Mindfulness In General Avation
As pilots we are asked to always be aware of almost everything that is going on. We must be aware of our aircrafts systems and how they are performing. We must be aware of terrain and weather. All of this to assure our safety and the safety of any passengers on board. However, I believe pilots are not asked often enough to be aware of their own systems. Their mood, stressors, energy levels. As I have mentioned in the previous chapter's pilots can often be the greatest risk to a flight, therefore I believe all pilots should practice mindfulness to minimize or reduce the risks involved with human factors. The great thing about mindfulness is that it is a tool that can be utilized just as much in our professional lives as well as our private lives. But before I keep throwing the word ‘mindfulness’ around, let us define it. In laymen's terms mindfulness could simply be defined as the idea of being present in the moment, to be in the here and now. There is more and more evidence that regularly practicing mindfulness techniques can help people lead healthier, happier and more effective lives. However, this isn't a magic tool and might not be everybody, for some people exercising or listening to music to be able to regroup might work just as well.
The point is to be able to focus on the task at hand without being distracted by external, or internal pressures. Pilots should see mindfulness exercises as another item on the preflight checklists. Although most pilots have no problem going through their aircraft's checklist, making sure the airplane has enough fuel and oil, checking tire pressures ect. A lot of aviators, often, do perform enough checks of themselves and their own capacities. There are already several tools such as ‘PAVE’ and IMSAFE’ to help pilots evaluate their physical and mental capacities before a flight, unfortunately these items are often disregarded or simply glanced over. Mindfulness should be added to the list and practiced before every flight. Although a lot of pilots have an ‘I can do it’ attitude, often they tend to forget that they too are humans. They get sick, tired, and have fights with their spouses or friends. All these things are external pressures that can creep into the cockpit and severely affect performance if pilots are not careful. However, we must not forget that if we are prepared and practice mindfulness exercises before flights this too can work itself in the cockpit. Being able to calm unwanted thoughts or feelings when inside the cockpit can increase our ability to stay in the moment and possibly even increase situational awareness. If you still do not believe me, you do not have to take my word for it.
A research group working with the Roya Norwegian Air Force published their study in the International Journal of Aviation Psychology. The study lasted two years and found that after the Norwegian F16 pilots integrated mindfulness exercises in their routines they reported and showed an increase in self perceived skills, attention regulation and arousal regulation. But they also reported more fluidness in the air. Pilots who were part of the research program reported “being totally in the now”, “sustain attention on the task”, and “being relaxed, calm, but fully awake”i. So surely if mindfulness works and improve the skills of, arguably, some of the world's best aviators then we would be fools to not integrate it in our own routines and lifestyles. Now that you have a better understanding of what mindfulness is and how it can help you become a better pilot; you must be wondering how mindfulness is practiced. There is not one way to practice mindfulness, there is an endless number of exercise available out there. Therefore, I advise you to try out a different exercises’ until you find one that fits and suits you the best.
The most common and simple way to practice mindfulness, in my opinion, would be meditation. By meditating we train ourselves to “accept thoughts simply as thoughts while relaxing and breathing softly. ”ii Meditating a practicing mindfulness can also help student pilots who become fixated on obvious mistakes that we have all made. This fixating can easily make them critical of their skills and quickly discourage them. Being able to learn to pair our own self-critical thoughts with an accepting attitude can be of great help. A simple technique that can be practiced in the cockpit if you have a safety pilot or copilot flying with you. This technique is call mindful breathing for one minute. This technique requires you to “lower your eyes and notice where you feel your breath. That might be the air going in and out at your nostrils or the rise and fall of your chest or stomach. If you can’t feel anything, place your hand on your stomach and notice how your hand gently rises and falls with your breath. If you like, you can just lengthen the in breath and the out breath or just breathe naturally. Your body knows how to breathe. Focus on your breath.
When your mind wanders, as it will do, just bring your attention back to your breath. You might like to say ‘thinking’ when you notice your thoughts and just gently shepherd your attention back to your breath. This can be done for longer than one minute. However, even for one minute it will allow you to pause and be in the moment. Or you might just like to breathe out stress on the out breath and breathe in peace on the in breath.
