (such as eating and exercise habits) in an attempt to assist individuals in living healthier lives. They also contended that not enough emphasis has been placed on the reasons why unhealthy behaviour originated in the first place. Stress and emotions could be the cause of unhealthy habits and therefore mindfulness-based interventions deserve attention (Fulwiler et al., 2015). In a study involving one individual who went through a mindfulness-based smoking cessation programme, the value of mindfulness training proved significant in assisting the individual to stop smoking for a period of four years after the programme ended (Singh et al., 2011). Through becoming more aware of his smoking habit and learning to regulate his behaviour and coping with emotions, the individual was enabled to become more conscious of his health behaviour. Even though only one man with a mild mental disability participated in this particular study, it is noteworthy because he was able to regulate his smoking behaviour successfully following a mindfulness-based intervention programme. Complementing this one-man-study is the work of Davis, Fleming, Bonus and Baker (2007) who found individuals who participated in a mindfulness-based intervention programme and
continued with meditation practices, quit smoking and reduced their levels of stress and emotional distress. It seems that being mindful has an impact on behaviour, and in these studies, on habitual behaviour. When dealing with weight loss, Fulwiler et al. (2015) found mindfulness-based intervention to be specifically vital in developing self-efficacy in individuals, which assists individuals to deal with stress and negative emotions and in turn prevents emotional eating leading to overweight and other health problems such as cardiovascular disease. Although there is no evidence indicating that mindfulness-based intervention programmes are more effective than other interventions in dealing with weight loss and management of cardiovascular risk, it is vital to note that studies based on mindfulness-based intervention have had positive results in managing weight (Fulwiler et al., 2015).
On being a role model
Charles highlighted personal traits and upbringing of athletes and how that either motivate towards them being good role models or subtracts from their roles as inspirational athletes that the younger generation can look up to. He argued that a person should not be an automatic role model just because the person excels in physical activities. He wondered why only sportspeople are chosen by society to be role models. He felt that people from all walks of life should be able to have an opportunity to inspire others by being seen as role models. Charles argued further that it is unfair to a sportsperson to be seen as a role model and also expected to act like a role model, just because he has exceptional skills in sport. He felt that the person should at least be given a choice. People do not all have good upbringings and this will influence the decisions that they make as adults. For him, a good role model is an athlete that has grown emotionally throughout his sport career. By being involved for a considerable time in sport, gives the athlete the opportunities to grow and learn and it is these skills that role models need to infuse in the younger generation.
CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH GOAL
1.1 Overview
1.2 Context
1.3 Research problem
1.4 Research question
1.5 Research design and method
1.6 Aims
1.7 Objectives
1.8 Structure of study
1.9 Summary
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: HABITS, MINDFULNESS AND VALUES
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Habits
2.3 Mindfulness
2.4 Values
2.5 Summary
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Purpose of the research
3.3 Research position: Mixed methods research
3.4 Research design: Fixed method design
3.5 Measuring instruments
3.6 Phases of research
3.7 Integrating data analysis from the qualitative and quantitative phases
3.8 Ethical considerations
3.9 Quality assurance
3.10 Hypothesis
3.11 Conclusive overview of the methodology
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS: PHASE 1 QUALITATIVE DATA
4.1 Athletes’ experiences and understanding of habits
4.2 Athletes’ experiences of mindfulness in sport
4.3 Athletes’ experiences of values in sport
4.4 Summary
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION: PHASE 1 QUALITATIVE DATA
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Psychological dynamics in the formation and maintenance of performance facilitating habits
5.3 The relationship between mindfulness and habits of elite athletes
5.4 The effect of values on the formation and maintenance of performance facilitating habits
5.5 Summary
CHAPTER 6: RESULTS: PHASE 2 QUALITATIVE DATA
6.1 Which behaviour do you generally tend to repeat? How does this impact your
life?
6.2 More specifically, do you have any habits that influence your sport either positively or negatively? What are these habits and how do they influence your sport positively or negatively?
6.3 How do you think the habit of « focusing » impact your sport performance?
6.4 Do you tend to stick to what worked in the past or do you constantly try to find new ways of staying ahead of your competitors? How do you try to stay ahead of the rest?
6.5 Do you have certain behaviour in your training sessions that you try to repeat during competition time? What are these habits and why do you try to make them part of training and competition?
6.6 Leading up to competition, do you find yourself repeating behaviour or thoughts that you engaged in before the start of other competitions? What are they and why do you think you tend to repeat them?
6.7 Have people ever told you that you have a certain habit? Why did they say so and did you agree? What was this habit(s)?
6.8 How has participating in sport changed any of your good/bad habits you had before you became an athlete?
6.9 Which habits do you think athletes in your sport code should have and why are they necessary?
CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION: PHASE 2 QUALITATIVE DATA
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Psychological dynamics in the formation and maintenance of performance facilitating habits
7.3 Summary
CHAPTER 8: RESULTS: PHASE 2 QUANTITATIVE DATA
8.1 Aims and objectives
8.2 Description of the sample
8.3 Athletes’ reflections/opinions on concepts derived from Phase 1 data
8.4 List of measuring instruments
8.5 Statistical analysis
8.6 Habits – Results of the Shadowmatch™ Worksheet
8.7 Values – Results of the Value Checklist and Portrait Values Questionnaire
8.8 Mindfulness – Results of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
8.9 Correlations between the three different measuring instruments (FFMQ, PVQ and Shadowmatch™ Worksheet)
8.10 Conclusion
8.11 Summary
CHAPTER 9: FINAL DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Consequential discussion
9.3 Limitations of the study
9.4 Recommendations for future research
9.5 Conclusion and reflective thoughts
References
