Great athletes can switch their brains off and fully let the body do what it needs to do.
The reason you train, the reason you practice anything, is so you can do it without thinking about it - automatically.
The biggest problem, the thing that gets in the way for most people, is over thinking.
And in a competitive situation or a situation where you could get hurt the stakes are only higher.
You tend to fall back into your default mode.
Which, if it’s over thinking, you get only more of.
The anxiety ramps up, the self-doubt kicks in, the body tenses even more and you lose that beautiful relaxed powerful fluidity.
The mind reflects almost immediately in the body.
The best thing you can do is learn to switch off certain thoughts.
One way of doing this is positive thinking, of noticing when you are being negative and finding a way of switching it around.
This kind of “glass half empty” versus “glass half full” has a dramatic effect on your body and is something that we will go into in great detail in the Mountain Mindset trial that begins August 4th.
Another way of doing it is positive visualisation of a skill or a pressure situation.
You become as calm as you can be and visualise success over and over again until that becomes your brain’s default “vision”.
Visualising is rarely a problem for people, it’s:
a) getting as calm and relaxed as possible and yet b) staying focussed and not drifting from the visualisation.
Getting to a calm, relaxed yet focussed state is also a big part of the Mountain Mindset trial. The volunteers in the trial will get the tools that bring them into this state, effortlessly.
The biggest tip I can give you for switching off the mind though is to learn not to switch it off.
It is to do something else entirely.
And just because I’m a big tease, you’ll have to wait till next email to find that out.
This one’s gone on long enough.
If you’re interested in being a volunteer to the trial and getting these sweet tools and practices that will stay with you for life?
For the details, and daily emails full of tips and inspiration like this one:
https://arjunaishaya.leadpages.co/outdoors/
We’re start in less than 10 days so don’t delay now…
Any questions?
Fire away, I’d love to help - Arjuna
PS. If you want to be a great athlete, not merely a good one, the mind is the next step.
Learn to get freedom from thinking too much (and about the wrong things) and everything else falls into place -
In the outdoors, at home, at work, everywhere.
Go here to get more info about being a volunteer for my trial and getting these powerful tools for life:
https://arjunaishaya.leadpages.co/outdoors/