Learn to use the same techniques used by Olympic athletes to improve athletic performance without leaving your armchair

 

Mentally Prepare for your Next Event and Win

By Christina Leon, Staff Writer

 

The film titled The Secret has swept the nation, so much so that it has gone from an obscure online downloadable film to a book at Barnes and Noble and a DVD you can buy or rent at Blockbuster’s.  The Secret was featured on Oprah not once but twice this year and is even used by some businesses as a training film to pump up associates.  Why?  What is the hype all about?

 

The topic of this runaway hit is The Power of Attraction or the ability to create your future and reality with your mind and thoughts and words.  It is all about thinking what you want into reality.   Although the subject matter as presented in The Secret does not seem completely credible, i.e. if you want a sports car, just see yourself in the sports car and make it happen, it is the catalyst for this article and the research I found to be fascinating.

 

Think about what you would consider a typical training day for an Olympic athlete.  You would probably see them running, lifting weights, swimming, or whatever their sports specific event would entail. Do you know that a growing part of their training now involves armchair exercises?  That’s right, they simply sit, relax, close their eyes, and think no see themselves engaged in their activity.

Twenty years ago Dick Fosbury started to use this visualization technique.  "I began to develop my new style during high school competition, when my body seemed to react to challenge of the bar. I became charged by the desire and will to achieve success. Then I developed a thought process in order to repeat a successful jump: I would 'psyche' myself up; create a picture; 'feel' a successful jump--the perfect jump; and develop a positive attitude to make the jump.

 My success cam from the visualization and imaging process."

Pretty amazing that twenty years later we are starting to really understand the how and why this works and that it can be applied to anything we do.  There are several reasons why this sensory experience or mental practice works.  They are symbolic learning, psychoneuromuscular reaction and getting psyched up. 

 

-         Imagery helps to develop a pattern or blueprint in the brain.  By seeing the event or creating the experience in the mind it can be “hardwired” into the thought the processes so that when the time comes to perform it is second nature.  There are no hesitations because it has been experienced over and over in the mind. 

-         Psycho (mind) Neuro (body) Muscular reaction states that thinking causes small muscular contractions similar to those involved in the physical practice being visualized.  Images produced in the mind actually transmit electrical impulses to the muscles.

-         Psyching up involves arousing the body and allowing hormones to get the individual “pumped up”.

The science and study of mind body (psychoneuroimmunology) continues to grow as does the numbers of people who are realizing the amazing power of the mind opening the doors to films like The Secret and the increased use of mental practice to create physical results.  This is not limited to a high jump, think about the power you harness in the fight against stress related diseases.  Find time to sit quietly each day and think about you really want to create in your life.  Whether you seek a gold medal in the high jump or peace in your life, see it, believe it, achieve it!