By Ryder Bradley

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is a common word, yet not a common practice. Mindfulness is awareness training; it’s like taking your brain to the gym, and through repetition you are able to create a pause button. As things happen in our lives, whether big or small, we are able to access a select space that gives us intentionality, and how we choose to respond. It’s paying attention to what’s going on inside of us and around us with an attitude of curiosity, seeking to understand without being carried away, with the sense of kindness, so we can learn and grow while being intentional with our actions. Current head varsity football coach and mindfulness mentor Collin McConaghy is very knowledgeable when it comes to mindfulness, and he has been teaching mindfulness for just under ten years. 

When I asked McConaghy what he thinks are the benefits of daily mindfulness practice that could positively impact your life, he said, “There are tons of benefits of daily mindfulness practice. There’s forty plus years worth of research demonstrating lower stress and anxiety, improved focus, enhanced health in general. Study after study has shown that it helps individuals sleep better, help become more resilient, and the list goes on and on. The effect that is most noticeable with daily mindfulness practice is the calming sensation. Normally overtime you start to see the other benefits once you start stacking days upon each other that help rewire your brain.”

McConaghy is a strong advocate of daily mindfulness practice. When asked how he got into mindfulness, he stated, “[former Collegiate counselor and coach] Alex Peavey got me into the concept of mindfulness. After graduating from the University of Richmond with an undergrad of business, I got certified as strength coach and then shortly after was hired to coach football [at Collegiate] and help be a strength coach.” When McConaghy first arrived on campus, everyone told him he needed to go meet Peavey. After meeting with Peavey, McConaghy saw ways that mindfulness could positively impact our community.

From left to right: Jake MacDonald, Alex Peavey, Collin McConaghy. Photo courtesy of The Peavey Project.

Former Collegiate Upper School health and wellness teacher and coach Jake MacDonald (‘07) and McConaghy founded The Peavey Project in 2021. As stated on their website, “The mission of the Peavey Project is to teach mindfulness as a tool to enhance personal health, performance and the communities we serve.”

McConaghy expressed, “The Peavey Project is a non-profit organization created to help give individuals proactive tools to enhance their mental health and well-being, which ultimately leads to greater performance, whether it is in the classroom or on the playing field.” Over the course of the next few years, one of their goals is to work with 100 different sports teams around the Richmond community. 

The Peavey Project conducts mindfulness workshops with local high school and college sports teams to help enhance their performance on and off the field. The Peavey Project works with all Collegiate varsity teams and athletes and to help guide them to success. McConaghy says The Peavey Project positively impacts the Richmond community by providing “mental health and mindfulness resources to the Richmond community. Teachers, student athletes, doctors, police officers, etc. We help give tools for individuals to support themselves so that they can support other people.” McConaghy believes that if every individual sleeps better, feels less stressed, and has better responses, then ultimately mindfulness allows us to be healthier.

Collegiate varsity basketball player Frank MacNelly (‘25) shared how mindfulness practices have impacted his life: “Mindfulness has benefited me in many ways and has helped my mind become more mature and disciplined. Whenever I am in stressful situations, where my mind is moving a million miles an hour, I know I have my practices to lean on. It has also helped me establish a good routine, as I do a few minutes before I start every day. In an athletic sense, I used to always find myself very flustered and mad after either a turnover or missed shot, but now I’m able to stay level-headed after those mistakes by trusting my practice.”

Mindfulness has helped enhance MacNelly’s focus on and off the court, while helping him maintain a healthy balance. What are you waiting for?