If you are still reading you will be able to associate with the power of ‘negative statements’!! Research has claimed that the subconscious mind cannot process negatives… think of all the times you were told NOT to do something or NOT to think about something. Did you manage it? Tell a child not to play in the dirt and what do they do?!
This effect has also been demonstrated by the “white bear” experiment… Participants were simply asked not to think of a white bear. They were told to note down how often they did think of it. Try it now for yourself…. Sit quietly for five minutes and try as hard as you can to not think of a white bear… The participants in the experiment thought of a white bear roughly every minute - in spite of their best efforts. We can confidently state that they probably hadn't had one thought about a white bear for some time - until then.
Another study showed that when under pressure golfers who were encouraged not to overshoot would actually do it more. Likewise, footballers when taking a penalty who were urged not to shoot at one particular spot found themselves looking at the spot more often than usual and the ball ends up heading straight for the spot they were trying to avoid. It would seem that what we resist, persists.
A similar thing happens if we’ve ever had an injury whilst playing our sport – the mind has a temptation to keep reliving the injury event in an attempt to come to terms with it and to understand why it happened. It’s the classic “I’d better not injure myself again” thoughts that linger in the mind. The mind holds an injury as well as the body. Unless you can change your thinking about it, you mind may turn it over repeatedly, sometimes when you are not even aware of it. This can act as a form of mental rehearsal however and you are actually deepening the pathway of thoughts and actions that led to the injury in the first place. When you change the way you think about the injury, you will also change the way your body responds to it.
Even after an injury has healed, people may feel hesitant ‘just in case’. Many people who start to play their sport again after an injury don’t seem to believe that they are completely healed. They are more hesitant and hold back… as any coach will tell you one way to get injured is to hold back because that creates a counter tension in the muscles, pulling them two ways at once. Ironically the hesitation is just making injury more likely, not less.
So how can hypnotherapy help to remove focus on the negative? Using a combination of sports psychology and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques, people can be introduced to some practical exercises to help them overcome the ‘mental injuries’ we experience after a physical injury or traumatic experience. When combined with hypnosis, these techniques provide a very effective and long lasting positive benefit to help cope with anxiety, lack of confidence and stress.
I also believe you can speed up the healing process by using imagery and I speak from personal experience. Some years ago I sustained an injury in my elbow – the elbow is a delicate place. The joints of our body are more prone to injury because they have to move and be flexible but there is the obvious danger of too much movement and in the wrong direction. Once my injury began to heal, physiotherapy helped enormously with the physical healing however I was aware I still had a mental injury which was holding me back and causing me unnecessary anxiety. By using imagery and healing visualisations combined with mental exercises to remove negative self-talk, I was able to not only heal in super-fast time, but also get back to my sport with more confidence than ever before.
If you’ve had a sporting injury and are feeling a little lacking in confidence or if you find your mind is interfering with you achieving your optimal performance, find out how hypnotherapy could help you by calling Christy on 01252 334377 for a free no-obligation consultation.
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