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The following excerpts are from an email I recently received. The email was sent by an exceptional athlete and sprinter I will call Donna:

"I am thinking maybe if I just 'surrender to the moment' of the race., and by doing this stop my brain from holding me back...Example: Could be on the blocks  thinking I have to be fast  but oh what if I am not, or 2/3 way through thinking have to push but oh what if I can't push all the way, etc.  All those thoughts that can run through your mind in a split second.  So empty the mind, and 'just do' but specifically more than that-(really less), simply "let " the body do what I am trained, capable, and want to do.  To 'surrender' (it took me all day to think of that word) in any way is not in my nature at all. I am a total type A...I think I am subconsciously afraid to try it...But it could be the most fun experience I ever had...and a great memory.  I may not ever reach it, but want to try."

These thoughts are both wonderfully instructive and highly insightful. They aptly describe an ideal state of mind associated with peak performance and also show that Donna has a good understanding of what she needs to do to become an even more successful competitor. Learning to stay "in the moment" is a critical task for almost everyone who wants to excel and bring out their best in almost any endeavor. Charles Garfield, the author of "Peak Performance: The Mental Training Secrets of the Worlds Best Athletes", defined being in the moment as  "Focused on the Present" and described it as a feeling that actions are occurring automatically and effortlessly with no thoughts of past or future. The challenge here is how to make the task of learning this essential skill palatable a to self-described Type "A" personality. Mindfulness Exercises may be the solution.

 Dr. Matthew Tull defines Mindfulness as "being completely in touch with and aware of the present moment, as well as taking a non-evaluative and non-judgmental approach to your inner experience." Dr. Christopher Walsh defines it as "...the act of deliberately paying attention in a particular way. This particular way involves bringing the attention back to the present moment and being non judgmental." Mindfulness is not a relaxation exercise or a method of achieving a different state of mind. Mindfulness Exercises are an excellent way to build the mental strength needed to stay in the moment when competing. Here is a very basic exercise for Donna and for you to try while brushing your teeth:

During this exercise while brushing will demonstrate how easy it is to stay focused on the task at hand and focused on the present. Even if/when your mind wanders your gentle refocus on what you're doing keeps you in the moment. Remember, there is really no way you can make a mistake so just do the exercise and enjoy the experience.

Next months article will feature another Mindfulness Exercise for your try.

©Copyright 2010, Sierra Center for Peak Performance

Dr Relax | Free CDs | Subscribe | Free Workbook | Athletes| Attitude | Relaxation | Visualization | Subliminal | Birthing | Ordering | 
Alternative Site | Slide Show | Soccer | Golf | Skating | Running | Tennis | Football | Cycling | Volleyball | Alpine Skiing | Nordic Skiing | Baseball | Skydiving | Snowboarding | Powerlifting | Basketball | Judo

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FROM BRAIN TO MUSCLE WITHOUT ANY TUSSLE
The On-Line Newsletter of the Sierra Center for Peak Performance
Volume XIII, Number 6 June 2010

Welcome to the one hundred and thirty eighth issue of the free Newsletter of Applied Sport Psychology. The June edition of the newsletter offers the third Mindfulness Exercise in a series that began with the May newsletter . 

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PLAYING MIND GAMES THAT HELP YOU WIN:
"Building Mental Strength with Mindfulness Exercises: Part III" 
 by Gary A. Beale, Ph.D.

Now that you have learned to focus on your breath to facilitate mindfulness try expanding the exercise: 

1. Set down on a comfortable, straight-backed ( but not plush) chair in a quite room that is distraction free.

2. Begin breathing Diaphragmatically - in through the nose as you push your stomach out, pause, then out through the mouth as you draw your stomach back in (video) 

3. Focus your concentration for a moment on each of your five senses. What you're seeing; what your hearing; what your tasting; what your feeling (touching) and what your smelling.

4. Now focus on any emotions that are present.

5. As distractions or thoughts occur focus the mode (visual, verbal, musical, etc) or the type (worry, planning, sexual, etc)

6. Turn your attention to the quality of your mindfulness (agitated, calm, clear, etc)

7. Return your focus to your breathing and begin counting your breaths

8. Continue counting your breaths for a few minutes more or until you're ready to get up.

When you feel comfortable doing the exercise above try adding the following:

Pick out several things in your daily environment that can act as cues or triggers and begin to focus your awareness on your breathing when, for example:

• shopping
• riding in an elevator
• walking up a flight of stairs
• waiting at a traffic light
• walking anywhere
• listening to music
• getting dressed
• cleaning your house
• waiting for a meeting to begin
• waiting for the phone to be answered

It is important to establish a regular, daily routine that incorporates daily practice of mindfulness exercises if your staying in the moment skills are to improve. Most of us have a predictable morning regimen that would accommodate the addition of the practice of mindfulness. The important thing is that the practice should not be based on whether you feel up to it on a particular day or not. Instead it needs to be established as a good habit which is practiced without internal disputation, much like washing your face or brushing your teeth. Sometimes flexibility and imagination are required to find an appropriate time and place but without a doubt almost all of us can do it. Don't you owe it to yourself to begin practice today and start building the mental strength that will give you greater brain power, more focus and sharper concentration?

 

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The winner of the drawing for the free Personalized Subliminal CD for this time period is Hector Finestein.

Hector has until Friday midnight July 30, Hawaii Time, to claim the free Personalized Subliminal CD.

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©Copyright 2010, Sierra Center for Peak Performance

Dr Relax | Free CDs | Subscribe | Free Workbook | Athletes| Attitude | Relaxation | Visualization | Subliminal | Birthing | Ordering | 
Alternative Site | Slide Show | Soccer | Golf | Skating | Running | Tennis | Football | Cycling | Volleyball | Alpine Skiing | Nordic Skiing | Baseball | Skydiving | Snowboarding | Powerlifting | Basketball | Judo

For over seventeen years I have paid for and used various 24-Hour Fitness facilities for my indoor exercise needs. For most of those years the exercise floors of the facilities that I used were just too damn hot! My response to this most unfortunate, short-sided and down right dangerous trend has been to adopt a pro-active mind-set. Until a few years ago my efforts were mostly focused on attempting to inform fitness club members, managers and staff about the benefits of working out in a relatively cool environment.  

I would share the fact that my professional experience with the negative effects of heat on cardiovascular exercise started with my efforts to help Rick Gunther set the 24 Hour Roller Record in March of 1990. Rick was able to pedal his bicycle over 838 miles in 24 hours with an average speed of 34.95 miles an hour. One of the things that we learned was that when we cooled Rick's body with a fan he was able to accomplish far more than when his body temperature was allowed to rise. 

I would make formal and informal complaints about the temperature. I would e-mail regional managers, and various other upper management personnel, about the fact that the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) guidelines suggest 68 degrees as the ideal exercise floor temperature for Fitness Centers. I would loudly encourage members to consider legal action if their health was ever damaged by exercising in an environment that the management knew was inadequately cooled and unhealthy.

Although I received lots of agreement that the room temperature was too hot , all of my efforts were unsuccessful and the exercise floor conditions remained  hot, humid and unhealthy. I decided that it was in my best interest to purchase a 20 inch, 3 speed, all metal, Turbine Power Fan and to use it whenever I did cardio or the floor temperature was unbearable. At first Quincy, the local facility manager, resisted the idea and stated that he would have to get a corporate opinion. His response from Upper Management was that my use of a fan was not forbidden and I began to use it to cool myself down as I did my 40 minutes of cardio on the revolving stairs of the StairMaster StepMill. 

I, of course, continue to encounter many puzzled looks, smiles, questions and snide remarks but I continue using the fan. I often share the fact, with those persons who inquired about my use of a fan, that the purpose of cardiovascular exercise is to work the heart and lungs without over heating the body. Some people understand and others cling fast to their erroneous belief that there is some intrinsic value in profuse perspiration, foul body odor and heat prostration. If you want to maximize your cardio workout then you should give strong consideration to the use of a fan, or some other mechanism, to keep the body cool as you exercise. Work the heart and lungs but avoid overheating the body.

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The winner of the drawing for the free Personalized Subliminal CD for this time period is: Bryce Schroeder

Bryce has until Friday midnight July 30, Hawaii Time, to claim the free Personalized Subliminal CD.

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©Copyright 2010, Sierra Center for Peak Performance

Dr Relax | Free CDs | Subscribe | Free Workbook | Athletes| Attitude | Relaxation | Visualization | Subliminal | Birthing | Ordering | 
Alternative Site | Slide Show | Soccer | Golf | Skating | Running | Tennis | Football | Cycling | Volleyball | Alpine Skiing | Nordic Skiing | Baseball | Skydiving | Snowboarding | Powerlifting | Basketball | Judo

Recent events in my social and professional life have prompted me to once again address the importance of the relationship between what we think and believe and how we feel, behave and perform. Psychologists Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, among others, pioneered the development of a very useful set of techniques that are often called Cognitive Restructuring (CR). The basic premise of CR is that what we think greatly affects our beliefs, emotions, behavior and ability to perform at our best. We can learn to consciously change our internal, and often spoken, dialogue and the images we create in our head. By changing our habits of thinking and speaking we can increase significantly our ability to be more productive or happier or less stressed or more successful in sports, business, school, life etc. 

If you accept the hypothesis that what we think and say affects our beliefs, feelings and behavior and that we can change our thinking and speaking habits then the next logical question might be "How?" The “how” can be a problem because we are often unsure about what sorts of thinking mistakes we may be making. In addition, for most of us, our negative self-talk tends to occur spontaneously and immediately following a negative outcome and often goes unnoticed. The first step to changing our Negative Self-Talk, therefore, is learning to recognize it when it is happening. Drs. Mark Dombeck and Jolyn Wells-Moran have created a listing of common types of thought and belief mistakes. According to Dombeck and Wells-Moran these automatic responses tend to fall into one of the following three major categories:

Have you ever found yourself in any of these three kinds of thinking traps? Next months newsletter will offer more examples that will help you more easily recognize when you are sabotaging yourself with negative thinking, images and Self-Talk.

©Copyright 2010, Sierra Center for Peak Performance

Dr Relax | Free CDs | Subscribe | Free Workbook | Athletes| Attitude | Relaxation | Visualization | Subliminal | Birthing | Ordering | 
Alternative Site | Slide Show | Soccer | Golf | Skating | Running | Tennis | Football | Cycling | Volleyball | Alpine Skiing | Nordic Skiing | Baseball | Skydiving | Snowboarding | Powerlifting | Basketball | Judo

How many time have you ever found yourself in any of these five kinds of Overgeneralization Thinking Traps? Next months newsletter will offer more examples that will help you more easily recognize when you are sabotaging yourself with negative thinking, images and Self-Talk with Jumping to Conclusions and Emotional Thinking errors .

“Cognitive bias is a general term that is used to describe many distortions in the human mind that are difficult to eliminate and that lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation.” [1]

Correcting our Cognitive Biases can often be a problem because it is often difficult to determine what errors in thinking we are making. It is helpful to have some guiding principles to follow. Drs. Mark Dombeck and Jolyn Wells-Moran have created a listing of common types of thought, beliefs and Self-Talk mistakes. 

The three categories of thinking bias defined by Dombeck and Wells-Moran are Overgeneralization, Jumping to Conclusions and Emotional Thinking. The Overgeneralization category was outlined in the last , September, newsletter and Jumping to Conclusions and Emotional Thinking are presented below:

Nobody is perfect and almost all of us experience Negative Self-Talk and thinking errors and bias in our everyday life and in our athletic endeavors. How many of the above categories of Negative Self-Talk do you recognize and how often have you engaged in them over the last month? Next months article will offer ways to begin to avoid the problems associated with thinking, belief and Self-Talk errors.

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