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| Photo courtesy of Fotolia In hypnosis, you can teach your mind to focus on what you want to notice--or not. |
As the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia,
are drawing to a close, I continue to marvel at the athletes’ incredible
physical and mental prowess. To even qualify to participate in an Olympic
event, they must be at the top of their game—a national or even a world
champion or finalist in their sport. (Hard as qualifying to compete in the
Olympic Games must certainly be, qualification seems like it would be the
“easy” part.) Once these athletes make their nation’s Olympic team, they must
all face off against similar-ranked competitors of other nations—and then then
their teammates—on the world’s stage. There is no time to be excited about the
honor of being an Olympian, representing and earning medals for their nation.
There is no room in their training regimen (nutrition, rest, training,
training, training, competition, etc.) for feeling nervous. No matter what is
going on around them, whether they feel sore from yesterday’s competition or are
elated and excited about having earned a career “best” in the preliminary
round, these athletes must remain focused on the job ahead of them. They must
continue to give their all (and a lot more) to score that winning goal, do the
most/highest/longest jumps, the most beautiful spins, the fastest runs down the
mountain slope, half-pipe or chute until they have completed their last event. There
is no time to ruminate over mistakes they have just made or whether the
triple-triple jump combination in their ice-skating program has sufficiently
intimidated their top-ranked opponent. So, how do these athletes keep it
all together to bring home the gold or silver or bronze?
When I work with hypnotherapy clients to help them
achieve their athletic goals, the first thing I do is reinforce and/or build their
self-confidence about their skills and talent in the sport. If a person has won
prizes or championships in this sport before, and/or had to qualify to
participate in the upcoming event, I incorporate this information into the
hypnotic script. I teach breathing techniques to help the person learn to relax
his or her physical body; then, I introduce guided-imagery so the person has an
opportunity (or several) to rehearse the event and even work through various
competitive scenarios. If appropriate, and with my client’s permission,
I may also invite the coach or trainer to help me incorporate sports-specific
jargon or instruction about a technique that the person is working on, in the
script. I also reinforce suggestions about continuing to follow a healthy
lifestyle to support the client’s athletic program (e.g., eating nutritious
meals, drinking plenty of water and getting enough rest and a good night’s
sleep).
Equally
important, I help my clients to tune out distractions during the
competition, such as camera flashes, cheers or applause, or being in an
unfamiliar environment. In these cases, I use imagery and
systematic-desensitization techniques to not only “desensitize” the person to
these stimuli, but to create an association in which these stimuli will
actually help to increase their confidence in their athletic prowess and
double their focus/concentration on what they need to do to succeed in the
event. Many athletes are distracted and affected by negative self-talk; some
receive discouraging or disparaging comments from opponents or even teammates,
friends, family members or a coach/trainer. In these instances, I first desensitize
the person to these kinds of negative messages. Then, I help my client to
create powerful imagery to deflect and virtually shield the individual from
others’ negative comments/energy, and to dissolve and dissipate negative
self-talk before the person even knows or notices that it is going on.
While the client in hypnosis, I include a final
suggestion about muscle memory: “Allow the athlete inside of you to give
yourself permission to trust your body. Trust your training and all of
those previous experiences of success doing [this sport], which you have been
doing for so long. Allow your body to do what it does well, and
you are doing it even better than you ever have, before.”
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
