Rhinomind Coaching

How does it feel to be at your highest high, on top of the world, and then take the biggest fall you could ever imagine? Can you bounce back? Can you find the mental strength to keep going? What if your very character and integrity are called into question? You’ll find answers to these questions and more in this episode.

Chris Colabello is one of the great Cinderella stories. He was undrafted out of Division II college and played 7 years of independent league baseball in Worchester, MA, for the Tornadoes. He made some swing changes with the help of a hitting coach named Bobby Tewksbary, and the two of them began a meteoric rise to the major league level. Chris ended up hitting in the middle of the Blue Jays lineup in the 2015 ALCS, which was one of the best offenses ever. I wanted to have Chris on the show because he is thoughtful, genuine, and about as open-hearted as a pro athlete gets about the mental game, leadership, and the struggles he’s faced and overcome. He’s also from my hometown of Milford, MA, and our dads grew up playing together in high school and college.  

Today we pick up right after Chris found out he had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s) and cover the work he is doing today in educating young ballplayers and making his way back to the majors. Join me now for Part 2 of my conversation with Chris.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• When you feel that your ability to prove yourself is very limited and “you are basically screwed.”
• How this ripped his life apart and caused him to scrutinize every detail to figure out how he could have ingested any banned substances
• Why he went in 5 days early that season for his physical and drug test, never suspecting that he would end up with a positive result
• The suspension, the ramifications, and the presumptions from the outside world
• The fear that his character and integrity would be questioned
• Why he won’t apologize for something he didn’t do and why he doesn’t feel that he deserves this
• After his suspension, Chris was optioned down to AAA and did not perform well
• DFA’d (designated for assignment) by Toronto
• Why Chris saw a psychologist because he needed extra support
• Last year, he signed with Cleveland, went to Spring Training, and was sent to AAA
• When Chris needed help again because of the anxiety attacks and depression that kept him from enjoying the game
• Let go by Cleveland and signed by Milwaukee to a wonderful experience in AAA
• Why Chris’ baseball career is on hold right now
• The book he wrote with Bobby Tewksbary: Be a Hitter
• Being a good hitter is so much more than good mechanics, but takes mental and emotional preparation. Baseball is truly “the thinking-man’s game.”
• What Chris says about the opportunities he has had at the highest level: “To put becoming a great human at the forefront of your daily life is everything. With that comes leadership. Figure out how to have a positive impact on the people around you and make the world a better place.”
• What it means for Chris to live with “no regrets”
• What Chris says about his life today:
• • “I’m secure in who I am and how I feel
  • People are more likely to listen to me
  • My platform has expanded
  • I can better the game on a broader level with today’s youth”

Resources:

Find Chris on Twitter: @cc20rake

Find out more about the book: www.tewkshitting.com  and www.hittingdaily.com  

Chris Colabello is one of the great Cinderella stories in baseball. He was undrafted out of Division II college and played 7 years of independent league baseball in Worchester, MA, for the Tornadoes. He made some swing changes with the help of a hitting coach named Bobby Tewksbary, and the two of them began a meteoric rise to the major league level. Chris ended up hitting in the middle of the Blue Jays lineup in the 2015 ALCS, which was one of the best offenses ever. I wanted to have Chris on the show because he is about as thoughtful as a pro athlete gets about the mental game, leadership, and the struggles he’s faced and overcome. He’s also from my hometown of Milford, MA, and our dads grew up playing together in high school and college. We had never actually met until this conversation, so we have a lot to talk about--so much so that we’ve cut the interview into Part 1 and Part 2. Join us!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Chris started out hot in the minor leagues in New Britain, CT. He was the MVP of the team, made the all-star team, and was on to winter ball in Mexico
• How Chris got invited to big league camp and really felt relaxed going into AAA after playing in the World Baseball Classic
• The mental struggle of performing well at each level--day in and day out
• Why Chris says that a 21-22 year-old kid who is drafted is in NO WAY prepared for the challenges ahead
• Why you MUST have support systems in place and not “go it alone”
• Playing for high stakes at the highest level when someone is always ready to take your job can take the fun out of the game
• 2013: in AAA with the Twins, where Chris made a name for himself and combined talent with confidence
• The major league mentality, turning the corner, and how Chris didn’t let an 0-for-2 start in a game bother him
• No one is immune from the small seed of doubt that starts to take root and grow in your mind
• How he found out about the call to the big leagues - the quick flight to Atlanta and a start in right field
• 2014-2015: Why Chris turned down an offer to play in Korea to pursue his MLB dream
• How Chris started out like gangbusters the first week of the season, with “an incessant belief in myself, where preparation meets opportunity.”
• Much success, but suspicious thumb pain which turned out to be an almost completely severed nerve in the right thumb
• Chris struggled and was sent back to the minors and claimed by Toronto off waivers
• How Chris started out 6-for-8 for the Blue Jays, had the “most fun” of his life, and got to post-season play
• What it was like to be in the middle of one of the best offensive lineups in history
• The importance of leadership on the Blue Jays
• How the veterans and young guys were on equal footing, always doing whatever it took to get the job done
• Consistency was the key to their success, but it wasn’t of the cookie cutter variety
• How Chris was on top of the world with the highest high when he got the shocking March 11 phone call that changed everything

Resources:

 www.rhinomind.com

Find Chris on Twitter: @cc20rake

Think back to your high school days. How would your life have been different if Mindfulness was offered as a course? It’s mind-boggling, isn’t it? Believe it or not, there are numerous schools across the country that are seeing the need for this training and offering it as part of the curriculum. Today’s show is about one man who is making mindfulness an integral part of the curriculum at his school, and he’s working to bring it about in other schools across the US.

Doug Worthen is the Director of Mindfulness and Head Boys Lacrosse Coach at Middlesex School, an independent high school in Concord, Massachusetts. He is the first person to hold the title of Director of Mindfulness at a major independent school in the US. He also has an epic life story that he’s never before revealed so fully in an interview. Once upon a time, Doug was on a very different path. He went from being a national champion lacrosse player at the University of Virginia to sailing around the Caribbean for two years with a friend to working in the family business---all of this before a Stage 4 Lymphoma stopped him in his tracks and awakened him to a mindfulness practice. 

Relying on this practice is what got him through a very long and difficult recovery and an eventual relapse. That experience set him on a new path to following a dream to teach mindfulness practice at his alma mater and look for ways to help other schools expose their communities to the power of contemplative learning and practice. Doug and I met five years ago when I worked in Contemplative Studies at Brown, and we connected over a shared excitement about combining mindfulness practice and sports. Since then we’ve worked multi-week retreats together on leadership and a few week-long retreats on meditation. He shares his story because he genuinely believes that it can serve people.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• What Doug does as Director of Mindfulness at Middlesex School
• How new students are required to take a semester of mindfulness and “are invited to practice in an atmosphere of healthy skepticism”
• The training available to faculty, staff, students, and parents through different levels of mindfulness
• How the program started at the school in 2009 and has grown each year since then
• Why mindfulness practice is a required course at Middlesex School
• Defining mindfulness: the ability to understand and stabilize attention and the relationships we have to what arises around us in experience and acceptance
• How empathy and self-compassion fit into mindfulness practice
• What Doug’s life was like at Middlesex School---way before mindfulness!
• Doug’s transition to UVA as a lacrosse player
• How pressure on the field and a book prompted Doug to mindfulness and helped his anxiety and athletic performance
• The idea to sail the Caribbean with a friend and what the experience taught Doug
• Why Doug went to Hawaii to scuba dive and teach others--but still wasn’t happy
• How his insight led him to Australia and then home to Boston and the family business
• With plans in place to attend business school in Hong Kong, he received a Stage 4 Lympoma diagnosis
• How mindfulness practice became a lifeline as Doug fought the disease
• Two years of full-blown treatment, including chemo, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant
• The lessons of isolation and learning impermanence
• How Doug’s calling became clear: to share mindfulness practice with youth
• The dream to have a Director of Mindfulness in every school, so everyone can be introduced to it as a teenager
• The teachers and retreats that have been most influential in Doug’s life
• The benefits of Maha Mudra practice in noticing thoughts, feelings, and contractions in the body
• A powerful week in December of 2009 that eventually led him to meet his wife
• How Doug weaves mindfulness into sports as Head Lacrosse Coach
• The challenges Doug has faced as a coach and how he teaches poise and bringing attention back to the moment at hand
• Doug’s vision for the future with mindfulness education and making it the norm
• The organization started by two former students that matches interested schools with experienced practitioners
• What a “no regrets” life looks like for Doug over the next 5-7 years
• Doug’s recommendation to get started in mindfulness: “Get started with a retreat. There is no substitute for it.”

Resources:

Email Doug: [email protected]

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Contact Doug through his wife’s organization: Inward Bound Mindfulness Education

See more at www.rhinomind.com