Hey guys, so we are now in the first week of May and edging closer to the months where we can safely leave the house without being attacked by snow, hailstones or other forms of mother nature’s wrath.
Some of you may have also signed up to the A Lust For Life #IronmindTri in Belvedere house and Gardens Mullingar on July 9th and perhaps have started into your training programmes. We also want to look at ways in which you can develop and improve your mental fitness while preparing for the event or even for exams or other areas of your life.
This week we are going to look at the powerful psychological concept of ‘visualisation’ and how it can help improve, focus and reduce pre-event anxiety. The essential premise of the technique is to cognitively play out a positive outcome by visualising the event before it happens, so you can be better prepared and confident before undertaking the challenge.
This can work for exams, sport, interviews, working on creative projects, flying or other situations that perhaps may induce lower levels of anxiety. It’s a technique used by many people at the top of their chosen field and is a powerful ally when the aim is to remain calm and focused on the task in hand.
Many studies that researched the use of visualisation and mental imagery have shown that it can impact several of the cognitive mechanisms in the brain such as motor control, memory, mental logistics, and concentration, so even when the body is sedentary, the mind can still practise and develop skills. After all, ‘the mind is the muscle’. This in turn can help improve confidence and motivation, reduce pre-event anxiety, develop motor performance and increase the likelihood of entering the holy grail of performance ‘flow state’ or as many people refer to it, ‘being in the zone’.
Prominent Australian psychologist Alan Richardson undertook a study where he took a group of basketball players and segregated them into three separate groups, while testing their free throw ability;
Group one would practise their free throws every day for twenty minutes or so.
Group two would only mentally visualise themselves taking the free throws everyday but no actual physical practise was allowed.
Group three were told not to practise or visualise their free throws.
The results saw a significant improvement of 23% in the group that visualised mentally while group one improved by 24%, just a single 1% above those who just used mental imagery.
The group that did not practise saw no improvement.
So how can you effectively begin utilising visualisation and connecting it into your daily routine to help build your mental fitness? Here is a fundamental strategy to commence this technique. Firstly, you must clearly define what it is you want to achieve. For example, if you are doing the #IronmindTri and like many others, you are slightly anxious of the swim part of the event you can use this technique to help reduce that stress level. For me starting out, swimming brought a cloud of dread and fear over me like nothing else, in fact I had a crippling fear of open water. It was by incorporating these techniques that I became incredibly comfortable in open water, and in fact now embrace the swim. Define what it is you want to achieve for the swim. In most cases it’s to get out of the water, safely and without issue.
Secondly, you must play out the desired outcome in your mind on a daily basis in the weeks leading up to the event. Picture yourself leaving the water after a challenging but enjoyable experience, your family cheering you on as you take off your swim hat and your goggles, filled with pride and relief while making your way to your bike to enjoy the rest of the triathlon. Doubts will creep in, let them come and go, just remember to focus on the positive outcome, which with increased habit will over shadow your self-doubts.
In essence, conceive, believe, achieve.
Remember though, like with physical fitness, mental fitness takes practise and time. Visualisation may feel slightly vague and perhaps even pointless when you start, but be patient and allow a few minutes a day to see that outcome in a positive manner. Come the day where you are walking into an exam, facing an interview board, starting your first day at work, or standing on the shore of Lough Ennell about to do your swim, the practise you committed to over the previous weeks will help guide you through with improved focus and a healthy balance of calm and excitement. Best of luck.
Support Our Campaign
We rely on the generosity of the public to fund our work and so far together we have achieved great things! Please do continue to support us so we can provide future generations in Ireland with the resources to recognise and talk about their emotions, and equip them to navigate the ever-changing world around them as they grow
