49ers’ Kyle Shanahan thinks mind truly matters

To unclutter his mind and reduce stress, Kyle Shanahan practices yoga and meditation.

He is a big believer in breathing exercises, and he’ll stand on his head in his office before games this season to get in a proper mental zone.

There is more, but Shanahan stops there. The 49ers’ rookie head coach jokes that he needs to become more established before detailing all of his mindfulness methods.

“I could go really deep,” he said, “but I don’t want to sound like a weirdo.”

Shanahan’s practices might sound odd to old-schoolers around the NFL: Bill Belichick, 65, doesn’t strike many as the type to strike yoga poses. Shanahan, the league’s second-youngest head coach at 37, has found it has helped him survive in a high-stress environment.

It doesn’t make him the picture of perfect health: He’s so locked in during the season that he skips meals and annually loses 20 pounds, but he can’t imagine the mess he’d be without mindfulness help.

“In the offseason, I’m much more mellow, and in the season, I’m very intense,” Shanahan said. “That does help you to a degree. I think that’s one of those things that can make you successful. But once you cross that line, you’re thinking too much. You need something to help balance you out. Those type of things have always helped me.”

Shanahan is mindful that he’s not alone. In the NFL, where players’ contracts aren’t fully guaranteed and the coaching carousel does not stop, plenty of employees can obsess about what might happen next, instead of focusing on the present.

With that in mind, Shanahan introduced his staff and players this offseason to Vision Pursue, a performance-mind-set company that has worked with other companies such as Northwestern Mutual, along with pro baseball (Mariners, Royals) and the NFL (Falcons, Colts).

In fact, Shanahan, who already was immersed in mindfulness, learned about Vision Pursue when he was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator the past two seasons. Head coach Dan Quinn began using Vision Pursue on his own when he was the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator, and he brought it to his team in Atlanta.

“Players work on their bodies all year-round,” Shanahan said. “They work on studying X’s and O’s all the time. But not everyone works on the mental aspect and the pressure that’s on everyone.

“This is a high-competition environment, and you know you’re judged on the result of what happens. And that can get to people and prevent them from performing at a high level. People like to say, ‘Block it out. Ignore it.’ But that’s not very helpful. … Vision Pursue is just a tool that helps train people to kind of get out of their mind and just focus on what they can control.”

Vision Pursue co-founder, Russ Rausch, a former business executive, visited Santa Clara four times during the offseason. He and co-founder Jon McGraw, a former NFL safety who made two visits, trained the entire coaching staff and 50 players, 10 of whom are using VP’s app. Among the topics covered was the steady stream of negativity that can fill the automatic thinking brain, and present-moment awareness. That is, how to focus on the process and not stress about the outcome.

Rausch and McGraw had high-income, living-their-dream-jobs, but felt unsatisfied. One reason: Stress sapped the joy from their success. For McGraw, anxiety affected his performance and consumed all parts of his life for most of his 10-year career spent with the Jets, Lions and Chiefs.

“I would get really anxious about upcoming things, whether it was training camp or the next game,” McGraw said. “And after games, I’d relive them and was unable to stop thinking about the three or four bad plays I had. I dreaded Monday when I’d get called out in the meeting room.

“I was completely unaware of how much of life that was robbing from me and how it was damaging relationships. How it was taxing me physically.”

Shanahan thinks NFL players and coaches are ready to hear how they can minimize stress. No matter their age, players are one major injury away from becoming ex-NFL players. And many coaches and players are one bad moment away from becoming ex-employees.

“I think if you truly understand that if you call a wrong play, or if you drop a ball, or if you get beat and give up a sack, there’s a good chance for that reason you have to go home the next morning and tell your daughter that she has to change schools because you’re moving — I think that is very stressful,” Shanahan said.

“… I like to recognize the stress that everyone’s under, whether it’s a player or coach. I just like to let everyone know that we understand and there are ways you can work on that. You don’t have to just suck it up and deal with it.”

Because of time constraints during Shanahan’s hectic offseason, VP won’t be fully implemented with the 49ers until 2018. It has been optional for the players, and Shanahan notes there are other tools that also can be beneficial.

For his part, he’ll use mindfulness methods he has picked up through VP and elsewhere over the years as he navigates what could be the most stressful season of his NFL career.

He has learned he can see his world clearer by standing on his head.

“I always talk about just preparing, doing what you think is right and living with the result,” Shanahan said. “That takes the stress out for me because I know I can’t control the other stuff. If you worry, ‘If this doesn’t work, s—, I’m going to get fired.’ Well, I can guarantee this: You’re going to do it wrong then.”