5/20/26

Greetings Creators, Collaborators, Focus-Finders, Habit-Breakers, and Hope-Bringers!

Some dear friends of mine introduced me to the game of pickleball a few years back. And let me just tell you...I fell in love with this game. For so many reasons.

Here’s one...deployment of a Jedi practice.

For those who may not know: in pickleball, you can only score a point when you’re the server. But here’s the catch—if your serve doesn’t land cross-court inside the correct boundary, it’s a fault.
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​Translation: no point, no chance, game moves on. You sabotage your own ability to score before the rally even begins.

So you can imagine the importance of a “good” serve.

I LOVE playing this game! But lately, my conundrum has been just this...getting my serves in. Sounds small, but in doubles, when most of your serves drift out of bounds? Not great.

Enter the Jedi practice of visualization.

This isn’t new, and I can’t take credit for it—I first came across the power of mental imagery in a college sports psychology class. But here’s the magic:

If, right before serving, I pause and see the ball going exactly where I want it to go—in detail, in my mind’s eye—and then I serve? My success rate skyrockets! All of this takes less than five seconds.

The takeaway: when we’re doing something familiar, our brains love to run on autopilot. We think about other things, we drift. And when we’re not fully present, mistakes happen. (Lost keys, flubbed serves—you know the drill.) Visualization snaps me back into the moment. It’s a way of saying: I’m here. I’m focused. Let’s do this!

This is one reason I love pickleball! Because it requires both body and mind to link together, to stay present, focused, and clear in intention.

Have any of you struggled with focusing on the task at hand...and come up with ways to bring your mind back into focus?
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​I’d love to hear about your “Jedi practice.”​
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Do tell!

Wild-Heart Practice of the Week:

The Five-Second Return

Before you do a familiar task (serving, sending the email, picking up the phone, walking into a room) pause for five seconds.

See it first.
Feel your attention return.
Then begin.

More Jedi Practice Companions...​
​Guided meditations with Rachel

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I’m honored you’re here on this journey with me.

If this Field Notes stirred something in you, I’d love to hear what you’re noticing in your own life right now…

maybe a moment where you realized your brain was running on autopilot…
and something as simple as a breath, a pause, or a shift in attention brought you back into the moment.

Or maybe you’ve had your own version of a five-second return…
where you pause just long enough to see the next step clearly...before you take it.

Maybe on a court. Maybe in a conversation. Maybe in something as ordinary as your daily routines.

If this resonated, hit reply. I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Namaste,
Rachel

P.S. Thank you for being here.

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🌿 Explore more meditations, writings, and wild-heart practices at RachelDickson.com​

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💌 In case you missed any past Field Notes, you can find the full collection here: → [View them all] ​
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