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Hypnosis articles Hypnotherapy, NLP and Sports Psychology by IAPH therapist Steve Barker D.Hyp MIAH ADv. When Kelly Holmes had just won the first of her gold medals in the last Olympic games, an interviewer asked her what had been going through her mind as she was running. She replied “The only thing you can think about is crossing that line – you just have to focus on winning – if you think about falling, tripping, failing, you’ve lost.” What Kelly was talking about here, was the mind-body connection; the enormous power that the mind has over the body and how, if we want to succeed in anything – be that sport, business or relationships, we need to ensure that we are engaging our mind in a positive way. Take the test Just imagine there is a 15cm wide plank of wood placed firmly on the floor and you had to walk along it without wobbling or falling off. Most people would find this a very easy thing to do. Imagine the same plank of wood elevated by a metre and some people would find this much more difficult and if elevated by 30 metres, most people would find it impossible. It’s the same plank of wood, so what has changed? Once the plank is elevated, negative thoughts start to come into mind – I might fall, If I fall, I’ll hurt myself really badly, I’m no good at heights etc etc. Being able to control negative thoughts and emotions is the basis of sports psychology and this is done employing various psychological tools, such as NLP and Hypnosis. Learning these tools is an exciting and empowering way of improving the level of your sport, whether you are simply someone who wants to get better at your chosen sport or you are a professional. What is NLP?Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) utilises the Mind-Body connection that exists in everyone by using various techniques such as mental imagery, modelling, inner dialogue, accessing and anchoring to create positive states. It’s well known that successful sports men and women incorporate the use of imagery and mental rehearsal into their practice routines and this can make all the difference to the quality and level of their sport. The mind-body connection If we have a negative thought, we will get a negative emotional response and consequently our body will react by tensing up or feeling weak. In other words, there is a strong interconnection between the thoughts we have, the emotions that this thought generates and the reaction in our body. By learning how to control and over-ride negative thoughts, access positive emotions and visualise yourself performing in the way you want to, your ability in your chosen sport will increase enormously. How is hypnosis useful? Hypnosis is the ultimate tool for harnessing the power of the mind-body connection. Contrary to the popular belief that an individual under hypnosis is under someone else’s power, hypnosis enables an individual to relax both mind and body. We can all do this naturally. Ever been driving your car for a distance only to “come to” and realise you haven’t been thinking about your driving or your journey at all because your conscious mind has been absorbed by thoughts totally unconnected with driving? If you have experienced this, then you have put yourself into hypnosis! The good news is that in this state of hypnosis, you will have been driving to a very high level of performance. The reason is that once we have learnt how to do something, this is then stored in the subconscious mind – hence you can still drive perfectly well without consciously thinking about it. Hypnosis occurs whenever the conscious mind is focused on something and then the subconscious mind is open and highly alert. Sports hypnosis can be of particular benefit to:
Arreed F. Barabasz researched the effect of hypnosis on airline pilots in a Boeing 737 full motion simulator. He found that pilots in a light hypnotic trance showed increased attentiveness compared to those who carried out the same tasks without hypnosis. A hypnotherapist creates the state of hypnosis by speaking in a soothing voice, playing background music and giving suggestions for the mind and body to relax. Once the client is relaxed, positive suggestions of how well the client will perform in their sport, how easily he or she will overcome tension how easy it will be to exclude negative thoughts and distractions will be accepted by the subconscious mind. As with anything else, the more this is practised, the stronger the belief becomes and so the body responds to the positive thoughts and feelings. “Belief, in sport, is everything and hypnotherapy can greatly increase your inner beliefs” Step One: Why do you want to improve your performance? Knowing the level of commitment and input you can put into your chosen sport is the first step to creating a positive approach to your sport. You may be someone who wants to follow your chosen sporting activity as a hobby but get greater satisfaction from it by doing it really well. If you know there are other commitments in your life that you have to give time to, such as family, friends and work, then you need to set aside a realistic amount of time that you can dedicate to your sporting hobby. Obviously it will take you longer to achieve the excellence you desire but failure to take other commitments into account leads only to frustration, arguments, negative thoughts and stress which in turn will prevent you from achieving your goal. On the other hand, if you want to be a world-class performer this requires complete and thorough dedication and training and practice must become the centre point of your life. So, the starting point to producing excellence without frustration and stress is to recognise how much commitment you can give to your sport and clearly setting out your goals. But remember, whether you just want to
be a skilled amateur or a top professional, these skills and techniques
will bring about huge improvements to your performance.
A good goal would be: Step Three: Visualisation “They can because they think they can” - Virgil So a powerful way to improve your game is to spend some time visualising yourself performing perfectly. This is an activity that can be done anywhere and any time. The more frequently you see yourself performing well, the more this belief will be embedded in your subconscious mind. If you find this difficult at first, then visualise an expert in your field, preferably someone you admire, performing as you would like to. This is known as Modelling. Once you have mastered seeing someone else carrying out the action perfectly, then substitute yourself doing exactly the same thing. Step Four: Mental Rehearsal Step Five: Self-Hypnosis
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