Your access to this series is freely given, so would you consider making a contribution to our non-profit mission of spreading the benefits of pickleball to the world?
Morning Activation — Rise, Prime, and Play
Morning Activation Session | Dr. Gordon Jones
Good morning.
You’re awakening to the voice of Dr. Gordon Jones, your brain fitness and pickleball performance coach.
Keep your eyes closed and stay in your early morning calm state.
In this moment, you are in one of the most valuable neurological states available to you all day. You may not feel that way yet. You may feel soft, slow, slightly suspended between the world of sleep and the world of waking.
Hopefully, your thoughts are gentle and unhurried. If not, let’s get you back to that state as the day has not yet fully arrived with its demands and its noise.
This mind state, that is quiet, open, still-warm-from-sleep, is not something to rush past. It is something to use. Because right now your brain is lingering between the delpa state of your sleep and the theta and low alpha rhythms that the morning gives you for free.
And you’re doing great, because what you chose to do with the next twenty minutes will set the tone, the rhythm, and the identity of everything that follows for the rest of the day.
So before the day begins, before the phone, before the news, before the noise, know that you are here. Present. Open. Ready to prime your nervous system for everything today holds.
Stay where you are. If you are still in bed, stay there for now. If you have moved to a chair, let yourself settle. Let your eyes stay closed. Let your body be exactly as relaxed as it is right now.
This is your morning upgrade. Let’s begin.
Let’s start with the breath. But not the releasing breath of the evening sessions. This morning breath is a waking breath. It begins gently, where you are, and builds gradually into something more alive and purposeful. Follow me through it and feel the difference.
Start with a soft, easy breath. Just a little fuller than your resting breath.
In... 2... 3... 4.
Hold gently... 2... 3.
Out slowly... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
Hold softly out... 1... 2.
Again, a little fuller this time.
In... 2... 3... 4.
Hold... 2... 3... 4.
Out... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7.
Hold out... 1... 2.
Now for your full 4-6-8-2. Your rhythm. Your anchor. Your signal to your nervous system that today is intentional.
In... 2... 3... 4.
Hold... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
Out... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8.
Hold out... 1... 2.
Now let your other-than-conscious mind take over your natural breathing again.
Feel the difference between the first breath of this session and the last one. That progression, from soft and easy to full and deliberate, is your nervous system receiving its first instruction of the day. Not forced awake. Invited awakening. Drawn upward from rest toward readiness by your own breath, on your own terms, at your own pace.
In the background, your Brain Fitness tones are beginning their morning arc. Where the evening session guided your brain downward toward delta and deep sleep, this session moves in the opposite direction. From the residue delta into the quiet theta of your natural morning state, upward through the focused clarity of alpha, and toward the energized, purposeful, ready beta state that will carry you through your day and onto your court.
Your only job right now is to breathe, receive, and rise.
Now bring your awareness gently into your body. Not a scan for tension or release, a scan for life. For the energy that is already present even in this quiet morning state.
Start at your feet. Feel them. Not heavy and released the way they were last night, but present. Alive. The feet that will carry you through today. Whether you are playing today or simply living today, these feet are preparing to move. Let that quiet readiness be there without forcing it.
Up through your calves. Your knees. The long muscles of your thighs each begin to remember their purpose. Not fully awake yet, simply coming online. Like a morning stretch that has not quite happened yet but is already as present as possibility.
Through your hips and lower back, which held you through sleep, now beginning to find their daytime strength. A natural small movement here is welcome. A gentle shift. Your body finding its waking alignment.
Through your abdomen and your core. Your breath moving through it more fully now with each cycle. Awake and easy.
Across your chest. Feel it expand a little more with each breath. Opening. The chest of a player who is getting ready to face whatever today brings, not braced against it, but open to it.
Through your shoulders. Here is where the morning invitation lives. Let your shoulders roll back gently. Just once. Feel them settle back and down into the position that says, I am here, I am ready, I am not carrying anything I do not need to carry today.
Through your arms, your hands, your fingers. Loose and alive. The hands that know how to hold a paddle. The hands that have been trained through every session in this series to respond with soft precision and quiet confidence.
Up through your neck, long and easy. To the crown of your head.
Feel the full length of your body now. From the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Present. Progressing. Coming alive from the inside out.
This is your morning body. Not the performance body of a match day, not the released body of a recovery night. The morning body. Full of quiet potential. Ready to become the day.
You are in the most receptive state you will be in all day right now.
Your analytical mind has not yet fully engaged. The noise of the day has not yet arrived. The to-do lists and the notifications and the demands have not yet begun their work of fragmenting your attention. Right now, in this window, you have something rare and valuable. Complete access to your other-than-conscious mind. The part of you that runs your heartbeat and your breathing and your instincts on the court. The part of you that responds to identity and intention rather than information and instruction.
This is the window we are going to use right now. And what we are going to do with it is set the story of your day before the day gets to set it for you.
I want you to think about who you are.
Not what you have to do today. Not what happened yesterday. Not what you are worried about or looking forward to. Who you are, as a person, as a player, as someone who has chosen to show up for this work and do something most people never do.
You are someone who has trained their nervous system. Who has learned to breathe with intention. Who has built a reset ritual that works. Who knows the difference between a ceiling and a current address. Who understands that the identity leads and the results follow. Who has a mental court with skill anchors, an activation anchor, a reset word, a personal cue bank, and a come-back mind.
You are a brain-fit player. And that is not a title you earned in a tournament. It is a quality you have been building in the quiet, in the sessions, in the moments when nobody was watching and you showed up anyway.
Feel that for a moment. Not with arrogance. With honest acknowledgment. You have done the work. And the work has done something to you. It has made you more capable, more resilient, more present, and more reliable than the player who started this series.
That player is who wakes up this morning. That player is who walks through today.
Now let’s look at today specifically.
I do not know what your day holds. Maybe you are playing today, a morning session at the club, an open play afternoon, a league match this evening. Maybe you are not playing today and today is a day of work and life and the ordinary demands of being a person in the world.
Either way, today is a day when the brain-fit player you have become gets to show up. And how you show up in the first hours of the morning shapes how you show up for everything that follows.
So let’s set your intention for today. Not a goal. Not a task. An intention. The quality of presence and engagement you want to bring to whatever today holds.
Take a moment now and let a word or a short phrase arise that captures how you want to show up today. Maybe it is steady. Maybe it is present. Maybe it is open. Maybe it is strong. Maybe it is patient. Maybe it is simply alive.
Whatever you think, let it come without forcing it. The right word is already there in the quiet of this morning state. Trust it.
Feel it settle into your body now. Not as a thought in your head but as a felt quality in your chest, your shoulders, your feet, your hands. This is your intention for today. This is the story you are setting before the day sets it for you.
If you are playing pickleball today, I want to spend a moment with you on the court.
See yourself arriving at the club or the venue. The particular energy of a playing day. The familiar sounds, the squeak of court shoes, the pop of paddles, the laughter from the far court. You know this place. Your nervous system recognizes it. And today you arrive with something extra. The intentional morning behind you. The breath already practiced. The identity already set.
You warm up without rush. You are calibrating, feeling today’s court, today’s light, today’s version of your game. Whatever arrives in the warm-up is information. Not judgment. Just information.
The first rally begins. And you are already in your rhythm. Not because everything is perfect. Because your internal tempo was set before you left the house. Because your breath has been moving with intention since you woke up. Because the player who walked onto this court this morning set their story before the day got to set it for them.
Feel the court beneath your feet now. The weight of the paddle in your hand. The relaxed paddle grip, thumb and two fingers, loose and flexible and alive.
Your activation anchor is set. You are ready.
If you are not playing today, I want to spend a moment with you in your day.
The same tools that make you effective on the court make you effective everywhere else. Your breath is available in the meeting that runs long. Your reset ritual is available after the conversation that did not go the way you hoped. Your rhythm is available when the day starts moving faster than you intended. Your identity, the calm, grounded, present version of you that you have been building in this series, that player shows up at work, at home, in traffic, in the ordinary moments that make up the majority of your life.
You are not training brain fitness just for pickleball. You are training it for everything. And today is a day when everything gets the benefit of the work you have done.
Feel that in your body right now. The steadiness of a person who starts their day with intention. Who knows how to breathe through difficulty. Who knows that every situation has a reset available if they choose to use it.
That is you. Today. In all of it.
Now let’s bring this session home with an energy that matches where the day is going.
I want you to feel a progressive aliveness moving through your body. Not forced. Not manufactured. The natural energy of a nervous system that has been primed and is ready.
Starting at the base of your spine. A warmth. A readiness. Moving upward through your lower back, your abdomen, your chest. Each breath drawing it higher. Through your shoulders, which are back and down and open. Through your arms, which are loose and alive. Through your hands, which are ready.
Up through your neck. To the crown of your head. Feel the full length of that energy now. From the base of your spine to the top of your head. Present. Progressive. Purposeful.
This is your morning energy. Not the scattered, reactive energy of a mind that woke up to its phone and immediately started processing other people’s priorities. The clean, intentional energy of a nervous system that was primed first. That chose its story before the day got to choose it.
This energy belongs to you today. All of it. For the court and for the life around it.
Before we close, one final breath. Not the holding breath of the sessions. The energizing breath of a morning that is ready to become a day.
Breathe in through your nose. Fuller than any breath so far. All the way.
In... 2... 3... 4... 5.
Hold at the top... 2... 3.
And exhale through your mouth with purpose. Not releasing, but projecting. Sending your breath forward into the day.
Out... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
Again.
In... 2... 3... 4... 5.
Hold... 2... 3.
Out... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
One more. Make this one count.
In... 2... 3... 4... 5.
Hold... 2... 3.
Out... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
Begin to bring your full awareness into the room now. Feel the surface beneath you. Feel the temperature of the air. Wiggle your fingers. Roll your shoulders back and down one more time. Take in a full, easy breath through your nose and let it out through your mouth.
And when you are ready, open your eyes.
Sit up if you have not already. Let your feet find the floor. Feel the ground beneath them. Solid. Supportive. Ready to carry you through today.
Shoulders back. Chin level. Your intention settled in your chest.
You are awake. You are primed. You are ready.
The day is waiting. The court, whenever it comes, is ready for you. And you are ready for it.
Go be the brain-fit player you have built yourself to be. In every moment today. On the court and off it.
Reset fast and Play free.
This is now the rhythm of your life.
Your access to this series is freely given, so would you consider making a contribution to our non-profit mission of spreading the benefits of pickleball to the world?
