S5 E7: Releasing Flow Blockers, Mental Fitness, and Embodied High Performance with Damon Valentino

In this episode we chat about flow and how to work with flow with other. I’ve invited Damon Valentino, Director of Mental Fitness for the Professional Tennis Players Association and founder of Side Street Performance Coach. Valentino recounts early flow experiences in high school cross country and on the tennis court. The conversation centers on flow as getting out of one’s own way, shifting from adding skills to releasing “flow blockers,” and reframing striving so performance and wellbeing support each other through curiosity, play, and embodiment. Valentino describes mental fitness as a holistic, preventative practice and a competitive advantage, and shares quick reset tools like breath and letting go.   00:00 Welcome to Flow Unleashed 01:32 Damon Valentino 02:11 First Flow Experiences 06:04 From Player to Coach 08:32 Inner Game Lessons 17:24 Striving Versus Wellbeing 21:30 Releasing Flow Blockers 29:25 Ad Break Flow Coaching 30:07 Embodiment and Play 37:01 Mental Fitness Defined 42:12 Quick Reset to Flow 43:34 Books Films and Identity 46:19 Flow for Wellbeing 53:48 Key Takeaways and Outro   For show notes see: https://www.cameronnorsworthy.com/flow-unleashed   To purchase the book ‘How to Find Flow’, visit https://geni.us/HowToFindFlow