Vita with Alita
Vita with Alita is your go-to podcast for all things life, strength, and self-growth. Hosted by fitness enthusiast and kinesiology expert Alita Gideon, M.Sc., this show goes beyond reps and routines to explore the full spectrum of vita — Latin for “life.” From physical wellness to mental clarity, confidence, and purpose, Alita brings real talk, real tips, and empowerment to the table.
Whether you're lifting weights, lifting your spirits, or navigating the ups and downs in between, Vita with Alita is here to help you thrive. With a passion for empowering young women, Alita shares smart fitness strategies, lifestyle hacks, and unfiltered conversations designed to inspire a healthy, active, and confident life — inside and out.
More than just a podcast, Vita with Alita is a growing community of women showing up for themselves and for each other — one episode at a time. Because building a strong body is great, but building a strong life and lifting up those around you? That’s the real flex.
Pull up a chair — or a barbell — and let’s get into it :)
No content on this podcast, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
Vita with Alita
Your Brain is Full, But Is Your Mind? A Candid Look at Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become such a buzzword that we often roll our eyes at phrases like "be present" or "enjoy the moment" without truly understanding their power. But what if these clichéd expressions actually hold the key to transforming our daily experience?
This episode dives deep into what mindfulness really means - the practice of intentionally focusing on the present moment without judgment. We explore why this seemingly simple concept is so difficult to maintain in a world that prioritizes productivity and constant achievement. When our minds constantly race between regrets about the past and anxieties about the future, we miss the only moment we can actually control: right now.
The benefits of mindfulness extend far beyond just feeling more relaxed. Research shows practicing awareness can help manage stress, reduce anxiety and depression, prevent overthinking, and even support healthy weight management. By becoming aware of our automatic patterns - like mindlessly snacking while watching TV or grinding our teeth when stressed - we gain the power to interrupt these cycles and make conscious choices instead.
What makes mindfulness so appealing is its accessibility. You don't need special equipment or set aside hours of your day - mindfulness can be incorporated into everyday activities like driving, eating, answering emails, or simply taking a walk. The key is bringing your full attention to whatever you're doing, even for just a few moments. Feel the ground beneath your feet, notice the taste of your food, listen to the sounds around you.
I share fascinating research on how mindfulness improves athletic performance in elite athletes - people who already optimize every aspect of their training and nutrition. The mental clarity that comes from mindfulness practice gives them an edge by helping them see situations clearly without emotional reactivity, recover better from injuries, and perform under pressure.
Next time you find yourself overthinking or feeling overwhelmed, try taking just a few seconds to become aware of your surroundings, your breath, and the miracle that your body performs every day just to keep you alive. You can think of mindfulness like this: t's like you've been watching life through a dirty window, and mindfulness just helped you wipe it clean.
What would change if you experienced life as mindfully as your dog does on your daily walk? Listen to discover how small moments of awareness can transform your entire perspective.
Let's get in touch! You can email any inquiries (or just say hello) at hello@vitawithalita.com or visit vitawithalita.com
Paper discussed in this episode: Anderson, Scott A. MS1; Haraldsdottir, Kristin PhD2; Watson, Drew MD, MS3. Mindfulness in Athletes. Current Sports Medicine Reports 20(12):p 655-660, December 2021. | DOI: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000919
Episode cover: https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail/health-mindfulness/
What's up and welcome back to another episode of Alita with Alita. I'm your host, alita, and this week we're diving into the topic of mindfulness. If you're anything like me, you probably overthink everything. So like every single thing you overthink. If not, you've probably then heard of quotes like oh, life is so short, enjoy the present moment, be present. And I feel like sometimes, when we hear these things, we just roll our eyes, we look over it, we don't really take into account what's being said. And this week I kind of want to dive into that, dive into specifically what these phrases are and look at what we term mindfulness. So these quotes or phrases are sayings to kind of remind us to be present.
Speaker 1:I think we've all heard of mindfulness. I touched upon it last week in the episode about yoga, but mindfulness is a little more general, so we're going to look at it today in a more general form and as a whole. So, like I said, I think we've all heard of mindfulness. But what exactly is it? And like, why is mindfulness so important? So, mindfulness is the practice of intentionally focusing your attention on the present moment, without judgment, which is an important factor. So, without judgment, to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings and sensations. It involves observing experiences without getting carried away by them or reacting automatically. That last part is for me. So, without getting carried away, getting carried away. So that's what mindfulness is. Why is it important? Why do we care? Well, in today's world, I think routine being productive is such a priority. So I look, I love routine. Routine is my jam. If I wake up and I know what I'm doing and I know what's happening, I feel safe, I feel comfortable. So routine is definitely my thing. But it's so easy, especially when you're in a routine, to just fall like on autopilot mode and to just be going through the motions and just doing what you have to do because it's part of the routine and you're not really thinking about it. What you have to do because it's part of the routine and you're not really thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Another example of why mindfulness is important is maybe sometimes it's not like about going through the motions, but maybe your mind is just not there. So, for example, have you ever had the situation where you're sitting in a group and your friends are talking and everything, and you're there physically but you're not paying attention to what's being said? You're in your own mind. You're not really contributing to the conversation and, honestly, like you might as well not be there because your mind is not there, your body is sitting there but you're not there. Or have you ever experienced that where your friend is like not there and then you kind of ask like, hey, are you okay? What's wrong? Like you can tell when something's off and their mind is not present in the moment? And the reason that I bring this up is because what's the point of being there if you're not really there, if you're not engaging and you're not present with the people in front of you, what's the point of you sitting there? You know what I mean. So that's where mindfulness is important. It adds that little. It adds importance to the things that you are doing every day.
Speaker 1:All right, so we went over what is mindfulness and that definition and how. It's about being present without judgment. It's about being present and looking at what's going on, but without allowing those things to take over your thoughts and to hijack your brain and you get into, like this overthinking spiral. Okay, but why is this important? Well, one, we kind of touched upon it. It'll help you just enjoy each moment.
Speaker 1:You only have one life, all right, and I know that's so cliche, but truly, let's just take a second to think about that. You literally have one life on this earth. You don't know when it's going to end. To be honest Like not to sound dark here, but like it could end any moment. You really don't know and you don't know what's going to happen. So you should just be enjoying what is happening. If you keep banking on the future to make you happier, you keep thinking about a future or like a reality that's not truly in front of you you're just robbing yourself of the time that you currently have. Just enjoy it. Be present. You're here right now and that you do know and that you can control. You can control what you're doing right now.
Speaker 1:So that's why one of the main reasons why being mindful is important. Other reasons include things like it can help manage stress. It can help you cope better when life circumstances change or if you have, like, a serious illness, which is a big one, especially when it's not expected out of nowhere. Life throws us a curveball and then you're like whoa. But mindfulness can maybe help you cope with it a little bit better. It can reduce anxiety and depression. It can help you pay attention to your thoughts, your actions and your body. So, for example, mindfulness has been shown to help people achieve and maintain healthy weight, which is a big one.
Speaker 1:So when you practice mindfulness and you start applying it to your life, you start becoming aware of little things like what you're eating, how your body feels your body as a whole, and this the perfect example for this is like when you're eating how your body feels your body as a whole, and this the perfect example for this is like when you're sitting and watching TV and you're just snacking. By mindlessly snacking and not paying attention, you might overeat. You might be eating just to eat. You're not really hungry, you might be doing whatever, and that's where mindfulness comes in. Like mindfulness would be taking a second to be like okay, how am I feeling right now? Am I still hungry? Am I still craving this? No, yes, all right, I can act accordingly. So that's an example of that.
Speaker 1:Another benefit of mindfulness it can help you. It can prevent you from overthinking or stressing out things that you aren't able to control. So a big thing of mindfulness is kind of looking at the circumstances in your life right now and accepting them in a non-judgmental way, like you're not going to sit there and say, well, if you just did this yesterday, then you could have prevented this today, and then this, and that you have to be non-judgmental. You have to understand. Okay, this is where I am today, this is what's happening in my life right now. I am aware of it. Yes, and mindfulness is not about just like giving up and saying, hey, whatever, this is what it is, I'm not going to do anything about it. No, it's just about saying, okay, this is what it is, I'm going to, I can't change it. Not much I can do about it, but I am aware of it. So now I can think more clearly about next steps. So you can think of it that way and it helps you from overthinking, because, honestly, overthinking half the time does not half all the time. Actually, I'm not going to lie to myself Overthinking doesn't get you anywhere except leaving you stressed and leaving you feel like uneasy with yourself half the time, or like I keep saying half the time, but a lot of time, when we overthink situations like they rarely ever happen, or the you know, when you overthink about like something and then it happens and you're like that was not even that bad.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because your brain just like amplified the situation. No wonder it wasn't that bad when it actually happened in real life. And stressing about things you can't control does not do anything. It's not going to change what's going to happen. It's not going to make you have more control over it, because control is this illusion, all right. So you have no idea what's going to happen. So stressing about it is not going to get you anywhere.
Speaker 1:And practicing mindfulness helps to keep that in check. If you feel like you're spiraling and then you realize, okay, what am I doing right now and you take a step back, it can help to ease that anxiety that you may be feeling. That you may be feeling and, in a nutshell, basically, mindfulness reminds you that you're here right now, in this moment. It reminds you you're alive, it reminds you that you're breathing. Look, it's a miracle. We all woke up this morning. And I'm just talking about, like, the things your body goes through to keep you functioning, and I can appreciate if someone doesn't have a strong background in like science or how the body works. But just think about it very simply, like I'm not going to get into all the details here, but your body, think of every single cell in your body and everything your cells have to do to work together, to be together, to make you here, present, alive, and breathing right now, like, just think of breathing. We don't have to remind ourselves to breathe, but our body just does it. Your body, your heart just beats, your thoughts just happen, you just blink. All these things happen. Your food gets digested. All these things are happening without us thinking about it and, honestly, it's a miracle in and of itself. Even when you sleep, the act of just waking up again is an amazing thing your body does every single morning. So being mindful just helps. You probably appreciate that being present reminds you of that. Like whoa, everything my body had to do to get me here in this moment is amazing and a miracle in and of itself. A little something for you to think about.
Speaker 1:Another benefit of mindfulness, or being mindful, is it can help you learn to kind of let go of the past. Again, another cliche, you know, like your past is your past. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, it's cliche, but I think it's cliche for a reason. A lot of the time, our thoughts about the past or our regrets of the past, or us dwelling in the past, holds us back from growing, holds us back from seeing opportunities in front of us, holds us back from the future, a beautiful future that you can have because you're still alive right now. Why are you living in a past moment? Like regretting decisions that you made is not fair to you. You have to give yourself the benefit of the doubt that you made a decision based on all the information that you had at the time and that you did the best that you can do.
Speaker 1:Being mindful is like not forgetting your past, like it's just accepting it and saying, okay, that's what happened, but I am here today and this is what's happening right now also allows you to potentially forgive the mistakes that other people may have made. And I'm saying this kind of past, like learning to let go of the past, also to myself. I am very hard on myself. I think a lot about decisions I've made and what I could have done differently, and also I kind of sometimes have a hard time forgiving other people who may have made decisions in their life that impacted me. Being able to let go of those things help you to declutter your mind and leave space for new opportunities. Leave space for new things to come into your life and to be able to receive them. So being mindful is an important tool we can all benefit from, and those are just some of the benefits that being mindful can offer to you.
Speaker 1:And it's especially relevant in today's world where, as I've mentioned a little bit earlier in the episode, we are kind of in this era where productivity is prioritized. So how many tasks can you get done in the day? I'm not against productivity. If anything, I thrive, like I said, on routine and being productive. And mindfulness is not about putting those things aside and not getting your work done. It's about still being productive, but while you're completing a task, being aware of what you're doing in that moment while completing that task.
Speaker 1:Look, that was a mouthful, so I'll give you an example. So, for example, let's say you're answering a work email Instead of frantically trying to finish and get it done as fast as possible, just take a sec as you're typing, listen to the keyboard, sound your fingers tapping on the keyboard. Look at the screen. Look at the background that you chose for your Gmail account. Look at the font you're using. Think of your body. Is my position? How's my posture? Are my shoulders slugged? Am I looking like? Am I sitting properly in my chair? These are just things to be aware of. And then just take a deep breath, just say, oh hey, I'm here, I'm alive and I'm answering this email, and you just continue like you're still going to write the email, you're still going to send it, but you're just present that you're doing that task.
Speaker 1:It might sound a little bit weird, some people might think it's a waste of time, but it's these little moments that you take throughout the day that accumulate over time for the overall benefit, and that's what's important here. It's not going to be that one moment that's going to change your life. It's going to be the accumulation of those little moments throughout the day to help you be more present. A personal example of this is I have a problem where I kind of grind my teeth. This most likely comes from like stress, being anxious, things like that, and my dentist was honestly like, look, whenever you notice, you grind your teeth just like stop. And at first I was like, yeah, that's easy. But then what if you just never notice? Like how are you supposed to stop if you never notice? Like, how are you supposed to stop if you never notice? But by putting like a reminder on my phone or, you know, practicing, becoming more aware. You're able to then think, okay, what's happening right now? And then I started becoming aware of those moments where I was grinding my teeth and I was able to stop myself. So little things like that.
Speaker 1:Now we talked about mindfulness, what it is, the importance of mindfulness, and why it could truly enhance your life overall. So let's look at some tools that we can use for mindfulness. Now, I think the best part about this practice is that it's honestly accessible to everyone. You don't need you honestly just need yourself and the daily tasks that you're doing, and that's it, and the daily tasks that you're doing, and that's it. Now we talked about some tools previously in other episodes, and these include things like journaling or like yoga, where you can incorporate those in your life to help you practice mindfulness. Yes, but you don't really need it if those are not things that you want to add to your life. Now for these tools, especially like yoga or like journaling or whatever, it's important to not fall into the trap of where you add these tools to your everyday life but then they become part of your routine, so you're completing them on autopilot. It's very easy to be doing something every day just to do it to get the task done. So like, let's say, journaling and I mentioned that I am someone who enjoys journaling when you start doing it every day, you're only doing it to get it done.
Speaker 1:So those little prompts that you're answering in the morning, you're not really thinking about it anymore. You're just writing something down to say you wrote it and to check it off your list. Being mindful is going to take a little more effort than that it wrote it and to check it off your list. Being mindful is going to take a little more effort than that. It's going to be like okay, look, this tool is here to help me, but don't just do it to do it. When you read the prompt, take like two seconds to think about it when it says what are you grateful for today? Being mindful is okay. I'm going to sit there and think like, look around, take a deep breath, what am I actually grateful for right now? So don't fall into the trap of putting these actions on autopilot, because then you're defeating the purpose of being mindful.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, being mindful it's not hard in and of itself. You just have to remember phone called Chill I think it was free from the app store and this app. You can set it up so it can send you notifications throughout the day to remind you to be mindful, and I know I know more notifications another app, blah, blah, blah. Like we try not to use our phones and all these things. But I just found it helpful where it literally will send me a notification, like you can set the frequency up the way you like, but it'll send you notifications saying, hey, take a breath right now, look around you, and I think it's. It's nice because the phone is always near us. Like, let's be real here. Our phone is an important factor in our lives nowadays, but let's use it as a tool to our advantage. If I can get a notification reminding me to breathe and to be present, then why not? If the app is not your thing, you can always set yourself like reminders throughout the day, just whatever and whatever prompt you want to write on that reminder you can. So things like that.
Speaker 1:But another way that you can increase your mindfulness is becoming mindful when completing daily like mundane tasks. So we touched upon this a little bit earlier when I talked about when you're answering an email, but think of every single thing you do in the day. You can include mindfulness in it. It's not like you have to set aside well, you can if you want, but you don't have to set aside this like specific block of time where that's where you do your mindfulness practice and that's it. The mindfulness is going to appear in your everyday tasks and that's going to help you to practice to be mindful and, overall, improve your mindfulness as you practice.
Speaker 1:So increasing it in your everyday tasks, like when you're driving. When you're driving, it's so easy for your mind to just drift and think about other things. But like listen to the radio what is the person on the radio saying? Listen to the rain, to the raindrops on the window. Look around you, look at the color of the cars, like, smell your car freshener. Like, just be mindful in those tasks that you are doing every day, and even just for a few moments.
Speaker 1:I'm not asking you to be mindful every single second of the day in the sense of like you're going to be present in every moment and never think back or ahead. That in and of itself is exhausting and is not going to really get you anywhere. I'm talking about mindfulness, those little moments in the day for yourself where you get to be mindful. And now being mindful. I don't want to undermine the importance of like planning and, you know, looking at your agenda and saying, okay, what do I have to do today? And or if you're in the car thinking about what has to be done next, like those are things that have to happen. You have to think about future directions and steps that you want to take, but being mindful can be a tool to help you gain clarity about those future directions. So, rather than overthinking and spiraling and overwhelming yourself with the future or what needs to happen next, you take a moment to be mindful and you clear your mind from all the clutter and then you can say, okay, you took a moment for yourself, now I'm ready to move on.
Speaker 1:The main takeaway when thinking about mindfulness is, if this is your last moment, you want to be able to take full advantage of it. You don't want your last moment you to be drifting and not present and just spiraling. You want to take full advantage of it. When you're drinking your coffee, that first sip, enjoy it, feel it on your tongue. When you're eating, enjoy the food you are eating. When you're working out, it's easy to get to just like get lost in the sets and not think about the exercise that you are doing, but there's literally something called mind-muscle connection and it helps to improve your training. So, even when, like vacuuming or cleaning, or when walking, feel the ground under your feet. So that's all we're asking just to be a little more mindful in those tasks that you're doing every day, so that you are truly benefiting of every moment that you are walking on this earth.
Speaker 1:Another thing I found that helped me to be more mindful is to go out in nature. Go outside, look at some nature, feel the breeze on your face, smell the fresh air. If you cannot go outside, look outside of a window, just stare at the tree, stare at the sky, just connect with nature. Connecting with nature is a very accessible, easy, free way to gain mindfulness, and I think everyone can do it. Just look outside.
Speaker 1:So something I want to emphasize is that, with all of these tools and tips and tricks and all these things, like everything else we've ever discussed, it takes effort and time to become mindful. You're not going to become mindful overnight. You're not going to become mindful after downloading some app. Being mindful requires you to remember to be mindful and requires you to practice so that your brain can naturally become more mindful. So, if you decide that you're going to add mindfulness to your life by going on daily walks, it might work the first three days where you're on those walks and you're aware of your surroundings and of the nature around you, but then eventually, when that walk becomes part of your routine, you're going to start drifting when you're on your walk and you're going to stop being mindful. So, yes, you're still putting the effort by going on the walk, but you're the purpose of the walk. You lost the purpose of the walk. It's no longer the same. So that's where the effort comes in. It's, yes, you're still putting the effort to go on the walk, but you're putting the effort that, while on that walk, you're remaining mindful and over time, your brain will adapt to catch itself when you are drifting, when you are overthinking, and that way you will naturally become more mindful.
Speaker 1:Now a study that I would like to share with you. Uh, it's called mindfulness in athletes. It's a review, and I specifically picked this study because because of the population um, it looks at so athletes, and I think they are a good example. I think athletes are a good example for us to look at Because they are people who are usually goal oriented and productive, so every minute kind of counts. So when it comes to your training, when it comes to sleep, when it comes to recovery, everything always counts and they're always working towards bettering their performance. I think that could be applied to a lot of us, maybe not in an athletic way, but if at work, or if you're just an overall goal-oriented person or somebody who likes to benefit from every moment of the day.
Speaker 1:Using the athlete as an example, I think helps us to visualize here some of the benefits that can come from mindfulness. So overall studies have shown that mindfulness practice can actually help athletes with overall athletic performances, and I think this is really cool, because athletes are those type of people who tend to do all the right things, especially when it comes to training, eating and recovery. So they kind of have all of that figured out. But this little added bonus of shifting your mentality or getting your head in the right space just enhances all of that, all those tasks that they are already doing to enhance their athletic performance. So I think it's cool. It just maybe could help differentiate athletes, like on a different level, like what's the difference between a good athlete and an extremely good athlete. It could just be that shift in mindset that we are seeing here, especially when it comes to mindfulness, because at the baseline, both of these athletes are doing all the right things, but one might just be more mindful than the other and you can see that through athletic performance.
Speaker 1:Now, I mentioned earlier that part of mindfulness is being non-judgmental, and something that this review pointed out, which I thought was interesting, is that in athletes which are highly goal-oriented people, having this non-judgmental component of mindfulness can be seen as like giving up. It shouldn't be seen this way. It should be seen as just the awareness of present circumstances, but not folding to those present circumstances. And the distinction here is being aware of your present circumstances means you're not living in denial. So, for example, as an athlete, if you go through an injury and you can't play, you are present and you are aware of what is happening. You're aware that you are injured and you're aware of the situation you're in. But it doesn't mean you're not going to go to rehab and just say, well, it is what it is. You're still going to put in the work and go to rehab and try to get better. But being aware of the situation means, first of all, you're not living in denial, so you're not continuing to play just because you refuse to be injured. It means you're accepting that you're injured and you're aware of it, and then you can clearly think of the next steps you're going to take to become better, to then go and play even better. So that's something I wanted to point out the non-judgmental portion. Even for us, it's not about just saying, hey, it is what it is, and then you don't do anything. It's just about being aware so you can have that clarity to then take those next steps.
Speaker 1:In athletes, mindfulness-specific training has been shown to help in well-being, mental health issues, so especially things like burnout, athletic performance, injury and illness prevention, and as well as recovery and return to sport. And I think this all ties in to how. When the athlete asks themselves, or when they are practicing, when they are engaging in those mindful practices, asking, okay, how am I feeling? When they are engaging in those mindful practices, asking, okay, how am I feeling? How's my body feeling right now? Is this okay? What am I doing right now? It can help them to enhance their performance by ensuring that they are in the best mental capacity possible to do the tasks required of them. At the end of the day, the study is saying that mindfulness practice can help to enhance athletic performance and in a population like athletes, it's very cool because they seem to be doing all the right things and just adding this one little cherry on top of mindfulness seems to enhance their already good performance.
Speaker 1:So, at the end of the day, I urge you to take steps to become more mindful in your everyday lives. It doesn't have to be something dreadful where you're taking an hour away from your life to become mindful, just taking those few moments in the day to be aware, to appreciate that you're alive, to appreciate that you are currently breathing, to appreciate the people in front of you, to practice being mindful for your overall well-being, for your overall health, to help declutter your mind. Enjoy life for what it is. I want to end off by kind of painting this picture of a cartoon I saw and I thought it was really cute.
Speaker 1:The picture is just somebody walking their dog and you can see a thought bubble on top of the person and it's like busy. It has the person's thinking about their problems, about money, about work, whatever, and you can see it's very, it's very cluttered and on top of the bubble it says mindful, like two words the mind and then full F-U-L-L, and then there's the thought bubble on top of the dog and on top of the dog's thought bubble it's just a smaller picture of what you're seeing, so there's like the trees and the sun, and then on top of that bubble it says mindful, like the one word, like we've been discussing in this whole episode and I know it's not, it's simple, but it kind of made me laugh a little bit how your dog. The dog is just aware. It's looking at the tree, it sees a tree, it's thinking about the tree and they're probably enjoying their walk so much more than their owner, enjoying their walk so much more than their owner.
Speaker 1:So key takeaway here is if you can practice little daily mindfulness, I think it will truly benefit you, it will truly enhance your life. It'll make you appreciate life a little bit more and maybe change the way you think about about life and the circumstances that you might find yourself in. Anyway, that's all I have for for this week. As always, I have the study citation in the show notes and I thank you for your attention, for your time, and I hope to see you next week. Take care, bye-bye. Outro Music yeah.
