Mindful performance

Authors

Shaun Gallagher, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

139482

Publication Details

Gallagher, S. (2020). Mindful performance. The Extended Theory of Cognitive Creativity (pp. 43-58). Switzerland: Springer Nature.

Abstract

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. In this chapter I explore several variations of mindfulness in performance, and I focus specifically on variations of self-awareness in these practices. I take an enactivist approach, clarifying first why enactivism is not a form of behaviorism. I argue that phenomenologically inspired enactivist conceptions of perception and action are neither mindless, in a naïve behavioristic way, nor overly cognitivist, but do involve aspects of mindfulness that support embodied performance. I'll look at examples from athletics, dance and musical performance. Finally, I'll consider the status of self in mindful practices that are sometimes described as attaining mindless or selfless states.