{"id":18292,"date":"2013-09-10T21:26:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T05:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=18292"},"modified":"2013-09-10T21:26:23","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T05:26:23","slug":"use-mental-techniques-4-reasons-theyre-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/use-mental-techniques-4-reasons-theyre-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Use Mental Techniques? 4 Reasons Why They\u2019re Not Working"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mental training techniques are all the rage right now. I’m going to present a contrarian view. It’s been my experience from working with athletes that mental techniques impede rather than enhance performance.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re at all familiar with my work<\/a>, you know I firmly believe that deliberate mental techniques or strategies used to improve performance\u00a0(and find happiness) are, in principle, ineffective.\u00a0Here\u00a0are four reasons why:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The experience of performers at the top of their game is the opposite of what mental coaches teach.<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s a misalignment between the experience of performers at the top of their games and the strategies of the psychologists and mental coaches who are trying to help them. Virtually all of us would say that our best performances\u2014whether in sports, work, or even relationships\u2014came easily. We often hear phrases like: \u201cclear head,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cwasn\u2019t even thinking,\u201d \u201chad no expectations,\u201d or \u201cnot sure how it happened\u201d to explain a person\u2019s feeling state when at his or her best. If optimal performance happens without calculated thinking, why would you employ a mental strategy that requires you to think?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Deliberate strategies are not the same as instinctive ones.<\/strong>
\nMental strategies are not necessarily right or wrong. Many great performers visualize success, take deep breaths, find positive feelings, and relax. It\u2019s when you turn these actions into a rote or forced practice (which requires thought and effort) that you\u2019ll\u00a0clog your own head\u2014leaving little room for instincts to flourish. From a high level of consciousness (awareness), a person automatically visualizes the future, breathes efficiently, feels positive, and\u00a0relaxes. Calculated visualization, breathing,\u00a0positive thinking, and\u00a0relaxation methods\u00a0cannot help a person find a high level of consciousness.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Human beings experience life from in to out, not out to in.<\/strong>
\nIn spite of what most people have been led to believe, nothing on the outside is responsible for how you feel on the inside. Therefore, wrongly believing that your feelings are caused by your circumstances or environment, and applying a strategy to overcome these feelings, is a waste of energy. It\u2019s like building a trap for a monster and putting it\u00a0under your child\u2019s bed. Since monsters are not the natural byproduct of a child sleeping alone in his or her bedroom\u2014they come from the child\u2019s thinking\u2014using a technique to avoid monsters only legitimizes and bolsters the child\u2019s fearful thoughts.<\/p>\n

4. Calculated mental strategies obstruct a person\u2019s innate ability to ascend to clarity of mind.<\/strong>
\nAn often-overlooked principle is that when\u00a0we overthink and, thus, feel afraid, insecure, or blue, we\u2019re innately wired to self-correct. While it may look like using a deliberate mental strategy has helped you find clarity in the past, if you\u2019re honest about it, you\u2019ll admit the results were always\u00a0short-lived at best. This is because a high state of mind has nothing to do with mental strategies and all to do with your head\u2019s\u00a0natural propensity to clear. In fact, if you keep using strategies, you\u2019ll obstruct this self-correcting system to the point where it might not function. Here\u2019s an analogy to illustrate this principle: When a rollercoaster hits its low point, it will naturally rise back up. The only way to prevent it from doing so on its own is to panic, pull the emergency brake, and try to fix something that may feel broken\u2014but isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line: No matter where you are or what you\u2019re doing, your struggles are merely a reflection of the degree to which your head is filled with thought at that particular moment. Anytime you add more thinking\u2014and, again, all deliberate mental techniques require thinking\u2014you\u2019re likely to struggle even more. If you forego the mental strategy (and avoid adding more thought), your head will empty, insights arise,\u00a0and you will feel better. After all, you, like all human beings,\u00a0are designed to regulate to clarity without effort.<\/p>\n

* * * * *
\nGarret Kramer<\/a> is founder of Inner Sports, a sports management and advisory firm, and author of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life, which teaches the states of mind that allow athletes and other individuals to excel. His revolutionary approach to performance has transformed the careers of professional athletes and coaches, Olympians, and collegiate players across a multitude of sports. Kramer’s work has been featured on WFAN, ESPN, Fox, and CTV, as well as in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national publications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental training techniques are all the rage right now. I’m going to present a contrarian view. It’s been my experience from working with athletes that mental techniques impede rather than enhance performance. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":18399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[6,31],"tags":[3252,4629,2349,4640,3253,2072],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Use Mental Techniques? 4 Reasons Why They\u2019re Not Working - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mental training techniques are all the rage right now. I'm going to present a contrarian view. 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